Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 52. (2007)
AGSTNER, Rudolf: Austria(-Hungary) and her diplomatic and consular missions in Mexico and Guatemala
Tischler later emigrated to the United States, where he figured on a “black list”. From 1943 to 1946 he was interned in camps in Fort Worth, Texas, later in Bismarck, North Dakota. He returned to Guatemala after World War II and died in Guatemala City in 1960. On June 23, 1952, Austrian Foreign Minister Dr. Karl Gruber signed an application to the Council of Ministers concerning “establishment of an Austrian honorary consulate in Guatemala and appointment of Mr. Franz Ippisch as honorary consul of the Republic of Austria”. Ippisch was a son of Professor Franz Ippisch116, composer and musician. The family came from Ebensee in Upper Austria, where Franz Ippisch’s uncle had started navigation on the Traunsee and set up the funicular to Feuerkogel mountain. In 1939, the family had emigrated, via the Netherlands, to Guatemala. Franz Ippisch jun. had worked for 12 years in the pharmacy “Zum schwarzen Hund” in Vienna’s first district. In Guatemala, he founded an export office for etheric oils “Asociacion de Productores de Aceites Esenciales”, which in the 1950s constituted the third most important export commodity of Guatemala. He owned extensive plantations of various plants, one of which contained a substance required in the production of the newly discovered contraceptive pill. The Austrian Council of Ministers approved establishing the honorary consulate in Guatemala City on September 2, 1952 only.117 Later, the Guatemalan authorities refused to grant Ippisch the exequatur, as they had not been informed by the Austrian legation in Mexico City of the project to open a consulate. It was only a year later, on September 5, 1953, that Ippisch received his exequatur, and it took nearly 6 more moths until the new Austrian honorary consulate opened its doors on February 19, 1954 in 10 a, Calle 2-56.118 The consular district of the new office included Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica; on February 27, 1956, it was given authority to issue visas. In 1958, Harald König, who had studied at the Consular Academy of Vienna from 1928 to 1930 and had served as secretary of honorary consul Otto Tischler from 1930 to 1932, founded the “Instituto Austriaco Guatemalteco” in Guatemala City. In the same year, he became honorary chancellor of the consulate in Guatemala City, an office he held until 1964. Austria(-Hungary) and her diplomatic and consular missions in Mexico and Guatemala 116 * Vienna July 18, 1883; f Guatemala City February 20, 1958; studied with Franz Schmidt and Reinhold Hummer at the Vienna Conservatory. Since 1903 member of the Volksoper-Orchestra of Vienna, 1934 Professor, Director of Military Music Salzburg 1934-1938, emigrated to Guatemala in 1939, Director general of military bands in Guatemala in 1939, Professor for musical theory at the conservatory of Guatemala City and composer of numerous chamber music songs and works for orchestra. 117 Protocol 203rd session of the Council of Ministers of September 2, 1952 item 2/2a; BKA-AA 222.298-7/52 of June 23, 1952. 118 Austrian Foreign Ministry, archive, legation Mexico City 78-A/53 of January 21, 1953. 311
