Some thoughts
Rest In Peace
Uncle Oswald built a large "Family Crypt" in Schönbühel where he and Aunt Fanny were buried. When Boy inherited the Nutznießung (usufruct) of Schönbühel in 1967 he decided to bring other deceased members of the family to rest in the crypt.
1. Carlo Seilern
In 2008, I visited Morcote near Lugano where Carlo Seilern was buried (he died in Orselina near Ascona in 1940). The grave was nowhere to be found so I contacted the Municipio and they produced correspondence (next page) with Anton Wälder* dated 1981 where he states “Count (Karl Hugo) Seilern decided, together with his descendants and relatives, to transfer the remains of Carlo Seilern lying in Morcote ......". Paps was 82 at the time and unaware of what was happening on his behalf. He had lost contact with Wälder and had not given instructions for his father's remains to be buried in his younger brother’s property.
Descendants and relatives were not informed.
Carlo S. died when I was 4 years old, and I would have had no particular feelings if his remains went to Schönbühel or not.
The remains were finally transferred to Schönbühel in 1991, ten years after the Wälder letter and three years after Paps died (1988).
* Anton Wälder was an employee of Orelli im Thalhof a private bank in Zürich (Paps was a client) and Boy asked him to take care of the matter. The letter was written in 1981 after he had retired from the bank.
Morcote correspondence
Anton Wälder-Kallenbach
Schwandelstrasse 27
8800 Thalwil
Telefon 01/720 21 20
8800 Thalwil, den 21. Juli 1981
Municipio
6922 Morcote
Translation
Dear Sirs,
Since 1940, the deceased, Carlo Seilern-Aspang, has been buried in the cemetery.
The grave is located on the far left (towards the church) on - as far as I remember - the second uppermost terrace.
Count Seilern came from Austria, had three sons, two of whom died. The surviving son, Count Karl-Hugo Seilern, lives in Austria and decided some time ago, together with his descendants and relatives, to have the remains of his father, lying in Morcote, transferred to Austria in the family crypt.
I ask you to let me know who is responsible for an exhumation and what steps (documents, etc.) need to be taken.
I thank you in advance for your reply.
Yours sincerely
on behalf of Karl-Hugo Seilern
sig. A. Wälder
2. Grandmother Antoinette and Uncle Antoine
Antoinette Seilern was buried in the Farnham, Surrey cemetery a few days after she died giving birth to Uncle Antoine in September 1901.
When Uncle Antoine passed away in 1978, he was buried next to his mother as had been his wish.
I visited the cemetery in 2009 and again couldn't find the graves. Uncle Antoine and his mother’s remains had been removed and sent to Schönbühel. Again, without consent of the immediate family.
Antoinette, an American débutante, had spent all her life in New York apart from a few years in England where she and Carlo S. moved after they were married.
She died, aged 25 in 1901, 25 years before Schönbühel was bought and had probably never set foot in Austria.
Her rightful place was either where she was originally buried in Farnham or in the Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn with the rest of her extended family .
seilern.ch > Family > Cemeteries).
Uncle Antoine and Uncle Oswald were not particularly close, and he would not have wanted to be buried in Schönbühel either. He was strongly attached to the mother he never knew and wished to be buried next to her in Farnham.
A promising start to life.
After two-years (1954-1956) as a 2nd lieutenant in the British Army (The Life Guards), I spent a year (at Paps’ insistence) working for Bankhaus Breisach in Vienna.
I’ll never forget Paps taking me to the bank (!!!) and introducing me to Felix Czernin, the director.
Instead of presenting me in a good light, Paps started the conversation with
“You have to understand, dear Felix, that Peter doesn't understand a thing ...”
A promising start to my business career .....
** ** **
After leaving the army in 1956 and the year spent at Breisach, I decided to study physics at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne. Paps's reaction was "Why do you want to become a garage mechanic?".
I graduated in 1963 and the ceremony was attended by dozens of fathers, mothers, brothers etc. celebrating the success of their loved ones.
I was alone. None of my family attended. Rather sad.
** ** **
Paps invited me in 1963 on a Safari in Tanganyika (Tanzania). However, what has stuck in my mind ever since is the fact that I shot a leopard. A young female.
It was a turning point in how I treated animals. Until that time, I had occasionally hunted in Europe not giving the matter much thought.
Shooting that leopard changed everything. Today I would not even think of killing a mosquito.
The skin of that poor leopard now lies at home in Verbier to remind me every day that animals are not to be killed for pleasure.
** ** **
My first real job (1963)
After graduating from the EPUL, I went to the States to look for a job and after much interviewing was hired by Litton Industries’ Guidance and Control Systems division in the San Fernando Valley behind Beverly Hills.
What a cultural shock landing in the heart of America’s military/industrial complex. I was a research engineer working on Stellar/Inertial/Doppler navigation systems.
Nearly all my colleagues (!!) were right-wing Goldwater Republicans - "let’s nuke those f…ing commies" was how they talked even though most of them had never set foot outside of California.
** ** **
Johann Losert was Paps’ faithful butler before the war when we lived in Wasserburg. He was the number one employee, eating at a separate table in the staff quarters and running the show. A wonderful man.
In 1938 we moved to Lausanne just before (??) the Anschluss. Johann stayed behind with his disabled wife whom the Nazis later euthanized.
After the war in 1947, he joined us in Switzerland where he met his second wife whose family owned the Café des 3 Dranses, a restaurant by the train station in Martigny.
The family moved back to Wasserburg in 1955 but Johann stayed behind with his new wife.
He became very popular with the locals even though he never spoke a word of French. He died shortly afterwards, and I remember attending his funeral where the church was overflowing.
** ** **
Paps died in Febraury 1988 and the "Liquidations- und Teilungsrechnung Teilungsrechnung" is dated July 1989 (see Last Wills).
In it his fortune was Frs.4.7 million Swiss francs which would be approximately Frs.6.5 million today. A fraction of what it should have been.
During his whole life, he never saved or reinvested his income. His lifestyle was a function of his immediate income.
** ** **
I received a message recently (2012) from an Austrian student writing her thesis about the Austrian Arisierung in 1939 and who wanted to find out whether Schönbühel and Wasserburg were confiscated because of a “jewish grandmother”.
She even mentioned an evanglical wedding followed by another one in a synagogue.
Having examined all the birth/wedding etc. certificates I have yet to come across anything which refers to a “jewish” grandmother.
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