Vítkovice Mining and Iron Corporation (german: Witkowitzer Bergbau- und Hüttengewerkschaft) was an

iron mill An ironworks or iron works is an industrial plant where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ''ironworks'' is ''ironworks''. Ironworks succeeded bloomer ...

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four riv ...

, Vítkovice,

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

founded by Salomon Meyer von Rothschild's heirs in 1873, it was the largest iron and steel works in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

History

Originally purchased by the

Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city * Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance * V ...

banker Salomon Mayer von Rothschild in 1843, he also financed the extension of the Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway from Vienna to Ostrava with a branch-off to his steel mill, which was completed in 1855. In 1937, the company shares were transferred to a company named the Alliance Assurance Co., Ltd a forerunner of the

RSA Insurance Group RSA Insurance Group Limited ( trading as RSA, formerly RSA Insurance Group plc and Royal and Sun Alliance) is a British multinational general insurance company headquartered in London, England. RSA has major operations in the United Kingdom, Ire ...

, and in which the London House of Rothschild still had a controlling interest.''The House of Rothschild (Vol. 2): The World's Banker: 1849–1999'', Niall Ferguson (2000). During the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

, Louis Nathaniel de Rothschild was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

during an attempted escape and was kept as a hostage for two years, until the London-based holding agreed to sell its Vitkovice shares to the German government for the discounted price of 2.9 million pounds. In May 1939 Baron Rothschild was released and the Vitkovice Works eventually became part of the

Reichswerke Hermann Göring Reichswerke Hermann Göring was an industrial conglomerate in Nazi Germany from 1937 until 1945. It was established to extract and process domestic iron ores from Salzgitter that were deemed uneconomical by the privately held steel mills. The sta ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

they were nationalised as the Vítkovické železárny Klement Gottwald n.p. (VŽKG) by the Czechoslovak state.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vitkovice Mining and Iron Corporation * Companies of Czechoslovakia