Draft:Felix Schaffgotsche: Difference between revisions

 

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Schaffgotsche grew up in Linz and Altmünster, Upper Austria in the milieu of the high nobility. His father’s early death in 1907 was a calamity matched by the loss of his mother’s fortune at the end of World War I. He was schooled first in Linz at the [[Bundesrealgymnasium_Linz_Fadingerstraße|Kaiser Franz Joseph Staatsoberrealschule]] and then in Vienna at the [[Theresianum|Theresianische Akademie]], where his elder brother Franz died while in attendance in 1919, rendering him head of his family line. He finally attained his baccalaureate at the [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesgymnasium_und_Bundesrealgymnasium_Freistadt Bundesgymnasium Freistadt] in 1924.<ref>School records obtained through the Bundesgymnasium Freistadt.</ref>

Schaffgotsche grew up in Linz and Altmünster, Upper Austria in the milieu of the high nobility. His father’s early death in 1907 was a calamity matched by the loss of his mother’s fortune at the end of World War I. He was schooled first in Linz at the [[Bundesrealgymnasium_Linz_Fadingerstraße|Kaiser Franz Joseph Staatsoberrealschule]] and then in Vienna at the [[Theresianum|Theresianische Akademie]], where his elder brother Franz died while in attendance in 1919, rendering him head of his family line. He finally attained his baccalaureate at the [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundesgymnasium_und_Bundesrealgymnasium_Freistadt Bundesgymnasium Freistadt] in 1924.<ref>School records obtained through the Bundesgymnasium Freistadt.</ref>

His early career path led him from [[Donaueschingen]], where he was in the employ of close relatives in the [[House of Fürstenberg (Swabia)|Fürstenberg family]], to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam he switched to a private bank and then continued in the same sector at M. Samuel & Co. (see also [[Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted]]) in London during 1929/30 as well as at [[Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.]] in New York in 1930/31.<ref>Letter from Felix Schaffgotsche to his father’s 1st-cousin Princess Irma Fürstenberg, née Countess Schönborn-Buchheim, May 1, 1929. Fürstlich Fürstenbergisches Archiv, Donaueschingen, OB 19, vol. 84, Fasz. 4e.</ref><ref>Rudy Abramson, ”Spanning the Century–The Life of W. Averell Harriman 1891-1986”, William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York 1992, p. 222.</ref> His business ties to [[W. Averell Harriman]] broadened into a friendship that flourished during the 1930s. At the outset of that decade, Schaffgotsche founded a separate hunting venture, the ”Jagd-büro ‘Austria’”, together with his relative and closest friend [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tassilo_Fürstenberg Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg], who would later marry [[Clara Agnelli]] and become father-in-law to [[Diane von Fürstenberg]].<ref>Letters and other papers in Witt-Dörring Family Archive, Zwölfaxing, Austria.</ref>

His early career path led him from [[Donaueschingen]], where he was in the employ of close relatives in the [[House of Fürstenberg (Swabia)|Fürstenberg family]], to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam he switched to private and then continued in the same sector at M. Samuel & Co. (see also [[Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted]]) in London during 1929/30 as well as at [[Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.]] in New York in 1930/31.<ref>Letter from Felix Schaffgotsche to his father’s 1st-cousin Princess Irma Fürstenberg, née Countess Schönborn-Buchheim, May 1, 1929. Fürstlich Fürstenbergisches Archiv, Donaueschingen, OB 19, vol. 84, Fasz. 4e.</ref><ref>Rudy Abramson, ”Spanning the Century–The Life of W. Averell Harriman 1891-1986”, William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York 1992, p. 222.</ref> His business ties to [[W. Averell Harriman]] broadened into a friendship that flourished during the 1930s. At the outset of that decade, Schaffgotsche founded a separate hunting venture, the ”Jagd-büro ‘Austria’”, together with his relative and closest friend [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tassilo_Fürstenberg Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg], who would later marry [[Clara Agnelli]] and become father-in-law to [[Diane von Fürstenberg]].<ref>Letters and other papers in Witt-Dörring Family Archive, Zwölfaxing, Austria.</ref>

In 1935 Harriman hired the gregarious Schaffgotsche as a location scout for what was to become [[Sun Valley, Idaho|Sun Valley]] resort. After nearly two months of travel on the [[Union Pacific Railroad]], taking him throughout the western United States from Seattle to Hollywood and from [[Yosemite National Park|Yosemite]] to Denver and during which he kept a detailed journal, Schaffgotsche arrived at [[Ketchum, Idaho]] in late January 1936 and quickly recognized the site’s potential. Collaborating with Harriman in the development of Sun Valley, which opened in December of the same year, Schaffgotsche stayed on into the spring of 1937, returning again for the winter seasons 1937/38 and 1938/39. During the intervening summers, Schaffgotsche managed the ”Jagd-büro” back in Austria. For Sun Valley he organized the hiring of ski school instructors and myriad other details, conceptualized future development together with Harriman and others, played the part of ”animateur” and promoter, and socialized with high-level guests as Harriman’s stand-in during his absences.

