Jakob Altenberg (18751944) was an Austrian businessman and picture frame dealer. Altenberg, who was

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

by birth, was a business partner of the young

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

in his Vienna period (190913).

Early life

Jakob Altenberg was born in

Hrymailiv Hrymailiv (; ; ) is a Populated places in Ukraine#Rural settlements, rural settlement in Chortkiv Raion, Ternopil Oblast, western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Hrymailiv settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: H ...

, near

Skalat Skalat (, ; ; ) is a small city in Ternopil Raion, Ternopil Oblast, western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Skalat urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: History Skalat was first mentioned in written sources date ...

, eastern

Galicia-Lodomeria The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also known as Austrian Galicia or colloquially Austrian Poland, was a constituent possession of the Habsburg monarchy in the historical region of Galicia in Eastern Europe. The crown land was established ...

(in present-day

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

), in 1875. He was the son of a Jewish couple, Moses and Sarah Altenberg. As a young man, Altenberg travelled to Vienna, where he learned

gilding Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

. In 1902, he married a Catholic Viennese innkeeper's daughter. The marriage produced two children, daughter Adele (b. 1896) and son Jakob Jr. (b. 1902). In 1898, Altenberg opened his first store as a frame dealer at 37 Wiedner Hauptstraße. Within a few years he established a chain of framing shops that also sold framed pictures and small art objects. In addition to the shop on Wiedner Hauptstraße, three other branches were opened, including one on Vienna's largest shopping street, Mariahilfer Straße.

Relationship with Hitler

From 1909 to 1913, Altenberg was in business contact with the young

, who lived at that time as a painter in Vienna. Until his move to Germany in May 1913, Hitler supplied Altenberg's stores on a regular basis with his own paintings, mostly

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

, which Altenberg used as filler for the frames on display. The relationship between Hitler and Altenberg was good regardless of Altenberg's Jewish ancestry, and Altenberg is reported to have said that he never heard Hitler utter an anti-Semitic remark.Mommsen, Hans

''Hitler and Vienna: The Truth about his Formative Years", in ''The Third Reich Between Vision and Reality''.

Berg Publishers Berg Publishers was an academic publishing company based in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England and Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It was founded in the United Kingdom in 1983 by Marion Berghahn. Berg published monographs, textbooks, refer ...

, 2003. p.34.''

Later life

After the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

in 1938, Altenberg's business was "

Aryanized Aryanization () was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. It entailed the tra ...

", his property was confiscated, and he was reduced to a minimum pension. He sold the remainder of Hitler's paintings, for a small sum, to the main archive of the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...

. He escaped deportation after 1942 because his wife was Aryan. He died in Vienna in 1944.

References

1875 births 1944 deaths People from Ternopil Oblast People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Jews from Austria-Hungary Ukrainian Jews Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Austrian people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent Businesspeople from Austria-Hungary 20th-century Austrian businesspeople Austrian merchants Austrian businesspeople Austrian secular Jews {{Jewish-bio-stub