Heinrich, Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon

Heinrich Thyssen (Mülheim an der Ruhr, 31 October 1875 – Lugano-Castagnola, 26 June 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 the Hungarian Freiin (Baroness) Margit Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Csetény, Veszprém, 23 July 1887 – Locarno, 17 April 1971) in Vienna or Budapest on 4 January 1906 and became a citizen of Austria-Hungary. Later in Vienna on 22 June 1907 he was adopted by his father in law the Hungarian Freiherr (Baron) Gábor Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Kolozsvár, 20 April 1859 – Budapest, 21 April 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, 14 March 1865 – Locarno, 19 January 1959 and married at Wien, 16 May 1883), related to Daniel M. Frost and John Kerry.

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 The Hague 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 17 March. After divorcing his first wife he married secondly at Brussels on 29 August 1932 Else (Maud) Zarske (Feller) (Thorn, 17 April 1909 –), later divorced without issue, and thirdly at Berlin, 15 November 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), 26 July 1907 – New York, New York County, New York, 23 January 1981), married firstly in Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas, 27 April 1927 Elisabeth Clarkson, without issue, and married secondly in Budapest, 24 May 1932 Ilona Kugler (Pilismarót, 20 March 1905 – Munich, 26 September 1992), without issue
• Margit Gabriella Lujza Freiin Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Rechnitz (Rohonc), 21/22 June 1911 – Lugano-Castagnola, 15 September 1989), "The Killer Countess", married in Gandria, Ticino, 17 June 1933 Johann (Iván) Maria Josef Ladislaus Graf Batthyány-Strattmann de Németújvár (Kittsee (Köpcsény), 21 April 1910 – Lugano-Castagnola, 16 July 1985). During the final days of World War II, on 24 March 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. They had:
  • Johann (Iván) Ladislaus Heinrich Maria Graf Batthyány-Strattmann de Német-Ujvar (Vienna, 16 May 1934 – Pressbaum, 26 August 1967), unmarried and without issue
  • Robert Christof Heinrich Maria Graf Batthyány-Strattmann de Német-Ujvar (Vienna, 12 July 1935 –), married at Hamburg, 18 August 1966 Christine Riechert (Nordhausen, 6 February 1938 –), daughter of Hans Joachim Riechert and wife Elfriede Brodthage, and had:
    • Tatiana Christina Maria Gräfin Batthyány-Strattmann de Német-Ujvar (Hamburg, 26 June 1968 –), married civily at Lütjenburg, Holstein, 28 May 1993 and religiously at Rechnitz, Burgenland, 26 June 1993 Konrad Graf von Waldersee (b. Waterneverstorf, 27 March 1957), sixth grandson in male line of Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau, and had:
      • Henry Graf von Waldersee
      • Laura Gräfin von Waldersee (29 January 1998 –)
      • László Graf von Waldersee (London, 16 February 2000 –)
    • Iván Christof Graf Batthyány-Strattmann de Német-Ujvar (Hamburg, 2 March 1979 –)
• Gabriella Vilma Hedvig Mária Freiin Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (Rechnitz (Rohonc), 20 December 1915 –), married in Gandria, Ticino, 1 September 1938 Adolf Willem Carel Baron Bentinck (Ede, 3 September 1905 – Paris, 7 March 1970), and had:
  • Henriette Louise Maria Baronesse Bentinck (London, 30 January 1949 – 29 November 2010), married firstly at London, 13 June 1967 and divorced in 1973 Spencer Douglas David Compton, 7th Marquess of Northampton (2 April 1946 –) and had issue, married secondly and divorced Richard Thompson, and married thirdly in Paris, 1 July 1978 Serge Boissevain (Neuilly, 10 July 1947 – 3 January 2011)
  • Carel Johannes Baron Bentinck (1957 –), married firstly and divorced in 1996 Nora Picciotto, without issue, and married secondly and divorced Lisa Hogan, and had 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.

See also

• Thyssen
• Thyssen family
• Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
• Isle of the Dead (painting)

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]

External links

• Official biography by ThyssenKrupp
• Ancestors of Baroness Francesca Anne Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kaszon
• Ancestors of Archduchess Eleonore of Austria
• Ancestors of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria
• Ancestors of Archduchess Gloria of Austria
• Thyssen-Bornemissza de Kászon et Impérfalva Family