Eugen Scotoni (1873–1961) was an influential

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

-born Swiss businessman from the construction, real estate and film industries. He built the first Swiss skyscraper in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

in the 1930s. In the early 1930s, he acquired control of the large German film company

Terra Film Terra Film was a Berlin-based film production company. Founded in 1919, it became one of Germany's largest film production companies in the 1930s under the Nazi regime. Corporate history The company was founded at end of 1919, initially as a lim ...

. He allowed his sons to run it, particularly Ralph Scotoni. After the company, along with the rest of the industry, was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

in the mid-1930s the Scotoni's left Germany and the film production business but carried on running a chain of cinemas in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

.Killy p.255 He founded the Scotoni-Gassmann foundation, providing affordable housing to families with many children and economically weak elderly. He was married to Angelina Gassmann (1877–1953), and is sometimes known as Eugen Scotoni-Gassmann. Other children included Adrian, Angela, Edwin, Hildegard and Anton-Eric Scotoni, who became well-known for bringing film stars such as

Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...

Audrey Hepburn Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...

and

Roger Moore Sir Roger George Moore (14 October 192723 May 2017) was an English actor. He was the third actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond in the Eon Productions film series, playing the character in seven feature films between 19 ...

to Zurich.

References

Bibliography

* Killy, Wather. ''Dictionary of German Biography, Volume 9''. Walter de Gruyter, 2005. 1873 births 1961 deaths Businesspeople from Vienna Swiss businesspeople Austrian emigrants to Switzerland {{Switzerland-business-bio-stub