Ennobled Austrian Jewish families
17
JULY
2012
Getting ennobled was the highest honour the Austrian Empire had to give to its citizens. Interestingly Austria, and later Austria-Hungary, was the only country where Jews were not excluded from this benefit. The first Jewish families got ennobled in the late 18th century, not counting all the converts. Anyway the ennoblement didn’t give them the same rights as all the other citizens; they still had to live under the repressing anti-Semitic laws. Some got privileged, for example could live in Vienna or, especially in Prague, outside the Jewish Quarter. But these privileges were accessible also to other richer Jews and had nothing to do with a noble title. The first Austrian Jews, who got ennobled (Hönig 1784 and 1789, Popper 1790, Wertheimer von Wertheimstein 1791, 1792 and 1796) were important merchants, most of their business was helping the state in financial transactions and supporting the military with goods. During the Napoleonic wars especially Simon von Lämel from Prague and the Lakenbacher family from Nagy Kanizsa helped to manage the biggest problems. Simon von Lämel must be suggested as the most important figure in the central European financial world between 1800 and 1815, he got ennobled 1811. The five Rothschild brothers from Frankfurt and the Kaulla family in southern Germany acquired this position later.
The next Jews, who got ennobled, can be divided in two groups. First some Vienna based Hungarian converts, who apparently changed their religion to Catholicism to acquire a noble titled (Ullmann de Szitany 1825, Wodianer de Kapriora 1844, Lakenbacher de Szalamon, Kaan de Albeszt). On the other hand some manufacturers in Prague and Vienna, which stayed in the Jewish faith (Porges von Portheim and Jerusalem von Salemsfeld, both ennobled in 1841).
After 1848, when Jews acquired nearly the same rights as their fellow Christian citizens many got ennobled. This was due to a speciality in the constitution of the Austrian “Orden der Eisernen Krone” (order of the iron crown). When someone was decorated with this Order he had the right to ask for the “erblichen Ritterstand” (hereditary knighthood) if he got the 3rd class Order and for the “erblichen Freiherrenstand (hereditary barony) if he got the 2nd class. This system was changed in 1881, but especially in the 1870s many Jews, who played an important role in the Viennese World Exhibition 1873 and the economic boom between 1866 and 1873, the so called “Gründerzeit”, got ennobled. The situation in Hungary was similar up to this point, but changed completely after the Ausgleich 1867. The first ennobled Jew in Hungary being not baptized was Philipp Schey (1859). But from the early 1870s onwards many of the rich and wealthy Jewish families in Budapest got ennobled. The oldest and most important families amongst those were the families Schosberger de Tornya (1863), Fischer de Farkashaz (1866) Goldberger de Buda (1867) and many more. Until 1918 more than 390 Hungarian Jewish families got a noble title, much more than in Austria.
Most of the ennobled Jews were merchants, industrialist or other wealthy businessmen, but there were also some doctors (Winter von Wigmar, Neumann von Heilwart), military officers (Eiss, Ulrich von Trenkheim), or high civil servants (Winternitz). Especially during World War I many Jews who served in different fields, military and economically, got ennobled.
| Speaker | Location |
|---|---|
|
Georg GAUGUSCH |
Seine A |