Pierre Peter Walk

Pierre Peter WALK: b. 12 Dec 1860, Rain - d. 9 July 1920, Wien

Information from mainly family sources:

Basic birth data courtesy of:

Einzelheiten zu Petrus Walk, „Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898“ — FamilySearch.org

https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NZ8W-KHF

Name Petrus Walk Ereignisdatum 1860 Geschlecht Male Geburtsdatum 12 Dec 1860 Geburtsjahr 1860 Taufdatum 12 Dec 1860 Taufort Rain (BA. Neuburg), Bayern, Germany Name des Vaters Leonard Walk Name der Mutter Franziska Weber

Religion: Roman Catholic.

Marriage on 9 September 1886, aged 25, in Paris.

Occupation:

From November 1776 to March 1879 he was apprentice at the Gebrüder Klopfer Bankhaus in Augsburg.

cf. e.g.

Benno Klopfer (1830 - 1897) - Genealogy

Benno Baruch Klopfer

The work reference he received from his employers is posted under "Media":

THANKS to the invaluable help of our Heidelberg cousins Uli & Ruth ...

Transcription:

ZEUGNIß

Wir bescheinigen hiermit daß Herr Peter Walk von hier vom 2. November 1876 bis 17. März 1879 als Lehrling in unserem Hause thätig war.

Zugleich bezeugen wir demselben, daß er sich während dieses Zeitraumes sowohl hinsichtlich des Fleißes als des Betragens und der Rechtlichkeit unsere volle Zufriedenheit erworben und sich unter Aneignung der von einem gebildeten Kaufmann zu fordernde Kenntnisse, zu einem brauchbaren Mitarbeiter herangebildet hat. Wir erteilen ihm dieses Zeugniß mit Vergnügen und begleitet dasselbe mit den besten Wünschen für sein ferneres Wohlergehen.

Augsburg, 8. November 1880 Gebrüder Klopfer

Basic translation into English:

REFERENCE:

We hereby certify that Herr Peter Walk was employed as apprentice here in our firm from 2 November 1876 to 17 March 1879.

At the same time we attest to the fact that during this period of apprenticeship he gained our complete satisfaction both as regards his diligence and his accuracy. Through his acquirement of the necessary skills to become an accomplished bank merchant he has qualified himself to become a most useful member of staff.

We issue this reference for him with pleasure and accompany it with our best wishes for his future well-being.

Augsburg, 8th. November 1880 Gebrüder Klopfer

After 1879, when older than 19, he was an employee of the Orient Railway, rising from the status of simple clerk to head of department and then to general secretary of the company - "Generalsekretärs der Compagnie d'Exploitation des Chemins der fer Orientaux". in Wien.

In 1886, aged about 25, he resided at rue Léon Coignet 7, Paris.

In 1910, aged about 49, he resided at Wien IV, Belvederegasse 8. He remained there until his death in 1920.

He was buried on 13 July 1920 in Wien, Zentralfriedhof: T9/87a-11-6.

• cf. Peter WALK's Death Notice of 10th. July 1920 in the Neue Freie Presse plus the short obituary-style article - in the same newspaper, dated 10th. July 1920 - relating to his sudden suicide (Occupation in 1879).

• cf. Peter WALK'S Death Notice, of 10th. July 1920, and the short article about him, of 11th. July 1920, in the Neue Freie Presse:

Details about Peter WALK's career are given, including the mention of his assiduous and dedicated work and wide experience, above all, that the fact that he was so knowledgeable concerning the whole evolution of the company and of the phase-by-phase negotiations involved, particulary with respect to the current prevalence of rather complicated relations in these issues, was invaluable to his former employers ... and that there were plans for him to transfer to the Paris headquarters of the firm at the end of the month ... (Death) .
• cf. article of 11th. July 1920 in the Neue Freie Presse concerning the return to Vienna of former Russian Prisoners Of War, in which mention is made of the ship that his son Leo WALK is on, namely, that "The steamship "Mount Vernon" is held up in Norfolk with engine problems and that the steamship "Andigent" will, therefore, be bringing those returnees back via Hamburg on circa 10th. July" (N.B. as also noted in Leo WALK's own correspondence of the time to his family). This makes Pierre's sudden decision of suicide particularly poignant in the circumstances of the imminent arrival of his son Leo after so many years of imprisonment...

And then this ...

BENESCH WIENER BANKVEREIN BILD for Peter Walk's 40th.

