BUNZL

BUNZL, Austrian and British industrialists. In 1854 Moritz Bunzl founded a shop for fashion accessories in Bratislava, which his son Max transferred to Vienna in 1883. Under the leadership of Max and Max's sons, HUGO, MARTIN, ROBERT, EMIL, FELIX, and GEORGE, "Bunzl & Biach" became Austria's most important paper manufacturer and had branches in all parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire by 1914. In 1936 the company became a corporation with headquarters in Switzerland, while the Austrian branches were "aryanized" and taken over by the Nazis two years later. After World War II the enterprise expanded to England, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, South Africa, and Austria. In the early 2000s Bunzl & Biach, located again in Austria, supplied materials to paper mills and dealt with waste and wastepaper management. Hugo (1883–1961) studied in Manchester and joined the company in 1905. In the interwar period his mills became famous for their workers' benefits, which earned him the nickname the "Red Industry Baron." In 1938 he emigrated to England, where he became chairman of Bunzl Pulp & Paper Ltd. in 1948. GEORGE (1915–1981) joined the firm in 1936 and in 1960 became chairman of the board. He subsequently was succeeded as the firm's chairman by his nephew Gustav George. George Bunzl was prominent as an artist, photographer, and art collector and was active in Jewish communal work. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: The Bunzl Group of Companies 1854–1954 (Vienna, 1954). (Joachim O. Ronall / Mirjam Triendl (2nd ed.)