Journal Analele Banatului N.S. Archaeology-History

Nicoleta Demian

Despre medaliile familiei Weifert din Pančevo / The Medals of the Weifert Family from Pančevo

Jan. 1, 2014

Abstract

The numismatic collection of the Banat Museum in Timişoara includes two rare bronze medals dedicated to members of the well known Weifert family from Pančevo (Serbia). One is a medal dedicated to Ignaz Weifert on his 64th anniversary by his son Georg Weifert, crafted by the Austrian engraver Anton Schar (1845 – 1903). The second one is dedicated to Georg Weifert on his 44th anniversary, created by the Austrian engraver Franz Xaver Pawlik (1865 – 1906). They were purchased in 1907 by the Banat Museum from Fejér József, antiquarian in Budapest, for the sum of 22 crowns. The medals were given inventory numbers 731 and 732 in the old register of the collections. The medal dedicated to Ignaz Weifert (1826 – 1911) is made of bronze, patinated (55.5 mm; inventory no 136; Pl. I.1 – 2). It is generally but wrongly dated in 1870. Given the marked date (MDCCCLXX), one considers that it had been realized on the occasion of Ignaz Weifert’s 20th year of industrial activity. Actually, one thousand eight hundred seventy represents the year of establishment for the Weifert brewery in Belgrade. There are several arguments in favor of a correct dating of the coin (i.e. 1890): the age of Ignaz Weifert, marked on the obverse of the medal (LXIV), as he fulfilled 64 in the year 1890. Secondly, the medal is mentioned among the works of the engraver Anton Schar from 1890 (in the same year Schar had also realized a plaque, 136 mm in diameter, with the portrait of Ignaz Weifert). More so, Felix Milleker affirmed in his study on the Weifert family that in December 1890 Georg Weifert dedicated a medal to his father Ignaz, crafted by the Austrian engraver Anton Schar (Milleker 1925, 11). The second medal, dedicated to Georg Weifert (1850 – 1937) on his 44th anniversary is made of bronze, has 52.2 mm in diameter (inventory no 84; Pl. III.1 – 2) and was created by Franz Xaver Pawlik in 1894. The same engraver had molded a medal dedicated to Ignaz and Georg Weifert in 1903, in two variants: 25 mm and 140 mm in diameter. We know about the existence of a 25 mm medal as part of a private collection in Timişoara. Originally from north Austria, the Weiferts settled in Banat during the first half of the 18th century, initially in Vršac, where from a certain Georg Weifert (1798 – 1887) moved to Pančevo. Here he became one of the prominent local merchants and, from 1841, the owner of the brewery (established in 1722). In 1849 the elder son of Georg, Ignaz Weifert (Ignjat Vajfert in Serbian) assumed the control of the brewery, after previously following a course of beer making in Munich (Bavaria). After expansion and modernization, the family business thrived and the Weifert brewery in Pančevo became one of the most important enterprises of the kind from Banat (Pl. II.1). In 1870 Ignaz expanded the business by building a new brewery in Belgrade, first in Serbia in time, on the Smutekovac Hill (nowadays Topčider). His son, Georg Weifert (Đorđe Vajfert in Serbian) took over its control in 1872. The Weifert brewery from Pančevo remained in care of Ignaz and his son Hugo. The one to become General Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, mighty industrialist and pioneer of modern mining in Serbia, Georg Weifert (Pl. IV) was born on June 15, 1850 in Pančevo. After elementary and secondary studies in Pančevo, he studied at the Commercial School in Budapest. Between 1869 and 1872 he followed the technology courses in brew at the Agricultural School in Weihenstephan, near Munich. He was 22 when he took his father’s brewery from Belgrade, which he modernized and turn into one of the most largest and modern of its kind from the Balkans (Pl. II.2). The Weifert beer became the most sought beer in Serbia. As one of the most rich and in uential person in Serbia, he is remembered as a great philanthropist, Maecenas for numerous institutions, cultural and charitable societies. He was awarded the highest Serbian and also French, Romanian or other orders. For decades he held the most important positions in the Serbian and Yugoslav Masonic lodges. He was married to Marie Gassner but had no o spring. In 1923, on the occasion of celebrating 50 years of marriage, he financed the building of St. Ana Church in