Rudolfine Steindling (September 10, 1934 – October 27, 2012 in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

) was an Austrian manager and political activist with close ties to Communist organizations. She is alleged by German authorities to have stolen 130 million Euro (240 million incl. interest as of 2012) from East German accounts in the 1990s that belonged to the German state after the

reunification A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal governm ...

Early life

Rudolfine Steindling was married with Adolf Strindling a Hungarian-Jewish resistance fighter and book author ("Vienna France Vienna. The Story of a Jewish Refugee and Restinant", "Hitting back:an Austrian Jew in the French résistance"). Starting in 1959 she was a member of the

Communist Party of Austria The Communist Party of Austria (german: Kommunistische Partei Österreichs, KPÖ) is a communist party in Austria. Established in 1918 as the Communist Party of Republic of German-Austria, German-Austria (KPDÖ), it is one of the world's oldest ...

, her membership officially lasted only until 1969. In 1973 she nevertheless became chief executive, and in 1978 trustee, of the controversial foreign trade company ''Novum GmbH'', by German accounts an affiliate of East German

Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski (3 July 1932 – 21 June 2015) was a politician and trader in the German Democratic Republic. He was director of a main department ('Hauptverwaltungsleiter') in the ''Ministry for Foreign Trade and German Domestic Tra ...

Kommerzielle Koordinierung Kommerzielle Koordinierung ( en, Commercial Coordination) was a secret commercial enterprise in East Germany, run by the Stasi officer Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski and called "KoKo" (short for ''Kommerzielle Koordinierung''). Origins and developm ...

, while Austrian Communists maintained for the longest time it belongs to their local party. Steindling was also involved with the similar trading company "Transcarbon". She also had considerable income by representing Western companies like Bosch,

Ciba-Geigy Novartis AG is a Swiss-American multinational pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland and Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States (global research).name="novartis.com">https://www.novartis.com/research-development/research-loc ...

Voestalpine Voestalpine AG – stylized as voestalpine – is an Austrian steel-based technology and capital goods group based in Linz, Austria. The company is active in steel, automotive, railway systems, profilform and tool steel industries. As of 201 ...

and

Steyr-Daimler-Puch Steyr-Daimler-Puch () was a large manufacturing conglomerate based in Steyr, Austria, which was broken up in stages between 1987 and 2001. The component parts and operations continued to exist under separate ownership and new names. History T ...

in East Germany.

Post-reunification activities

Following German reunification, there were €250 million in Novum accounts, about 100 million of which could be easily seized by German authorities in Switzerland. In 1991 Steindling transferred the Austrian Novum balance from a branch of the

Länderbank The Länderbank, full original name k. k. privilegierte Österreichische Länderbank () was a major Austrian bank, created in 1880. In 1922 its head office was moved to Paris under the name Banque des Pays de l'Europe Centrale (BPEC, german: Zen ...

(from 1991 onwards called

Bank Austria UniCredit Bank Austria AG, branded and widely referred to as Bank Austria, is an Austrian bank, 96.35% owned by Milan-based UniCredit. It was formed in 1991 by merger of Vienna's Länderbank and Zentralsparkasse, acquired Creditanstalt-Bankverei ...

) account to one of the ''BFZ'', a Swiss "Bank Austria" affiliate and then back to other Austrian accounts, according to

Profil Profil may refer to: *La Mouette Profil, a French hang glider design *Profil (band), a French musical group *''Profil (literary magazine)'', a Norwegian literary magazine *''profil (magazine)'', an Austrian news magazine * ''Profil (Russian magaz ...

(see article below) likely abetted by CEOs René Alfons Haiden and his successor Gerhard Randa. She proceeded to go to the bank not fewer than 51 times and drew it all out in suitcases in 1992. In November 2004 the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that the Novum assets, totaling €200 million, were the rightful property of the German government. In 2010 a Swiss court ruled that the

must pay 120 million Euro but a higher level of jurisdiction ruled there were procedural errors. Since the 1990s, Steindling lived in Israel with her daughter Susanna as an influential socialite well-connected with the country's central fundraising organization

Keren Hayesod Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal ( he, קרן היסוד, literally "The Foundation Fund") is an official fundraising organization for Israel with branches in 45 countries. Its work is carried out in accordance with the Keren haYesod Law-5 ...

where she was co-chairwoman,

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

Tel Hashomer Tel HaShomer ( he, תֵּל הַשּׁוֹמֵר, ''lit.'' Hill of the Guardsman) or Kiryat Krinitzi is a neighborhood in Ramat Gan, Israel. It is bordered to the north by Kiryat Ono, to the east by Yehud, and to the south by Or Yehuda. A major Isr ...

, and the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli unive ...

. Her daughter inherited several pieces of valuable real estate including a

Döbling Döbling () is the 19th District A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, seve ...

villa worth €15 million in 1994.Format, 2011
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External links

Profil article, April 2010 (German)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steindling, Rudolfine 1934 births 2012 deaths Austrian communists Austrian emigrants to Israel Communist Party of Austria politicians People from Tel Aviv

Early life

Post-reunification activities

See also

External links

References