Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon
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Heinrich Thyssen, since 1907 Heinrich Freiherr Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva was a German-Hungarian entrepreneur and art collector. He was born on October 31, 1875 at Mülheim an der Ruhr and died June 26, 1947 in Lugano-Castagnola.
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[edit] Biography
He was son of German industrialist August Thyssen. After studying chemistry at the University of Heidelberg and becoming a Dr. he married Margit Freiin Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Csetény, Veszprem, July 23, 1887 – Locarno, April 17, 1971) at Wien on January 4, 1906 and became a citizen of Austria-Hungary. He was later adopted by his father in law Gábor Freiherr Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Kolozsvár, April 20, 1859 – Budapest, April 21, 1915) at Wien on June 22, 1907. The emperor Franz Joseph granted him the inheritable status of a baron. His mother in law was Mathilde Louise Price (Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware, March 14, 1865 – Locarno, January 19, 1959 and married at Wien, May 16, 1883). After World War I he 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. On the same year he got divorced on March 17[1]. After divorcing his first wife he married secondly at Brussels August 29, 1932 Else (Maud) Zarske (Feller) (Thorn, April 17, 1909 – ?), later divorced, and thirdly at Berlin, November 15, 1937 to Gunhild von Fabrice (b. Magdeburg, March 5, 1908). He died in Lugano in 1947.
His son, Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, continued his collection before he sold it in 1993 to the Spanish government for $350 million.
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
[edit] Notes
[edit] 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 [1]
