Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal

Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal ( born June 10, 1759 in Prostiboř, near Pilsen ( Bohemia), † December 12, 1849 in Vienna ) was an Austrian businessman.

Life

During the famine in the mid-18th century emigrated Hofmann parents of Pretzendorf, today Himmelcron, near Bayreuth to Bohemia, where they lived in very poor conditions. He received his first lessons at home, at the age of 13 he was Bachur (student ) at a yeshiva in Prague. After finishing his studies, he got a job as a teacher in the household of Joel Baruch, a wealthy Austrian businessman, who had built up a tobacco monopoly for the Austrian government. In addition to teaching the children of Baruch Hofmann took also inspect the books of account of his employer. As Baruch 1788 opened a wholesale house, Hofmann was set there as head of the company. In the same year Hofmann got a commercial license for Vienna by the Austrian government and chose the name for this Isaak Löw Hofmann. After the death of Baruch Hofmann rose as a partner in the business and in 1794 the sole owner of the company that bore the name Hofmann and Löwinger. Hofmann became interested in 1796 increasingly for the production of silk and was in 1802 one of the first, which was allowed to remove the silk monopoly of the Hungarian government, a privilege enjoyed his family around half a century. At his instigation his son Emanuel von Hofmannsthal wrote the booklet " Introduction to sericulture ", which has sold more than 16,000 copies. Hofmann worked hard and led his company with the most successful companies of the Austro- Hungarian economy.

Isaak Löw Hofmann participated actively in the Jewish community life and was superintendent from 1806 and from 1812 until his death representative of the Vienna Jewish community. He campaigned for the construction of the Vienna City Temple and promoted the traditional rabbinic values ​​. In 1822 he founded a poorhouse. 1835 Hofmann was knighted by Emperor Ferdinand I and since then could Edler von Hofmannsthal call. Hofmann died in Vienna in 1849 and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery Waehring.

Isaak Löw Hofmann was the great-grandfather of Hugo von Hofmannsthal.