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Moriz [Maurice; Mozio; Moses] Schenker

born Podhajce, Galicia, Auguat 31, 1874; died September 1936

Documents associated with this person:

Younger brother of Heinrich Schenker, and also of Shifre/Sophie and Wilhelm Schenker; youngest child of Johann and Julia Schenker, both Jewish.

Career summary

Following his father’s death in 1887, Moriz Schenker was brought to Vienna, where, according to Oswald Jonas, Heinrich Schenker was “responsible for the sustenance of his destitute family” ("H. Schenker," MGG vol. 11 (1963), col. 1670). Moriz worked first for the lumber company of the Eissler family, who were patrons of Heinrich, until the latter encouraged him to go to business school. After that, he went into banking (diary, April 4, 1915) with the Österreichische Länderbank, in which he served for some years at its office in Egypt, where his daughter Helga and son Georg was born in 1907 and 1908 (he later remarked: "Egypt is my second home [...] unfortunately a continuous life there is impossible." ‒ diary Nov 17, 1926). Later he moved to the Rumanian subsidiary of the bank, becoming Bank Director there by 1912. He established the family home at Baden bei Wien, Elisabethstraße 17, which he occupied until his death. In December 1913 the Kaiser awarded him the Officer Cross of the Order of Franz-Josef for services to banking in Rumania (Reichspost, Dec 10). His work entailed much travel, during which in November–December 1918 he was interned in Bucharest.

In 1924 he moved to the recently founded Vienna-based import-export Treuga Bank (diary, Nov 10) with the title “General Director.” In that year he was appointed to the board of directors of the Reinhardt Theater Company (Der Tag, April 24), In 1925 he was appointed to the board of the Austrian Credit Bank (Wiener Zeitung, May 5), and became a board member of the Vienna Volksoper (Der Montag, June 15), and he occupied seats on several other industries and businesses.

At the height of his career he amassed considerable wealth (Heinrich spoke of him as a “billionaire”), and in 1929 he purchased a property in Reichraming in Upper Austria for investment purposes, into which Heinrich invested money.

The date of Moriz’s marriage to the non-Jewish Lisl (maiden name unknown) probably took place in the 1900s. The couple had two children: Helga (b. 1907) and Georg (b. c.1908). One small insight into family life is recorded in Heinrich’s diary: Dr. Baumgarten [Heinrich’s attorney] at our place; he confirms what we have long suspected: that Mozio is keeping his Jewish origins a secret from his children! He, Dr. Baumgarten, alerted [Mozio’s] wife to the danger that his children could learn the truth from some other quarter; their mother declines to tell the children the truth for the time being. Dr. Baumgarten gets worked up over Mozio's speaking German with Yiddish thrown in, even in front of the children. (diary, Nov 1, 1924)

Signs of a deterioration in the marriage appeared 1920, and Lisl left him in September 1929 for the radio pioneer Leopold Richtera; she obtained a divorce and married Richtera in April 1930, only for her new husband to die two weeks later.

In 1927, Moriz appears to have been out of work. In 1930 he formed his own company, M. Schenker & Cie. Autohandel (Wiener Zeitung, Aug 30), apparently providing finance for automobiles and parts; by 1934 that had become M. Schenker & Reicher. With the Great Depression, and the collapse of the Vienna Creditanstalt in May 1931, his control over his business affairs deteriorated.

There are indications in the early 1930s that his mental health was suffering; he was a patient at the University of Vienna’s Clinic for Nervous and Mental Diseases in December 1934 (OC A/285) and urged Heinrich to avail himself of its shortwave radiotherapy. His depression seems to have worsened leading to suicide on September 17, 1936. The Neues Wiener Journal, Sep. 18, reported: Yesterday night in Baden General Director Moritz Schenker, an erstwhile extraordinarily well-known personality in Vienna banking and finance circles, committed suicide. The 62-year-old man was found dead in his house at Elizabethstraße 17 filled with lighting gas. Pecuniary difficulties were the likely motive for his state of desperation.

On the last page of the diary she kept of her journey to Santiago, Chile in 1936 (OJ 35/9), Jeanette Schenker recorded on September 30: I do not regard it as out of place to add what I learned from the director of the Merkur Bank on the way back from [visiting Heinrich’s grave in] the cemetery: that only a few days before, the younger brother of my beloved husband voluntarily left this life! A highly gifted person, he gained importance and respect from his own powers, and also wealth. But for years he was dogged by bad luck; and his need for peace is something that I can well understand. He was kind to me after my beloved husband passed away: may his memory be honored.

Relationship with Heinrich

  Photograph of Moriz and Heinrich Schenker.
Moriz (standing), Heinrich (seated), 1901 (OJ 72/14, No. 4)

Together with Wilhelm and Heinrich, Moriz contributed money to the upkeep of his mother, Julia Schenker, at least from January 1914 (when Heinrich had to resort to an attorney to force him to contribute adequately – OJ 11/26, [5]) onwards to her death in 1917. Later, he became effectively financial adviser to the whole Schenker family, supporting Sophie’s family, even supplying a dowry for her daughter Frieda; and providing Heinrich with money whenever he needed, especially over the summers, when the latter had no other income. During the legal proceedings between Heinrich and Universal Edition in 1925 he acted as intermediary to the disputing parties in a crucial meeting, and the agreed compensatory payments from UE to Heinrich were to be paid into Moriz’s account.

Being for a time relatively wealthy, he fell victim to Schenker's general detestation of "the rich." For example, Moriz's behavior on the occasion of his decoration (see above) was dubbed by Heinrich "an unequaled piece of Schenker shenanigans" (ein Schenkerei ohnegleichen) and "damnable." Having invested in Moriz’s property in Reichraming, Heinrich strove to retrieve his money, ultimately embarking in January 1931 on litigation against his brother for non-return of his property investment.

Moriz played the violin well enough to have played chamber music informally with Heinrich. His son Georg, a cellist, had lessons in theory with Heinrich before joining the Baden theater orchestra.

Correspondence with Heinrich and Others; Photographs

Correspondence from Moriz to Heinrich Schenker survives as OJ 14/5 (1918–30: 42 items (including two items to Julia Schenker, 1912, one from Julia to Heinrich, 1914, and one from Moriz and Hans Guttmann to Heinrich, 1918), and OC 54/31 and 32 (1925), A/284 and 285 (1934). Some correspondence with Universal Edition exists as OC 52/466 and 467 (1924), and with the attorney Theodor Baumgarten, OC 52/703 (1925), regarding the dispute with UE. OJ 35/8 contains "financial transactions between Heinrich Schenker and Moriz Schenker, Anny Wollner and Drei Masken-Verlag, 1922–31."

Two photographic portraits survive, as OJ 72/18, No. 2 (postcard: Moriz alone, c. 1901) and OJ 72/14, No. 4, standing with Heinrich seated, 1901).

Sources:

  • Federhofer, Hellmut, Heinrich Schenker nach Tagebüchern und Briefen ... (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1985)
  • Private communication from Elizabeth Brinsden (October 18, 2011)
  • ANNO – Historische Zeitungen und Zeitschriften
  • correspondence and diaries

Contributors:

  • Marko Deisinger, revised Ian Bent

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Correspondence

Diaries