A short report that appeared in a Viennese daily newspaper in 1872 makes one sit up and take notice. One learns of a “forest warden” to whom “brilliant offers of money” were promised “if he wanted to let himself go to an assassination attempt” against a certain Josef Schöffel, “with whom he sometimes hunts.” The sincere forest worker refused and filed a complaint.
She researched how the native Bohemian Schöffel created enemies who did not shy away from even bloodshed Mean on the occasion of the special questions in the category CARDS READ by the Nro. 416.
Almost burned out
The starting point is the 1860s and a “completely empty treasury”, such as Gerhard Toifl, Vienna 17, notes: The reason for this was “two lost wars (Italy 1859, Prussia 1866) and the Prussian-Austrian armed forces against Denmark (1864).” In order to get money, “fees, duties and taxes were massively increased, then the Ministry of Finance sold the” state domains “(forest areas) to private individuals … Mines and railways were also sold.
From 1862 the “kk Finanzlandesdirektion für NÖ”, which was subordinate to the Ministry of Finance, was responsible for the administration of the Vienna Woods. Dr. Alfred Komaz, Vienna 19: “The procedure was always the same: the (corrupt) office created for the sale of state goods” sold the domains “on the basis of false appraisals far below their true value to private speculative consortia, which first came from them by cutting down the forests paid the purchase price and then resold the objects at a profit. “
Herbert Beer, Wolfpassing, noted: “In 1867 and 1868 contracts” were concluded with the “timber merchant Moritz Hirschl … which authorized him … to carry out extensive deforestation in the Vienna Woods.”
A few years later, in 1870, like that Ing. Alfred Kaiser, Purkersdorf, “a law” was introduced regarding the sale … (certain, note) parts of the Vienna Woods to the extent of 5000 yoke, the so-called Anninger Forest “”. An area that, according to a contemporary paper, “was excellently suited for subdivision”. Around a quarter of the forest was cleared for clearing.
This news probably made Josef Schöffel (1832-1910) foam with anger. After leaving the army, the former officer was employed at the Geological Reichsanstalt until 1868 and was aware of the threatening ecological consequences. He started “a journalistic campaign” to save the forest, as inventor Ing. Kaiser adds.
Some entrepreneurs did not want to spoil the lucrative business. They launched counter attacks. Schöffel was reported several times. Mag. Alexander Maksimovic (Welcome to the circle of time travelers!), on this: Although the efforts of many influential people “were directed against his nature conservation intentions”, Schöffel won a “lawsuit against him in 1872 due to the clear evidence that he was able to present.” Dr. Karl Beck, Purkersdorf, further: “Schöffels acquittal of the prosecution for degrading orders of the authorities … initiated the turning point. The government withdrew the case from the finance ministry in favor of the agriculture ministry.” A triumph for the nature fighter.
Use for the poor
This put an end to the sale of the forest. “Also in the social field”, Schöffel achieved great things, like Ambassador iR Dr. Josef Litschauer, Vienna 10, emphasizes: He convinced his friend, the “world-famous anatomist Joseph Hyrtl (1810-1894), … of the foundation of an orphanage in Mödling.” In 1902 “a bust of Schöffel was erected there and a monument was unveiled in the town.”
Harald Jilke, Vienna 2, interjects: On a medal of honor that the municipality of Mödling had minted in 1891, “at Hyrtl’s express request, Schöffel was also shown.”
Prof. Dr. Monika Rath, Vienna 7th, further: Schöffel, who also worked as a politician (including Mödling Mayor 1873ff), also organized the road system in the “Lower Austria regional committee … and had 140 natural refreshment stations set up for wandering craftspeople … The poor system was renovated by Schöffel. And he founded the Forced Labor and Correctional Institution in Korneuburg “, in which young convicts received apprenticeships.
Schöffel’s views on delinquent children and adolescents were recorded in his autobiography “Recollections from My Life” (1905): “Through the intercourse with the so-called morally neglected children … I convinced myself … that … the greatest Part of these poor creatures is naturally better disposed than countless children of rich and distinguished parents. If these … cast out children have violated the laws of public morality and the dull sections of the penal code, then they are in in the vast majority of cases it has been forced to do so through starvation and ill-treatment. “
Grateful churches
Coming to the end of Schöffel’s life Gerhard Pöll, Bad Vöslau (Welcome to Mean!). The neo-tinkerer looked up the “Death Book Mödling-Sankt Othmar” and found what he was looking for “under row number 43/1910 or death inspection slip no. 45/1910”: “Josef Schöffel was buried on February 10, 1910” at the “Mödling cemetery, Grave… No. 171/172, Group I). “
Rainer Balzereit, Mödling (welcome to the tinkerer!), adds: “104 parishes (especially in the Vienna Woods) made him honorary citizenship.”
Dr. Manfred Kremser, Vienna 18: “There are streets, alleys, paths and squares named after Schöffel in Biedermannsdorf, Breitenfurt, Brunn am Gebirge, Eichgraben, Gablitz, Gumpoldskirchen, Hinterbrühl, Klosterneuburg, Ma. Anzbach, Ma. Enzersdorf, Mauerbach, Mödling, Neulengbach , Perchtoldsdorf, Pressbaum, Purkersdorf, Schwechat, Sulz, Wolfsgraben and in Vienna. “
Volkmar Mitterhuber, Baden, mentions the “Schöffelstein, a 425m high elevation in the Vienna Woods near Purkersdorf, on whose” summit “a memorial stone in honor of Josef Schöffel was erected”. There is also the Schöffelschule, a new middle school (Alois-Mayer-Gasse 4), and the Josef-Schöffel-Volksschule in Schwarzhubergasse 7 in the municipality finds, should remember … the “Savior of the Vienna Woods”. “
PS The book price goes to Ing. Alfred Kaiser. Congratulations!
Compilation of this rubric: Christina Krakovsky
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