Baron Viktor Gutmann von Gelse und Belišće (3 October 1891 – 17 February 1946) was a Croatian industrialist.

Early life

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

von Gutmann was born in

Belišće Belišće () is a town in Croatia, located in the region of Slavonia, Osijek-Baranja County, at the altitude of 93 m. The population of the town is 6,518 (2011), with 10,825 in the municipality. In 2011 census, the majority were Croats. This indus ...

on 3 October 1891 to a Croatian noble Jewish family named Gutmann. His father, Baron Alfred Gutmann von Gelse und Belišće (1857-1919), was the youngest son of Salamon Heinrich Gutman and brother of Baron Edmund von Gutmann. The entire Gutmann family was awarded with a

hereditary peer The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of September 2022, there are 807 hereditary peers: 29 dukes (including five royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 190 earls, 111 viscounts, and 443 barons (disregarding subsid ...

''Baron von Gelse und Belišće''. Obzor (Tjedni Magazin Večernjeg lista); ''Tragedija bogate židovske obitelji Gutmann''; broj 451, 10. lipanj, 2012. His mother was Ottilie Pollak von Rudin (1864-1921). Baron Gutmann was married to Luise Bloch-Bauer (1907-1998), who was the daughter of Marie Therese (née Bauer 1874–1961) and Gustav Bloch (1862–1938). Luise was also the sister of

Maria Altmann Maria Altmann (née Maria Victoria Bloch, later Bloch-Bauer; February 18, 1916 – February 7, 2011) was an Austrian-American Jewish refugee from Austria, who fled her home country after it was annexed to the Third Reich. She is noted for her ul ...

and niece of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy member of Viennese society and a patron and close friend of

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's prim ...

Great War and aftermath

He graduated as a mechanical engineer at the Vienna University of Technology. After graduation he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army on the Eastern Front during World War I. Baron Gutmann was awarded with Military Merit Medal and several other valor medals. After the war he returned to Belišće to work at his family company "H.S. Gutmann". His grandfather Salamon established the wood-processing company "H.S. Gutmann" in Hungary. At first Gutmann worked under his cousin Artur Gutmann who was the oldest son of Edmund Gutmann. After his cousin death, Baron Gutmann and his brother Ernest took over the company. Baron Gutmann and his brother have expanded the company, build up and developed Belišće. Gutmann family was very loved and popular in Belišće and among company employees.

During the Second World War

During World War II Baron Gutmann company 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 ...

by the Independent State of Croatia regime. As Jews, in 1943, Baron Gutmann, his wife and children were arrested and taken by Ustaše to prison at Savska street. Baron Gutmann and his family managed to survive the Holocaust. After the war Baron Gutmann, as an idealist, returned to Belišće to assist in the reconstruction of Yugoslavia.

Capture, trial and death

On 17 November 1945 Baron Gutmann was arrested by the newly founded communist regime of

SFR 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 ...

as a "capitalist and aristocrat" under false charges of collaboration with the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. After two days of the trial at County Peoples Court in Zagreb Baron Gutmann was sentenced to death on 23 November 1945. The final verdict was confirmed by the Supreme Court of

PR Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Sociali ...

on 16 January 1946. He was executed by firing squad in 1946 by the Communist regime in Zagreb.

Family

Baron Viktor Gutmann von Gelse and Beliscse and his wife Luise had: * Nelly Gutmman von Gelse and Beliscse (1928-2023) was born in Vienna. Nelly enrolled in medical school at the University of Zagreb in 1946, where she studied for three years till 1949. In 1950 Nelly moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada where she married in 1955 to Prince Johananes Weikhardt von Auersperg (b. 1930), a descendant of

Heinrich Joseph Johann of Auersperg Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...

and grand-grandnephew of two Minister-Presidents of Austria,

Prince Karl of Auersperg Karl Wilhelm Philipp, 8th Prince of Auersperg, Duke of Gottschee (; 1 May 1814 in Prague – 4 January 1890 in Prague) was a Bohemian and an Austrian nobleman and statesman. He served as the first Minister-President of Cisleithania and the first ...

and Prince Adolf of Auersperg.https://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00067133&tree=LEO After completing a PhD in cell biology at the University of British Columbia, Nelly assumed a position there as Associate Professor in 1968. * Franz Gutmman von Gelse and Beliscse (1934-2014); had issue

Legacy

In June 2016 Council of the County Court in Zagreb accepted request for review of Gutmann's trial and quashed the verdict from 1946. The review of the trial was requested by Nelly, daughter of Gutmann.

References

Bibliography

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutmann, Edmund 1891 births 1946 deaths People from Belišće People from the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia Croatian Jews Austro-Hungarian Jews Croatian Austro-Hungarians Croatian people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Croatian businesspeople Croatian nobility Barons of Croatia Croatian people of World War I Executed Croatian collaborators with Nazi Germany Executed Jewish collaborators with Nazi Germany Yugoslav businesspeople 19th-century Croatian nobility 20th-century Croatian nobility People executed by Yugoslavia by firing squad