Under a variation of the kind of heading: “A picture is worth a thousand words” ... THIS PICTURE TELLS A THOUSAND STORIES!!!

re.:

“WIENER BANKVEREIN” – original water-colour by G. (? Gustav? cf. -close-up) Benesch, ca. 1912, Wien

- framed by S. Morgenstern***, Wien IX, Liechtensteinstrasse 4 (framed dimensions?) (cf. close-up)

- with the printed dedication: “In commemoration of the 40th. anniversary of the commendable service as general secretary of Herr Peter Walk./18th. March 1879/18th. March 1919”. (cf. close-up)

N.B. That the name of the actual organisation (of which Peter Walk was general secretary) is not specified and that the painting depicts what was clearly the Creditanstalt bank in Wien on the corner of Schottengasse and Schottenring ... has proved puzzling over the years. Why should the "Generalsekretärs der Compagnie d'Exploitation des Chemins der fer Orientaux" receive a painting of the Creditanstalt bank (in which – coincidentally? - his son, Leo, was later employed ...) as an award to celebrate and honour his forty years of dedicated work?

Recent research has provided an answer to the enigma at last:

• the building was originally constructed for the Wiener Bankverein, completion in 1912, (cf. inscription close-up) – which later merged with the Creditanstalt and is now named “Bank Austria- Creditanstalt”.

• the Wiener Bankverein was designed by architects Ernst Gotthilf von Miskolczy*** (cf. word.doc attachment) and Alexander Neumann. A magnificent and gigantic structure – it covers the ENTIRE block between the Schottenring to the north, Schottenbastei to the south, Schottengasse to the west and Heßgasse to the east: cf. the very extensive and thorough entry for Ernst Gotthilf ...featured on the website Architekturzentrum Wien:

http://www.architektenlexikon.at/de/179.htm

• “1909-1912 Wiener Bankverein, Wien 1, Schottengasse 6-8 / Schottenring 2-6 / Schottenbastei 1-5 / Heßgasse 3-5 (mit Alexander Neumann, heute BA-CA)”

PLUS ...

• exciting clinching clues offered in Leo Walk’s 1914-1920 correspondence during his POW years of confinement in Siberia to his parents in Wien. While Leo usually writes to both parents at their home address, several letters are sent separately to his father at the latter’s place of work and this is clearly given as: “Orientbahnen – Wien, Heßgasse 5”. (cf. just one example shown here).

In other words – the solution is simply that the offices of the “Chemins de fer Orientaux” must have been housed in the same building as the Wiener Vereinbank after 1912. Therefore, to the person/s who chose/gave this to Peter Walk, the Benesch painting must have appeared as a perfectly appropriate gift. (was it especially commissioned for the purpose ...?).

N.B. Research still underway into the actual relationship between the Wiener Vereinbank and the Orientbahn. The former was clearly involved at some point financially (aiding in the funding etc.) of the latter. It was apparently not just happenstance, therefore, that the offices of the latter were headquartered at the former’s grand building ...

Notes:

- *** Samuel MORGENSTERN – much incredible and incredibly moving information abounds about him ... here a super-short summary:

Born in Budapest in 1875, Samuel Morgenstern opened his glazier and framing shop in Vienna in 1903. From circa 1911-1912 the struggling young amateur artist Adolf Hitler, himself, came hoping to sell some of his paintings . Morgenstern ensured several future purchases of Hitler's historical views to his regular customers. By all reports they had a good relationship, both on business and friendly terms - and this despite Samuel being Jewish ... such is irony ...

In 1938, when Morgenstern's business and real estate assets were seized and "Aryanised" by the Gestapo authorities, he was left destitute (despite the promise of a nominal sum for his shop etc.). He attempted to contact Hitler by a letter written on 10th. August 1939, requesting for at least enough financial compensation to enable him and his family to emigrate. This plea never reached Hitler.

Sometime after September 1939, the Morgensterns were relocated from their confiscated house to the ostensibly Jewish ghetto in Wien, Leopoldstadt. On 28th. October 1941 they were deported to Lodz, the Litzmannstadt ghetto in Poland. According to available records and one eye-witness, husband and wife were still together there when Samuel Morgenstern died of exhaustion in August 1943. It is not clear when or exactly where his wife Emma subsequently died. She may well have been deported to Auschwitz. She definitely did not survive ...

- *** BENESCH: Sadly, the signature is not completely clear. It looks almost as though the artist painted it faintly and then went over it later rather clumsily with a darker colour. The initial of the first name could be an “S” or “E” but my guess is a “G” for “Gustav”. Although the signature irritatingly DOESN’T quite correlate to the only one found on the internet in a nice close-up ( cf. attachment) for this artist, the subject matter (street views of Vienna etc.) and style of the artistic works fit fantastically ...

- *** the celebrated architect Ernst Gotthilf was Jewish and emigrated to England in 1939. He died “impoverished” in Oxford. (particularly poignant to our family – born and brought up and living in this town for so many years ourselves ... Lisl Walk recalls an Oxford aquaintance called Renate Gotthilf ...)