Follow Us
Like Us
Historical records matching Otto Strakosch
view all
Immediate Family
-
wife -
daughter
-
daughter -
father -
mother -
brother -
sister
About Otto Strakosch
Birthdate appears in Czech Jewish Registers, Brno Births 1862-1873 Image #122/203; also on birth announcement of eldest son Heinrich (see below); also on the Avotaynu list of those with bank accounts in Austria at the time of the Holocaust.
- Strakosch, Otto 22.10.1868 (Oct 22, 1868)
Otto Strakosch moved with his family to Vienna in the early 1880s.
Joined his father in the firm B. Strakosch: directory listing (with son Otto Strakosch) in Vienna appears in Adolph Lehmann's allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger › 1891-1900 › 1892 › Firmenverzeichnis, Image 1521, fourth listing from bottom, left-hand column. Same listing appears in 1889, but without mentioning son Otto Strakosch. Father and son were in business together "from 1. Januar 1893" per announcement in the business column of Neue Freie Presse for Feb. 13, 1893, page 5:
- Offene Gesellschafter sind Bernhard Strakosch und Otto Strakosch
- Beide Schuhwaaren-Erzeuger in Wien, VII., Dreilausergasse 7
Otto married Marie Weishut on Jan. 20, 1901, location Stadttempel; visible in the birth announcement of son Heinrich. Address was Wien VII, Kaiserstraße 41.
Traveled internationally promoting the shoe manufacturing concern. Mentioned in Shoe & Leather Reporter, July 6, 1898, p 27, as having "visited Chicago, New York and Boston . . . studying the methods of American shoe manufacturers, and obtaining ideas in regard to the machinery employed." Also, from Shoe & Leather Reporter, June 8, 1898, p. 1421: "Otto Strakosch of the Austrian shoe manufacturing firm of B Strakosch & Son, Vienna, has-been visiting here. The firm have an exhibit of their handiwork, chiefly women's expensive goods, at the World's Fair, and Mr. Strakosch started for Chicago on the 7th inst. Innumerable medals have been awarded them at all expositions since 1879. Mr Strokosch is in quest of American machinery and leather."
Strakosch shoes were represented in Australia already in the early 1880s by Bernhard Strakosh's company presence at Expositions in the Austria section: The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), page 23S. By the late 1890s Strakosch shoes were well known in Australia: "That footgear, whether it be for home, outdoor, or evening wear, is a matter of importance and interest to woman there can be no dispute. The whole effect of an otherwise perfect toilette may be entirely spoilt if the boot, shoe, or slipper is not neat and dainty, and many times the difficulty has been (moreso with evening slippers) to get just that which we women know is needed to add the finishing touch to a pretty toilette. Granting that such difficulty has arisen in the past, and with it much annoyance, it is a pleasure to say that Mr. W. H. Murray, Brisbane-street, has just received a large consignment of very choice evening slippers, from among which one and all will find exactly what they require. Satin slippers in pink, blue, white, cream, and eua-de-nil, are the daintiest things imaginable; being from the famous house of "Strakosch" is sufficient guarantee that both fit and finish are perfect. Some have beaded toes and one instep bar, others are in the court shape, with bows of ribbons, and all are beautifully lined throughout with kid and satin. These slippers have been made specially to Mr. Murray's order; he having so wide an experience of the trade in our city, and also, the country districts, is in a position to know exactly what .are the requirements of his numerous customers. No thing could surpass these satin evening slippers, and I believe I am right in saying that they are the largest, most varied, and valuable stock that have yet been imported into Launceston. Bronze slippers, too, are lovely; there are those with open, embroidered and beaded fronts, with dual straps crossing the instep, and also beaded; these are very elaborate, and consequently rather expensive, but when one considers the amount of wear that they will give this first outlay is comparatively a trifle. A less elaborate, but very smart little slipper in bronze has the toe ornamented with jewels and cut bronze beads, surmounted with a small bow." -- From Woman's World by Sylvia, in The Launceston Examiner (Tasmania, Australia), Oct. 23, 1897, p. 3.
