Augustin Emil Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (26 January 1815 – 31 August 1881) was an Austrian industrialist.

Early life

Hofmann was born in Vienna, Austria on 26 January 1815. He was a younger son of Therese ( Schefteles) von Hofmannsthal and Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal. Among his siblings was Elise von Hofmannsthal (whose sister-in-law, Adelheid Herz, married Carl Mayer von Rothschild). His father was a Jewish tobacco farmer who was made a member of the hereditary nobility, as "Edler von Hofmannsthal," by the Emperor of Austria in 1835.

Career

He was a silk breeder, factory owner, and the head of his father's subsidiary business-house in Milan. He was a recipient of the Cross of Merit of Austria-Hungary.

Personal life

He converted to Catholicism and, on 5 May 1839, married Petronilla Antonia Cäcilia ( von Rhò) Ordioni (1815–1898) in Milan. The marriage was later found to be invalid due to a legal defect when it was conducted, so they married again Vienna on 8 April 1850. Petronilla, a daughter of Anton Maria von Rhò and widow of Pietro Ordioni (who died in 1835), was from an aristocratic Italian family. Together, they were the parents of: Hofmannsthal died on 31 August 1881 at Krems in Lower Austria.

Descendants

Through his son Hugo, he was a grandfather of Hugo von Hofmannsthal (1874–1929), an Austrian novelist, librettist, and dramatist, and great-grandfather of writer Raimund von Hofmannsthal (1906–1974).