Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon

Heinrich Thyssen (Mülheim an der Ruhr, October 31, 1875 – Lugano-Castagnola, June 26, 1947), since June 22, 1907 Heinrich Freiherr Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva, was a German-Hungarian entrepreneur and art collector.

Biography

He was son of German industrialist August Thyssen. Heinrich Thyssen had abandoned Germany as a young man and, after studying Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg and Philosophy at the University of London and becoming a Dr., he settled in Hungary in 1905 and married Margit Freiin Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Csetény, Veszprem, July 23, 1887 – Locarno, April 17, 1971) in Wien or Budapest on January 4, 1906 and became a citizen of Austria-Hungary. Later in Wien on June 22, 1907 he was adopted by his father in law Hungarian Gábor Freiherr Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár), April 20, 1859 – Budapest, April 21, 1915), the King's Chamberlain, who having no sons of his own adopted Heinrich and passed on his barony to him. The Emperor Franz Joseph granted him the inheritable status of a Baron. The passing along of the title has raised numerous questions over whether Heinrich Thyssen could actually call himself Baron at all. His mother in law was English American Mathilde Louise Price (Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware, March 14, 1865 – Locarno, January 19, 1959 and married at Wien, May 16, 1883), related to Daniel M. Frost and John Kerry. [ [http://www.wargs.com/political/kerry.html The Ancestors of Senator John Forbes Kerry (b. 1943) ] ]

The couple lived at the Castle of Rohonc until after World War I and the uprising of Béla Kun, time when they fled and moved to Den Haag in the Netherlands and directed some of the Thyssen commercial and industrial interests including the "Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaart". He became a board member of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke in Germany, but kept his own inherited wealth in a separate organization, the "August Thyssensche Unternehmungen des In- und Auslandes, GmbH".

In 1932, he moved to Lugano and started to enlarge his art collection, to which he was already adding new items since the 1920s. His preference went to classic and modern painting as much as he disliked the 20th century painting. Among other works he bought the American banker Otto Hermann Kahn, "Maecenas" of the Metropolitan Opera House of New York, the painting "Portrait of a Knight" by Vittore Carpaccio, which currently remains in the collection. In Europe he bought from many famous collections other famous paintings such as the portrait of Henry VIII of England by Hans Holbein the Younger from the Spencer collection.

On the same year he got divorced on March 17. After divorcing his first wife he married secondly at Brussels on August 29, 1932 Else (Maud) Zarske (Feller) (Thorn, April 17, 1909 –), later divorced without issue, and thirdly at Berlin, November 15 1937, to Gunhild von Fabrice (b. Magdeburg, March 5, 1908), without issue. He died in Lugano in 1947.

Children

His children by first marriage were:
* Henrik Gábor "István" Ágost Freiherr Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Rechnitz (Rohonc), July 26, 1907 – New York City, New York, January 23, 1981), married firstly in Corpus Christi, Texas, April 27, 1927 Elisabeth Clarkson, without issue, and married secondly in Budapest, May 24, 1932 Ilona Kugler (Pilismarót, March 20, 1905 – Munich, September 26, 1992), without issue
* "Margit" Gabriella Lujza Freiin Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Rechnitz (Rohonc), June 21/June 22, 1911 – Lugano-Castagnola, September 15, 1989), "The Killer Countess", married in Gandria, Ticino, June 17, 1933 Johann (Iván) Maria Josef Ladislaus Graf Batthyány-Strattmann de Németújvár (Kittsee (Köpcsény), April 21, 1910 – Lugano-Castagnola, July 16, 1985). During the final days of World War II, on March 24, 1945, she hosted a party for SS officers, Gestapo leaders, Nazi Youth, and local collaborators at the Thyssen's castle at Rechnitz during which 200 Jews were slaughtered. [Whether Margit herself personally killed anyone at the party is disputed. cite web|title = The killer countess: The dark past of Baron Heinrich Thyssen's daughter|url = http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article3028644.ece] A book by David Litchfield has exposed the scandalous story of his daughter, Margit, and the mass-slaughter of Jewish prisoners that she organised as an after-dinner entertainment for guests at her castle.¹ They had:
** "Johann (Iván) Ladislaus Heinrich Maria Graf Batthyány-Strattmann de Német-Ujvar (Wien, May 16, 1934 – Pressbaum, August 26, 1967), unmarried and without issue"
** "Robert "Christof" Heinrich Maria Graf Batthyány-Strattmann de Német-Ujvar (Wien, July 12, 1935 –), married at Hamburg, August 18, 1966 Christine Riechert (Nordhausen, February 6, 1938 –), daughter of Hans Joachim Riechert and wife Elfriede Brodthage, and had: "
*** "Tatiana Christina Maria Gräfin Batthyány-Strattmann de Német-Ujvar (Hamburg, June 26, 1968 –), married civily at Lütjenburg, Holstein, May 28, 1993 and religiously at Rechnitz, Burgenland, June 26, 1993 Konrad Graf von Waldersee (b. Waterneverstorf, March 27, 1957), sixth grandson in male line of Leopold III, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, and had: "
**** "Henry Graf von Waldersee"
**** "Laura Gräfin von Waldersee (January 29, 1998 –)"
**** "László Graf von Waldersee (London, February 16, 2000 –)"
*** "Iván Christof Graf Batthyány-Strattmann de Német-Ujvar (Hamburg, March 2, 1979 –)"
* "Gabriella" Vilma Hedvig Mária Freiin Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Rechnitz (Rohonc), December 20, 1915 –), married in Gandria, Ticino, September 1, 1938 Adolf Willem Carel Baron von Bentinck (Ede, September 3, 1905 – Paris, March 7, 1970), and had:
** "Henriette Louise Maria Freiin von Bentinck (London, January 30, 1949 –), married firstly at London, June 13, 1967 and divorced in 1973 Spencer Douglas David Compton, 7th Marquess of Northampton (April 2, 1946 –) and had issue, married secondly and divorced Richard Thompson, and married thirdly in Paris, July 1, 1978 Serge Boissevain (Neuilly, July 10, 1947 –)"
** "Carel Johannes Freiherr von Bentinck (1957 –), unmarried and without issue"
* "Hans Henrik" ("Hans Heinrich" "Heini") Ágost Gábor Tasso Freiherr Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (1921-2002), who continued his collection before he sold it in 1993 to the Spanish government for $350 million.

Notes

References

* Partially translated from the German wikipedia from February 5, 2006
* 1 See Independent Article: „The killer countess: The dark past of Baron Heinrich Thyssen's daughter“ of 07.10.2007 [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article3028644.ece]

ee also

* Thyssen
* Thyssen family
* Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

External links

* [http://www.thyssenkrupp.com/de/konzern/geschichte_grfam_t3.html Official biography by ThyssenKrupp]
* [http://worldroots.com/~brigitte/famous/f/francescathyssenanc1958.htm Ancestors of Baroness Francesca Anne Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kaszon]
* [http://worldroots.com/~brigitte/famous/e/eleonoreaustriaanc1994.htm Ancestors of Archduchess Eleonore of Austria]
* [http://worldroots.com/~brigitte/famous/f/ferdinandaustriaanc1997.htm Ancestors of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria]
* [http://worldroots.com/~brigitte/famous/g/gloriaaustriaanc1999.htm Ancestors of Archduchess Gloria of Austria]
* [http://genealogy.euweb.cz/hung/thyssen.html Thyssen-Bornemissza de Kászon et Impérfalva Family]