In 1935 Harriman hired the gregarious Schaffgotsche as a location scout for what was to become [[Sun Valley, Idaho|Sun Valley]] resort. After nearly two months of travel on the [[Union Pacific Railroad]], taking him throughout the western United States from Seattle to Hollywood and from [[Yosemite National Park|Yosemite]] to Denver and during which he kept a detailed journal, Schaffgotsche arrived at [[Ketchum, Idaho]] in late January 1936 and quickly recognized the site’s potential. Collaborating with Harriman in the development of Sun Valley, which opened in December of the same year, Schaffgotsche stayed on into the spring of 1937, returning again for the winter seasons 1937/38 and 1938/39. During the intervening summers, Schaffgotsche managed the ”Jagd-büro” back in Austria. For Sun Valley he organized the hiring of ski school instructors and myriad other details, conceptualized future development together with Harriman and others, played the part of ”animateur” and promoter, and socialized with high-level guests as Harriman’s stand-in during his absences.

Schaffgotsche was hired by Averell Harriman as a location scout for what was to become Sun Valley

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[[

|thumb|Felix Schaffgotsche photographed on December 22, 1935 during a visit to Los Angeles.]]

Count Felix Schaffgotsche, genannt Semperfrei von und zu Kynast und Greiffenstein was born on February 16, 1904 in Enns, Upper Austria, where his father, Count Franz de Paula Schaffgotsche (1859-1907)—by 1905 a major in the cavalry and aide-de-camp (Flügeladjutant) to Emperor Franz Joseph I.—was stationed in the military.^[1][2] His mother Aglaë, née Witt von Dörring (1881-1949), was a granddaughter of Ferdinand Johannes Wit, genannt von Dörring and, via her maternal forebears, a descendant of the princely Auersperg family. Through his paternal lineage, Schaffgotsche was one of the last descendants of the Bohemian line of the Schaffgotsch family; the traditional spelling of the surname in his line varied slightly from the spelling favored by his Lower-Silesian cousins. (A further occasional variant, especially in the early 1900s, was Schaaffgotsche.) This family branch was extinguished with the death of Schaffgotsche’s younger brother Friedrich in 1993.

Schaffgotsche grew up in Linz and Altmünster, Upper Austria in the milieu of the high nobility. His father’s early death in 1907 was a calamity matched by the loss of his mother’s fortune at the end of World War I. He was schooled first in Linz at the Kaiser Franz Joseph Staatsoberrealschule and then in Vienna at the Theresianische Akademie, where his elder brother Franz died while in attendance in 1919, rendering him head of his family line. He finally attained his baccalaureate at the Bundesgymnasium Freistadt in 1924.^[3]

His early career path led him from Donaueschingen, where he was in the employ of close relatives in the Fürstenberg family, to the Netherlands. In Amsterdam he switched to private banking and then continued in the same sector at M. Samuel & Co. (see also Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted) in London during 1929/30 as well as at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York in 1930/31.^[4][5] His business ties to W. Averell Harriman broadened into a friendship that flourished during the 1930s. At the outset of that decade, Schaffgotsche founded a separate hunting venture, the Jagd-büro ‘Austria’, together with his relative and closest friend Prince Tassilo zu Fürstenberg, who would later marry Clara Agnelli and become father-in-law to Diane von Fürstenberg.^[6]

In 1935 Harriman hired the gregarious Schaffgotsche as a location scout for what was to become Sun Valley resort. After nearly two months of travel on the Union Pacific Railroad, taking him throughout the western United States from Seattle to Hollywood and from Yosemite to Denver and during which he kept a detailed journal, Schaffgotsche arrived at Ketchum, Idaho in late January 1936 and quickly recognized the site’s potential. Collaborating with Harriman in the development of Sun Valley, which opened in December of the same year, Schaffgotsche stayed on into the spring of 1937, returning again for the winter seasons 1937/38 and 1938/39. During the intervening summers, Schaffgotsche managed the Jagd-büro back in Austria. For Sun Valley he organized the hiring of ski school instructors and myriad other details, conceptualized future development together with Harriman and others, played the part of animateur and promoter, and socialized with high-level guests as Harriman’s stand-in during his absences.

Over the course of the 1930s Schaffgotsche’s sympathies toward the Nazi regime grew pronounced, yet he did not join the NSDAP.^[7] In his travels between Europe and Sun Valley he became friends with the actor David Niven, who visited Schaffgotsche in Sun Valley during the winter of 1938 and included tales of him in his 1971 memoir The Moon’s a Balloon. It was there that Niven made the unsubstantiated, inaccurate, and misleading assertion that Schaffgotsche had ties to the SS.^[8] This claim would appear to be the basis for much unsourced speculation in our own age. In fact, Schaffgotsche absolved his initial military training in the fall of 1938 with a Wehrmacht anti-tank artillery unit (Kornwestheim 4 [E] Pz. Abw. 25) at Kornwestheim near Stuttgart and, according to records in both German state archives and the Schaffgotsche family archive, ultimately joined the Wehrmacht Lehrregiment Brandenburg z.b.V. 800 in the summer of 1940, rising then to the position of Unteroffizier, or corporal.^[9] Having volunteered for frontline duty, he was first dispatched to Normandy as part of Operation Sea Lion, and then, with the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, to the Caucasus, where he was injured in battle—shot in the lung—in July 1941. After a lengthy but incomplete recovery, he returned to the front in the summer of 1942, where he was killed in battle in Kurganinsk on August 11, 1942 and buried there in the days to follow.

Literature: Michael Huey, Unpredictable Weather. The Sunny, Surprising, Sad Case of Count Felix ‘Wetti’ Schaffgotsche 1904-1942, Album Verlag, Vienna 2026.