In 1913 Otto Strakosch was "Präsidenten des Vereines der österreichischen Schuhfabrikanten" (Neues Wiener Tagblatt for April 16, 1913, page 19). That same year Otto Strakosch made a return trip to New York: New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 (ancestry.com):
- Name: Otto Strakosch
- Arrival Date: 25 May 1913
- Birth Date: abt 1868 Age: 45
- Birth Location / Other: Vienna, Austria
- Gender: Male; married
- Friend or relative whence alien came: Bernard Strakosch (company name)
- Ethnicity/ Nationality: German
- Port of Departure: Cherbourg, France
- Port of Arrival: New York
- Destination: Chicago
- Ship Name: Kaiserin Auguste Victoria
"Otto Strakosch, of B. Strakosch & Sohn, shoe manufacturers, Vienna, Austria, was a visitor in the Philadelphia market on Monday of last week. This house is the largest shoe manufacturing firm in Austria." --Shoe & Leather Reporter, June 26, 1913, p. 26
Otto Strakosch gave an illustrated lecture on "My Travels in the Far East" in 1914 (see NFP Feb. 26, 1914); he was "k. k. Experte für China und Japan." At a January 1914 meeting of the Association for the Promotion of Trade in Vienna, "[Association] President S. Brod, in his introductory address, discussed the reasons for our relatively slow growth in exports and pointed out the necessity of the export of the young traders abroad. In closing Mr. Otto Strakosch gave a lecture on China and Japan" (Verein zur Hebung der Gewerbe in Wien: Bei dem kürzlich abgehältenen Vortragsabend des Vereines hat Präsident S. Brod in seiner einleitenden Ansprache die Gründe unseres verhältnismäßig langsam anwachsenden Exports exörtert und zur Förderung des Exports aus die Notwendigkeit der Betätigung junger Kausleute im Auslande hingewiesen. Im Anschlüsse daran hielt Herr Otto Strakosch einen Vortrag über China und Japan.) (Neues Wiener Tagblatt for 16. Januar 1914, page 22, right-hand column).
Classified ad re sale of machines by Strakosch & Sohn, Neues Wiener Tagblatt, page 61.
In 1923 Otto Strakosch published a long piece in Neues Wiener Tagblatt (Tages-Ausgabe) entitled "Die Notlage der heimischen Schuhindustrie" (The Plight of the Local Shoe Industry). "The Austrian shoe industry was, before the war, the largest and the greatest exporting...." -- NWT page 2.
Otto Strakosch made another voyage to the U.S. in 1925: New York, Passenger Lists, 1820-1957:
- Name: Otto Strakosch
- Arrival Date: 10 Mar 1925
- Birth Date: abt 1869 Age: 56
- Birth Location: Czechoslovakia Brunn
- Gender: Male, married. Height 5'6"
- Languages: English, German
- Ethnicity/ Nationality: German
- Port of Departure: Southampton, England
- Port of Arrival: New York
- Destination: Boston (Trostel Leathers)
- Ship Name: Aquitania
What became of the company B. Strakosch & Sohn after the Nazi invasion of Austria in 1938 is described in Ökonomie der Arisierung, Vol. 2, by Ulrike Felber, section 2.4.4. The book indicates that the business was in Wien VII, 41 Kaiserstraße ca. 1938-39. "Aryanization or 'dejudishment' was what the National Socialists called the displacement of Jews and 'Jewish half-breeds' from trade, commerce, housing, houses and science in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws."
A study of the taking of the Strakosch shoe business also appears in Arisiert by Irene Etzersdorfer; on page 185 the author reproduces the notice from the Nazi regime informing Otto Strakosch of the takeover (aka de-judification) of the business (see in MEDIA). The book can be glanced at online.
As early as 1908 Bernhard Strakosch & Sohn owned the building at that address, per the 1908 Buch der Häuser und Hausbesitzer Wien at DigitalWienBibliotek (7 Bezirk, p. 25; image #42).
The fate of B. Strakosch & Sohn Schuhfabrik (founded 1872) during WW II is also discussed in Arisiert: Eine Spurensuche im gesellschaftlichen Untergrund der Republik. Kremayer & Scheriau. Wien, Irene Etzersdorfer (1995) in a chapter on Otto Strakosch.
The company, in different hands today, continues to operate as Legero, out of Graz.
Otto & family had left for England in early 1939. Otto died there in October 1942: "Strakosch Otto 73 Pancras" FreeBMD.org.uk
view all
Otto Strakosch's Timeline
| 1868 |
October 22, 1868
|
Brno
|
|
| 1902 |
November 8, 1902
|
Vienna, Austria
|
|
| 1904 |
March 21, 1904
|
Vienna, Austria
|
|
| 1909 |
October 25, 1909
|
Vienna, Austria
|
|
| 1942 |
October 1942
Age 73
|
London
|