Mathias Ritter von Schönerer (9 January 1807 – 30 October 1881) was an Austrian engineer. He was one of the most important railway pioneers in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. He built the ''Südrampe'' or South Ramp on the Budweis–Linz–Gmunden Horse-Drawn Railway and its extension to Gmunden by the

Traunsee Traunsee ( , ) is a lake in the Salzkammergut, Upper Austria, Austria. Its surface is approximately 24.5 km2 and its maximum depth of 191 metres makes it the deepest and by volume largest lake located entirely within Austrian territory; only ...

lake. Following that, he was responsible for the construction of the

Austrian Southern Railway The Austrian Southern Railway () is a long double track railway, which linked the capital Vienna with Trieste, the former main seaport of Austria-Hungary, by railway for the first time. It now forms the Southern Railway in Austria and the Spi ...

or ''Südbahn'' from Vienna to Gloggnitz. After the dismissal of

Franz Anton von Gerstner Franz Anton Ritter von Gerstner (11 May 1796 – 12 April 1840)Gamst, Frederick C. "Franz Anton Ritter von Gerstner, Student of America's Pioneering Railroads." Railroad History 163 (1990): 13-27. :Citing R. von Liliencron, ed., Allgemeine deut ...

, Mathias Schönerer completed the first railway on continental Europe, the horse-drawn Budweis–Linz–Gmunden wagonway, despite financial and technical difficulties. In 1841 he was responsible for the construction of the first Austrian railway tunnel (165 m) at

Gumpoldskirchen Gumpoldskirchen ( Central Bavarian: ''Gumpoidskiachn'') is a town in the district of Mödling in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. Gumpoldskirchen borders on the municipalities Mödling, Guntramsdorf, Gaaden, Pfaffstätten and Traiskirchen. ...

, whose northern portal bears Schönerer's motto ''Recta sequi'' in large antiqua letters. He was the construction and operations director of the Vienna–Gloggnitz Railway (''Wien–Gloggnitzer Bahn'' or ''WGB'') and in 1839 founded the repair shop near the WGB's Vienna station, later the

Lokomotivfabrik der StEG In 1839 the Lokomotivfabrik der StEG became the first Austrian locomotive works to be founded and it produced many influential locomotive designs. The factory was built in 1839 by the Vienna-Raab Railway between the Vienna Südbahnhof and Vienn ...

. During the 1848–49 war he organised the first transportation for the military by train. From 1856 he was on the governing board of the Empress Elisabeth Railway, from 1867 that of the Emperor Franz Joseph Railway. For his services to railway construction he was elevated to the

Austrian nobility The Austrian nobility () is a status group that was officially abolished in 1919 after the fall of Austria-Hungary. Austria's system of nobility was very similar to that of Germany (see German nobility), as both countries were previously part of ...

in 1860 by

Emperor Franz Joseph Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I ( ; ; 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the ruler of the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 1848 until his death in 1916. In the early part of his reig ...

which entitled him and his descendants to the style of ''

Ritter Ritter (German for "knight") is a designation used as a title of nobility in German-speaking areas. Traditionally it denotes the second-lowest rank within the nobility, standing above " Edler" and below "" (Baron). As with most titles and desig ...

von'' in the case of male and ''von'' in the case of female offspring. Mathias von Schönerer was the father of the German politician Georg von Schönerer and the actress Alexandrine von Schönerer. He died on 30 October 1881 in his birthplace of Vienna in Austria.

External links

* ''Schönerer, Matthias Ritter von'' in Constant von Wurzbach ''Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich'', 31st vol., Vienna, 1876 (online version

* Leo Pammer
''Hitlers Vorbilder – Georg Heinrich Ritter von Schönerer''
(with information about his father, pdf file) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schonerer, Matthias von 1807 births 1881 deaths Engineers from the Austrian Empire Engineers from Vienna Austrian railway mechanical engineers Austrian railway pioneers

See also

External links