History

The dairy-and-bryndza /sheep cheese/ factory was founded in 1891 by Ignatz Wittmann, Vojtech’s father. They were running the business together; therefore the firm was called I. Wittmann and Son. In the period between WW I and WW II, it was the biggest dairy factory in Slovakia. After sadly known events, when Aryanizators and later on communists (after 1948) deprived the Wittmanns of their property, Vojtech Wittmann’s family emigrated to Canada (see sub-page the Wittmann family, Ignatz Wittmann, Vojtech Wittmann, Katarina Wittmann). In 1990, Katherine Wittmann returned from Canada to Slovakia in order to develop at least that part of the family property, which remained and which she had been fighting for at courts for the whole decade. At present, the dairy is already a property of a French company.

In the section the Wittmann Family, there is detailed family tree of the extended Wittmann family also together with marking the country, where descendants currently live or used to live until they died. Special mark is applied at those names of the family members, which were murdered by fascists (also see the article Koloman Wittmann in the section The Wittmann family). The earlier mentioned extended family tree of the Wittmanns is integrated as a part of detailed family tree of Vojtech Wittmann’s family, the father of Katharine Wittmann. It was the man that raised dairy industry in Slovakia. However, the communistic power stole his property from him and wiped out his name as well as the name of the dairy factory from the history until the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

Among the relatives of Vojtech Wittmann, there is a separate section General Šnejdárek, Vojech Wittmann’s father-in-law, being a French and Slovak officer, the town of Zvolen liberator from Hungarian army in 1919. Šnejdárek (Schneidarek) deserves our respect especially because the communistic dictatorship had deleted his merits, his significance for Slovakia for a very long time, even his name from the memories of the nation. In an attractive way, his life and deeds were described in a 4-page article in attachment of Zvolenské noviny/Zvolen newspapers. For electronic form, see: General forgotten by Zvolen (PDF, 979kB).

wooden statues on permanent loan to the Slovak National Gallery by the Wittmann family