Emerik Blum (7 August 1911 – 24 June 1984) was a Bosnian Jewish businessman, philanthropist and the founder and first director of one of

Southeast Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (al ...

's largest conglomerates,

Energoinvest Energoinvest (full name: Energoinvest, d.d. - Sarajevo) is a multidisciplinary engineering and energy company with headquarters in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. History Energoinvest was established as a small design office under the name of ...

. He also served as the 26th

mayor of Sarajevo This is a list of people who have served as mayor or president of the city council of the city of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Sarajevo has had 38 different mayors in 39 different mayorships since the position was created on 22 ...

from 1981 until 1983.

Biography

He was born to immigrant

Hungarian Jewish The history of the Jews in Hungary dates back to at least the Kingdom of Hungary, with some records even predating the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE by over 600 years. Written sources prove that Jewish communities lived i ...

parents on 7 August 1911 in

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

, which was then a part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Prague in 1939. After graduating from college, he returned to Sarajevo with his wife Matusija. He was arrested on 23 June 1941 and sent to Ustasha-run concentration camps, including Jasenovac, from where he escaped in 1944. In 1951 he founded and was the first director of

, the largest company in ex-Yugoslavia, which continues working and is headquartered in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was Mayor in Ministry of Industry and Mining of BiH, director of "Elektrobih" and "Elektrocentar", general engineer of General direction of Union electric power industry, general director of Directorate for electric power industry of SFRJ (

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

) Government, assistant Minister of electric power industry of SFRJ (

), president of Committee for electric power industry, and the

for two years beginning in 1981. He was a member of the Organizational Committee of the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games, which were held in Sarajevo. There is a student association in the Czech Republic and a street in Sarajevo (former Beogradska) named after him. Blum entered a hospital in Fojnica in May 1984, and died there on 24 June 1984, aged 72.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Blum, Emerik 1911 births 1984 deaths Businesspeople from Sarajevo People from the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Ashkenazi Jews Bosnia and Herzegovina people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Mayors of Sarajevo Yugoslav Jews Yugoslav politicians Recipients of the Order of the Hero of Socialist Labour