In retrospect

The above incident needs to be taken in context.  Before 1970, the Swiss franc was tied to the US$ at a fixed  CHF4.30 exchange rate.

When the rate was abandoned in 1970, the dollar went into free fall loosing 65% of it's value over the next 8 years.

Between 1970 and 1980 it dropped from Frs.4.30 to Frs.1.50. The two currencies approached parity at the beginning of 2008 !!.

Paps' income, which depended entirely on the Woerishoffer $ trusts, decreased at the same rate and although he never talked about it openly, he was no longer able to sustain his way of life.

That must have been a terrible blow for somebody who had never worked for a living.

It is hard to believe when looking back over the years, that such an immense fortune has been squandered in less than 3 generations and that some members of the next generation find themselves practically destitute when 75 years ago we were one of the richest families in Austria.

Anna Woerishoffer was immensely generous towards her grandchildren. Paps was given Wasserburg and Albrechtsfeld when he was in his early 20s and Uncle Oswald got Schönbühel and Aggstein around the same time.  Such properties needed to be accompanied by large allowances.

With the Second World War approaching everything started to change. Paps and Uncle Oswald moved to Switzerland and the properties left to their uncertain fate.

It was also terrible misfortune that they all ended up in the Russian zone of Austria at the end of the war and as British subjects we were unable to return until after the Staatsvertrag in 1955.

Even then Albrechtsfeld was still considered a foreign asset.

In that post-WWII era, Austria was on its knees, and everything was very cheap.

Having an enormous US$ income, Paps would have been able to buy whatever he wanted but instead sold both Haus Seilern and Albrechtsfeld. The proceeds of these sales did not return to the Woerishoffer trusts, instead they were used to entertain Wasserburg’s lifestyle.

Paps never provided for his children and spent the trust income on what concerned his person. He never invested a penny and when he died in 1988 there was practically nothing left apart from Wasserburg, the apartment building in Lausanne and a couple of million in the bank.

I first went to the US in 1963 to look for a job and Paps provided me with an allowance. When Uncle Oswald died a few years later (1967) I became an income beneficiary to a quarter of his irrevocable trust and Paps put an end to my allowance.

Years ago, I remember Nettie complaining that Paps could at least have given each of his children one of the many small houses in Wasserburg.

She was quite right.  It would also have gone a long way in keeping our family together.

Previous: Direct Family: PS 1936 - | Table of contents | Next: Autonomous Fund Management