Dr. Kuno Viktor Josef Grohmann

Following the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy, and the expulsion of the Habsburgs, Kuno Grohmann returned to Würbenthal and took over his parents’ “Leinenzwirnfabrik Grohmann & Co.” (his father had already passed away in 1909), which was now owned by his mother. In doing so, he had the company electrified, expanded the hydroelectric power plants with modern turbines, and thereby also provided lighting for the surrounding villages. Around the same time, he earned his doctorate in political science from the University of Jena. As a partner, he also sought regular contact with the workers. He ate with them in the factory cafeteria and used the factory bathhouse he had set up alongside them. Kuno Grohmann is considered one of the “most forward-thinking textile industrialists in Czechoslovakia.” He married Eleonore “Lore” von Judřcenka and went on to become the father of five children.

Since the early 1920s, Kuno Grohmann had been a friend and enthusiastic supporter of Richard Count Coudenhove-Kalergi; he championed the Pan-European Movement and played an active role in founding the Czechoslovakian branch of the organization.

Through family connections, he met the architect Josef Hoffmann in Vienna, who had redesigned Grohmann’s home in Pochmühl in 1920. Through this connection, Kuno Grohmann also came into contact with the Wiener Werkstätte, which was facing financial difficulties. On October 1, 1927, he finally acquired 51 percent of the shares in the Wiener Werkstätte. By 1928, he had reoriented the company toward the export business, which initially allowed him to achieve a certain degree of stabilization. However, with the onset of the Great Depression, all attempts to rescue the Wiener Werkstätte or sell it to investors failed. As a result of his involvement, Kuno Grohmann lost not only considerable assets but also his stake in the family business to his brother Fritz toward the end of 1930. In October 1932, the liquidation of the Wiener Werkstätte was filed with the Vienna Commercial Court.

As a devout Catholic and patriotic Austrian, Kuno Grohmann joined the Fatherland Front in 1934 and, in the same year, became director of the “Austrian Kunsthalle,” an organization responsible for distributing heavily discounted or free theater tickets until the occupation of Austria in 1938. The president of the Österreichische Kunsthalle is the writer and journalist Hans Brecka-Stiftegger. He is also a leading official in the Fatherland Front organization “Neues Leben.”

On March 12, 1938, Kuno Grohmann witnessed the collapse of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. The Austrian Kunsthalle was immediately dissolved and incorporated into the Nazi organization “Kraft durch Freude.” Kuno Grohmann was immediately dismissed as “completely unacceptable.” The new Nazi rulers harassed him and prevented him from finding new employment. In addition, he was regularly interrogated by the Gestapo.

Despite his suicide, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer confirmed in 1946 that Kuno Grohmann was a devout Catholic and a staunch Austrian who had been severely persecuted by the Nazis.

Of Kuno Grohmann’s five children, one son was killed by an aerial bomb. His wife, Eleonore Grohmann, and four children witnessed the liberation of Austria and the reestablishment of the republic in April and May 1945, respectively. After the liberation, Eleonore Grohmann joined the newly founded Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP Association of the Politically Persecuted and Defenders of Austria.