The Financial Management of Donations, Foundations and Endowments in the Greek Communities in Vienna (1800–1918)

Abstract

The two Greek Orthodox communities in Vienna, St George and Holy Trinity, administered several foundations and endowments from the 18thcentury onwards. This paper aims to reconstruct the communities’ role as administrators for those foundations whose capital was invested in immovable property. The focus lies on threeStiftungshäuserand on nine mortgage-backed buildings located in today’s first and second district of Vienna. The history of these buildings – from the purchase to the benefactors’ death, and from the establishment of the foundations to the buildings’ sale – will be reconstructed by taking into account Vienna’s urban development and housing situation in the 19th-century. Furthermore, the benefactors’ identities as homeowners and their relationship to the buildings and their residents will be examined.