Matthias von Schönerer
Encyclopedia
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
- 30 October 1881, Vienna) was one of the most important railway pioneers in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. He built the Südrampe or South Ramp on the Budweis–Linz
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
–Gmunden
Gmunden
Gmunden is a town in Upper Austria, Austria in the district of Gmunden. It has 13,202 inhabitants . It is much frequented as a health and summer resort, and has a variety of goat, lake, brine, vegetable and pine-cone baths, a hydropathic establishment, inhalation chambers, whey cure, etc...
wagonway
Wagonway
Wagonways consisted of the horses, equipment and tracks used for hauling wagons, which preceded steam powered railways. The terms "plateway", "tramway" and in someplaces, "dramway" are also found.- Early developments :...
and its extension to Gmunden by the Traunsee
Traunsee
Traunsee is a lake in the Salzkammergut, Austria, located at . Its surface is approximately 24.5 km² and its maximum depth is 191 metres. It is a popular tourist destination, and its attractions include Schloss Ort, a medieval castle....
lake. Following that, he was responsible for the construction of the Austrian Southern Railway
Austrian Southern Railway
The Austrian Southern Railway was an Austrian railway company established in 1841...
or Südbahn from Vienna to Gloggnitz.
After the dismissal of Franz Anton von Gerstner, 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
Gumpoldskirchen 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. The municipal area extends from the flats in the Vienna Basin to forest areas of the Anningers in...
, 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
Lokomotivfabrik der StEG
In 1839 the Lokomotivfabrik der StEG became the first Austro-Hungarian locomotive works to be founded and it produced many influential locomotive designs....
.
During the 1848/49 war
Revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas
From March 1848 through July 1849, the Habsburg Austrian Empire was threatened by revolutionary movements. Much of the revolutionary activity was of a nationalist character: the empire, ruled from Vienna, included Austrian Germans, Hungarians, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians,...
he organised the first transportation for the military by train.
From 1856 he was on the governing board of the Empress Elisabeth Railway
Austrian Western Railway
The Empress Elisabeth Railway was the name of a former railway company during the time of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Today, the term is still used to refer to the railway lines that were formerly operated by that company....
, from 1867 that of the Emperor Franz Joseph Railway.
For his services to railway construction he was elevated to the Austrian nobility
Austrian nobility
Historically, the Austrian nobility was a privileged social class in Austria. The nobility was officially abolished in 1919 after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Former noble families and their descendants are still a part of Austrian society today, but they no longer retain any specific...
in 1860 by Emperor Franz Joseph
Franz Joseph I of Austria
Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I was Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia, King of Croatia, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Galicia and Lodomeria and Grand Duke of Cracow from 1848 until his death in 1916.In the December of 1848, Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria abdicated the throne as part of...
which entitled him and his descendants to the style of Ritter von
Ritter
Ritter 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 "Freiherr"...
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
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in Austria.
External links
- Schönerer, Matthias Ritter von in Constant von Wurzbach Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich, 31st vol., Vienna, 1876 (online version) http://www.literature.at/webinterface/library/ALO-BOOK_V01?objid=12540&page=168&zoom=5&ocr=
- Leo Pammer: Hitlers Vorbilder - Georg Heinrich Ritter von Schönerer (with information about his father, pdf file)
- There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany