engleski

Portrayal of the Gutmann family in the writings by Hugo Spitzer

Hugo Spitzer was a famous Osijek (Eszek) lawyer who was involved for a long time in different legal affairs of the wood processing company S. H. Gutmann. According to him, his responsibility in the company was making sure “that the forests do not grow too high”. Besides his attorney profession, Spitzer was also important as a social activist who had a decisive role in Yugoslavian Zionistic movement. His writings about Gutmann family testify about life, business politics and relationship between the family members. S. H. Gutmann Company was a family business established in 1848 in Nagykanisza in Hungary. On the territory of today’s Croatia the Company opened a plant for wood processing in 1884 which operated there until 1941 when the owners were expropriated due to the law on non-Aryan property. The Gutmann family was among the greatest Croatian land owners, they were the backbone of the industrialization in these parts and it should be emphasized that even before the foundation of their factory in Croatia, Gutmann was a brand. Spitzer’s text on the Gutmanns should have been published only after author’s death, and this happened so. Namely, the text was translated from German and published in the paper “Free word”. Besides being circulated in rumors, its content was recounted during the judicial process, colloquially named Našice affair, in which big wood factories were accused of corruption, (this judicial process took place during 1935, a year after Spitzer’s death). The paper deals with the impact of Spitzer’s writings regarding Gutmann family during the interwar period.

Hugo Spitzer ; barons Gutmann ; wood industry ; Našice affair ; confiscation

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