Friedrich Wannieck

Friedrich Wannieck (father of Friedrich Oskar Wannieck) was a prestigious and wealthy Austrian/German industrialist most notable for his successful business ventures and his enthusiastic support for the "völkisch" author, pioneer of Germanic mysticism and runic revivalist, Guido von List.

He was an Armanist and supporter of List's Armanen runes system. He was also an ardent spiritualist and a firm believer in the Theosophical mahatmas, Morya and Koot Hoomi. [Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 54 and letter from Friedrich Wannieck to Guido von List, dated 12 December 1919, reproduced in Balzli 1917: 183-186.]

Biography

Wannieck was chairman of the Prague Iron Company and the First Brno Engineering Company, both major producers of capital goods in the Habsburg empire. He was also president of the organisation and publishing house "Verein "Deutsches Haus"" ("German House" Association) in Brno. This was a nationalist association for German inhabitants of the city, who knew it by the name of "Brünn" and felt encircled by the overwhelming Czech population of South Moravia (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 37).

In 1888 the "Verein "Deutsches Haus" published an historical work entitled "Der altdeutsche Volksstamm der Quaden [The Ancient German Quadi Tribe] " by Heinrich Kirchmayr. Wannieck was impressed by the parallels between List's clairvoyant account of the Quadi and the academic study of Kirchmayr. Between Wannieck and List there developed a regular correspondence that laid the basis of a lasting friendship. The "Verein "Deutsches Haus" later published three of List's works in its own book-series of nationalist studies of history and literature ("ibid.").

Wannieck's munificence eventually led to the foundation of the "Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft" (Guido von List Society) twenty years later. Around 1905, he and his son Friedrich Oskar were among the signatories to the initial announcement endorsing the formation of the Society in support of their good friend, List. This came to fruition with an official founding ceremony in 1908. The Society's assets came mostly from the Wanniecks, who put up more than 3000 crowns at the inauguration ("ibid.", 43-44).

Notes

References

*Balzli, Johannes. 1917. "Guido v. List: Der Wiederentdecker Uralter Arischer Weisheit - Sein Leben und sein Schaffen". Leipzig and Vienna: Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft.
*Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. 1985. "The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890-1935". Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press. ISBN 0-85030-402-4
*List, Guido von. 1908. "Das Geheimnis der Runen" (Guido-von-List-Bücherei 1). Gross-Lichterfelde: P. Zillmann. Translated with introduction by Stephen E. Flowers 1988 as "The Secret of the Runes". Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books. ISBN 0-89281-207-9