Jonas Marcus von Königswarter (10 August 1807 – 23 December 1871) was an Austrian Jewish banker and railway entrepreneur. He was a member of the

Königswarter family The Königswarter family () is a Ashkenazi Jews, Jewish Austria-Hungary, Austrian-Hungarian noble family originating from Lázně Kynžvart, Königswart, Bohemia. In the middle of the eighteenth century, their ancestor Jonas Hirsch Königswarter e ...

. Born in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

shortly after the Napoleon invasion of Germany, Jonas von Königswarter decided to settle in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where he became the head of the banking-house founded by his uncle Hermann Königswarter, who had left no son. His business prospered; and the bank came to be ranked among the leading institutions of Austria. As a natural consequence, Königswarter was called upon to fill high public offices. In 1838 he became examiner of Austria's central bank

Oesterreichische Nationalbank The (, , abbr. ) is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for Austria within the Eurosystem. It was the Austrian central bank from 1923 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1998, issuing the Austrian schilling, shilling. It star ...

, and in 1850 director of that institution. Later he was elected to a directorship in the Oesterreichische Creditgesellschaft, the

Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway The Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (; ; ) was a railway company during the time of the Austrian Empire. Its main line was intended to connect Vienna with the salt mines in Bochnia near Kraków. The name is still used today in referring to a ...

, the , and the , and he served as president of the last-named railroad for many years. He was also a member of the advisory committee of the

Wiener Börse The Wiener Börse AG (also known as the Vienna Stock Exchange) is a stock exchange, bourse situated in Vienna, Austria. The exchange owns and operates the Prague Stock Exchange, and holds stakes in Electricity market, energy exchanges and clear ...

, and president of the Jewish congregation of the city. In recognition of his public services, Königswarter was decorated with the Order of the Iron Crown of the third class, and elevated to an hereditary knighthood; and in 1870 he received the decoration of the second class of the same order, and was raised to the rank of a baron. Königswarter, however, rated far more highly than these distinctions the warm personal esteem with which Emperor Francis Joseph I regarded him. Königswarter was president of the Jewish community of Vienna in the years 1868 and 1871 as a traditional conservative; he was an early supporter of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. He and another Ringstrasse patron, Gustav von Epstein were buried in the Wahring Jewish Cemetery.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Koenigswarter, Jonas 1807 births 1871 deaths Bankers from Austria-Hungary Railway entrepreneurs Jews from Austria-Hungary Businesspeople from the Austrian Empire Jewish bankers

Further reading

References