Ludwig Hofstaetter
Lieutenant (K. K. Leutnant a. D.) in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Husband of Antonia Josepha Zipser. Father of Dr. Robert Matthias Hofstätter.
Focus
Lieutenant, Imperial & Royal Army
Lived through Vienna's Ringstraße era
Father of Dr. Robert Matthias Hofstätter
Imperial Service in Vienna
Born
on September 4, 1852, in Inzersdorf, a southern suburb of Vienna, Ludwig Hofstaetter came of age during the height of the Habsburg Empire. He was the son of Mathias Wilhelm Hofstaetter and Barbara Linnerth. His youth coincided with the dramatic transformation of Vienna under Emperor Franz Joseph I, who ordered the demolition of the old city walls in 1857 to make way for the Ringstraße, the grand boulevard that became the architectural showpiece of the imperial capital.Ludwig chose a career in the military, serving as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Army (Kaiserlich und Königliche Armee). He attained the rank of Lieutenant (K. K. Leutnant a. D.), a position that carried significant social prestige in the status-conscious capital of the empire. As a military officer, he was part of the vast administrative and defense network that held the multi-ethnic empire together during the long peace of the late nineteenth century.
[GED]GED — Genealogy DatabaseGEDCOM Master File: William Erastus PlattThe Ringstraße Era
Ludwig married Antonia Josepha Zipser, a young woman from a Viennese merchant family, and established a household in the capital. The couple raised their family during the Ringstraße era, a golden age of cultural and scientific achievement in Vienna. The city became a global center for medicine, music, philosophy, and architecture, drawing talents from across Central Europe.
Their son, Robert Matthias Hofstätter, was born in Vienna and entered the medical profession, eventually becoming a prominent gynecologist and researcher at the University of Vienna. Ludwig and Antonia provided the stable bourgeois environment that allowed their son to ascend into the city's academic and medical elite.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1852 | Born September 4 in Inzersdorf, Vienna, Austria, to Mathias Wilhelm Hofstaetter and Barbara Linnerth |
| 1883 | Son Robert Matthias Hofstätter is born in Vienna |
| 1914 | Witnesses the outbreak of the First World War and the mobilization of the imperial forces |
| 1918 | Experiences the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the birth of the Austrian Republic |
| 1923 | Dies October 10 in Vienna, Austria, during the post-war economic crisis |
Collapse and Transition
The stable world Ludwig had served began to disintegrate in the early twentieth century. The outbreak of the First World War in July 1914 brought a sudden end to the Ringstraße era, replacing cosmopolitan optimism with food shortages, martial law, and mass casualties. As a retired officer, Ludwig witnessed the mobilization of the imperial forces he had once served, followed by years of grinding conflict that exhausted the empire's resources.
The war ended in November 1918 with the complete collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The centuries-old Habsburg monarchy was abolished, and Vienna, once the capital of an empire of fifty million people, became the disproportionately large capital of a small, landlocked Austrian Republic. The post-war years brought severe economic hardship, including the hyperinflation of the early 1920s that wiped out the savings of the middle class and military pensioners.
Ludwig lived just long enough to see his family navigate the early years of this transition. He died in Vienna on October 10, 1923, at the age of seventy-one. He was buried in the capital, leaving a legacy of military service and civic responsibility that his descendants carried across a century of change.
Sources
- [GED]↑GEDCOM Master File: William Erastus PlattGenealogy Database
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