Eduard Steiner

Eduard Steiner was born on 24 April 1891 in the Bohemian town of Preßnitz (now Březnice, Czech Republic). He was a businessman, owned a hardware shop in the small town of Horažďovice (formerly Horažďowitz) and was married to Karolina née Fischlova, with whom he had three daughters. After the English owners of the Giant Ferris Wheel, built in 1897, were expropriated during the First World War and Gabor Steiner, on whose land it stood, had gone bankrupt, Eduard Steiner bought the cultural monument, which became listed in 1920. Steiner continued to own the Ferris wheel until 1938, when it was “aryanised” by the Nazis.

Eduard Steiner hielt sich wohl häufig in Wien auf, wo er auch eine Wohnung besaß, die restliche Familie lebte jedoch zunächst in Horažďovice und später in Prag. Aufgrund seiner jüdischen Abstammung wurde Eduard Steiner am 17. August 1942 nach Theresienstadt und später nach Auschwitz-Birkenau deportiert, wo er am 18. Juni 1944 gemeinsam mit seiner Frau ermordet wurde.

1953 wurde das Riesenrad an die Töchter Eduard Steiners restituiert, die es schließlich an ihren Rechtsanwalt weiterverkauften.

Eduard Steiner probably stayed frequently in Vienna, where he also owned an apartment, but the rest of the family lived first in Horažďovice and later in Prague. On 17 August 1942 Eduard Steiner was deported to Theresienstadt due to his Jewish ancestry and later onward to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he and his wife were murdered on 18 June 1944.

In 1953, the Ferris wheel was restituted to Eduard Steiner's daughters, who then sold it on to their lawyer.

Literature and sources

Claims Resolution Tribunal, Certified Award to Elizabeth Muller, 31 December 2003: https://www.crt-ii.org/_awards/_apdfs/Steiner_Eduard.pdf

Roland Girtler, Streifzug durch den Wiener Wurstelprater. Die bunte Welt der Schausteller und Wirte, Vienna/Cologne/Weimar 2016.

Cécile Cordon, “Das Riesenrad hat alle entzückt”. Die wechselvolle Geschichte des Wiener Wahrzeichens, Vienna 1997.