¹ Biographical material can be found in Georg Günther, “Karl Wittgenstein und seine Bedeutung für den Aufbau und die Entwicklung der österreichischen Volkswirtschaft,” Neue Österreichische Biographie, edited by Anton Bettelheim (10 vols., Vienna: Wienerdrucke, 1923–35); Kupelwieser, Paul, Aus den Erinnerungen eines alten Österreichers (Vienna: Gerold & Co., 1918);Google Scholar obituaries in the Neue Freie Presse and other journals; and Wittgenstein, Karl, “Lebenserinnerungen” (unpublished notes covering the period from 1847Google Scholar to 1884 dictated to one of his daughters shortly before his death).

² Wittgenstein, “Lebenserinnerungen.”

³ Kupelwieser, Aus den Erinnerungen eines alten Österreichers, p. 61. In 1874 Wittgenstein married Leopoldine Kallmus (1850–1916), an “amiable and well-off girl,” according to Kupelwieser. See ibid., p. 85.

⁴ See Zweig, Stefan, Die Welt von Gestern. Erinnerungen eines Europäers (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1949), p. 36.Google Scholar

⁵ Wittgenstein's involvement with this bank is described in März, Eduard, Ösierreichische Industrie- und Bankpolitik in der Zeit Franz-Josefs I. Am Beispiel der k. k. priv. Österreichischen Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe (Vienna: Europa Verlag, 1968).Google Scholar

⁶ Kupelwieser, Aus den Erinnerungen eines alten Österreichers, p. 156.

⁷ See , Prager Eisen-Industrie-Gesellschaft, Geschäfts- und Betriebs-Bericht für das Geschäftsjahr 1898–1899 (Vienna: Prager Eisen-Industrie-Gesellschaft, 1899).Google Scholar

⁸ Wittgenstein's relations with the imperial government were never cordial. The government was conservative, semi-feudal, and Catholic; Wittgenstein was progressive, bourgeois, and Protestant. Wittgenstein never sought nor received any of the many decorations awarded by the imperial government. He was never knighted, although men of far less importance frequently attained that distinction. His cool relationship with the government may help explain why historians generally have paid little attention to his important role in the economic affairs of the Habsburg monarchy.

⁹ Protokol über die am 23. und 24. Jänner 1899 in k. k. Handelsministerium abgehaltene Eisenexpertise, Allgemeines Verwaltungsarchiv (Vienna), File No. PZ 368–99/Handels-Ministerium.

¹⁰ The distribution of the special reserve funds was postponed until a later date. Prager Eisen-Industrie-Gesellschaft, Geschäfts- und Betriebs-Bericht für das Geschaftsjahr 1898–1899. The motives for this action are not entirely clear, but Wittgenstein and Kestranek were clearly employing techniques characteristic of American corporate finance. Distributing the surplus funds would help them achieve leverage for corporate control with a minimum of capital investment, while improving their cash position for investment elsewhere. By claiming that the funds should be distributed because they were not needed for operational purposes they contradicted their own argument for the need for a protective tariff—a form of government subsidy. The “surpluses” in question apparently were derived, in part at least, from earlier tariff subsidies. To his antagonists it seemed that Wittgenstein was asking for additional government money while saying that he had more than he knew what to do with.

¹¹ That none of his sons succeeded him as an entrepreneur to continue his work was one of the great disappointments of his life. Information from Dr. Thomas H. W. Stonborough. The fact that Wittgenstein desired an heir for his empire, while all of his sons were interested in the fine arts, as well as his rather dictatorial behavior, seems to explain a good deal about his sons' suicidal tendencies. Three of them committed suicide and Ludwig, the fourth son, repeatedly thought about doing the same.

¹² Arbeiter-Zeitung, January 21, 1913.

¹³ Wittgenstein, Karl, Zeitungsartikel und Vorträge (Vienna: Gottlieb Gistel, 1913).Google Scholar

¹⁴ The Causes of the Development of Industry in America. A Lecture delivered before the Association of Engineers and Architects on November 5th 1898 (Vienna: Spies & Co., n.d.).Google Scholar

¹⁵ Ibid., p. 4.

¹⁶ Wittgenstein, Zeitungsanikel und Vorträge, p. 122.

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ Ibid., p. 98.

¹⁹ Ibid., p. 97.

²⁰ Ibid., p. 159.

²¹ Ibid., pp. 65–66.

²² Ibid., pp. 174–175.

²³ Ibid., p. 3.

²⁴ Ibid., p. 92.

²⁵ Ibid., p. 49.

²⁶ Ibid., p. 50.

²⁷ Ibid., p. 17.

²⁸ Ibid., p. 15.

²⁹ Information from Dr. Thomas H. W. Stonborough. The relationship between the two industrialists, of course, had nothing to do with Wittgenstein's earlier trip to the United States.

³⁰ See the chapter on “Herbert Spencer and His Disciple” in Carnegie, Andrew, Autobiography (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1920).Google Scholar

³¹ Hofstadter, Richard, Social Darwinism in American Thought (Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, 1944), p. 41.Google Scholar

³² As quoted in ibid.

³³ Ibid., pp. 45–46. See also “The Bugaboo of Trusts,” in Carnegie, Andrew, The Empire of Business (Reprint of the 1933 ed., New York: Greenwood Press, 1968), p. 135.Google Scholar

³⁴ Wittgenstein, The Causes of the Development of Industry in America, p. 21.

³⁵ "Ibid., p. 24.

³⁶ Ibid., p. 25.

³⁷ Ibid., p. 17.

³⁸ Wittgenstein, Zeitungsartikel und Vorträge, p. 81.

³⁹ Wittgenstein, The Causes of the Development of Industry in America, p. 15.

⁴⁰ Ibid., p. 16.

⁴¹ Wittgenstein, Zeitungsartikel und Vorträge, p. 131.

⁴² Ibid., p. 132

⁴³ Ibid., p. 85.

⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 180.

⁴⁵ Ibid., p. 190.

⁴⁶ A lengthy article on “The Cartels and the Workers” in the Arbeiter-Zeitung of June 22, 1900, indicates that the question of cartels and their significance for workers had been almost entirely ignored by the Austrian socialists.

⁴⁷ See anonymous, “Karl Wittgenstein als Kunstfreund,” Neue Freie Presse, January 21, 1913.

⁴⁸ Alte und Moderne Kunst, Vol. XCII (1967), p. 31.

⁴⁹ Translated from German by the authors.

⁵⁰ St. Pöltener Zeitung, November 1, 1891.