Pančevo, in memory of his mother Anna. In the same year he was elected honorary citizen of his home city. He died aged 87 on January 12, 1937, at his villa on Vojvode Putnika Street. He was buried on January 16 in the Catholic cemetery in Pančevo, left of the portal built in 1924 on his expenses. The name Weifert is also associated with the well-known numismatic collection owned by this family, of which three members were passionate collectors: Ignaz and his sons, Hugo and Georg. The one who settle the collection (around 1878) was Hugo (1852 – 1885). After his early death in 1885, aged only 33, the collection passed to his father Ignaz, who continued to gather coins. In 1911, after the death of Ignaz, the numismatic collection passed to Georg Weifert. All three of them had been members of the Numismatic Society in Vienna: Hugo from 1879, Ignaz from 1885 and Georg from 1889. Although the members of Weifert family collected all kind of Greek and Roman coins, it seems that Hugo was the one passionate for medals concerning Belgrade, Ignaz paid special attention to Viminacium issued coins while Georg was interested in 4th century AD Roman coins. The numismatic collection held antique coins: Greek, Celtic and Roman, Byzantine coins, medieval Serbian ones, taler from Central Europe, medals concerning Belgrade etc. The Republican and Imperial Roman coins dated to 1st – 5th c. AD compose the largest part of the collection, including numerous rarities. There are also Roman colonial coins issued by the cities in the Balkans, especially Viminacium and from Asia Minor. Today we hold no longer information on the ending place of these coins, except for the golden Late Roman solidi found in the spring of 1879 near Borča, that are to be considered among the most valuable pieces of the collection. The PMS COL VIM type coins, issued between 239 and 255 AD in Viminacium (today Stari Kostolac, Serbia) are also important, although the collection does not comprise the complete series and all the variants. One can notice the interest of the Weiferts in collecting this monetary type and the existence of a special relation of the Weifert family with the area of the antique Viminacium (Kostolac). The first coins that entered the Weifert collection came from this area, where Georg held a coal mine and locals often brought him coins for his collection. In two cases, both on the medal dedicated to Georg Weifert in 1894 and on the one dedicated to Ignaz and Georg Weifert in 1903 (the 25 mm variant), realized by Pawlik, there are representations of reverse type of the Roman coins of PMS COL VIM type. The Weifert numismatic collection had been a ected by the turmoil of WW I. The rare golden coins held in Belgrade were saved by Georg and taken to France. The rest of the numismatic collection, held in Pančevo, was taken to Vienna by his nephew Adolf Gramberg, where from it came back in 1925, completely disorganized. Unfortunately, the collection of medieval Serbian coins and medals concerning Belgrade that could not be saved disappeared during the war. Georg Weifert donated this valuable collection holding over 14,000 antique coins to the University of Belgrade on September 9, 1923. It had been taken over only in 1929 by Professors Miloje M. Vasić and Nikola Vulić, as representatives of the University, following its arranging by Balduin Saria, custodian of the National Museum in Belgrade and Georg Elmer, a nephew of Hugo Weifert, custodian of the Numismatic Cabinet of Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. After World War II, the Weifert numismatic collection had been handed over to the National Museum in Belgrade, where is kept today. This donation made by Georg Weifert was not a singular act. Ignaz Weifert had donated over time numerous coins, antiquities and maps to the High Gymnasium in Pančevo and the Museum in Vršac. Georg had also donated in 1931 his collection of historic documents (photographs, lithographs, plans and maps) to the City Museum of Belgrade. The medals from the collection of the Banat Museum in Timişoara dedicated to the Weiferts are a testimony for a family that played an important role in the economical history of Banat and Serbia. Its name remains associated with a beer brand especially appreciated over time and for the numismatists with one of the most important collections from the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.