His mother (nominally).
I’m grateful to my colleague and business partner Jiri, who saw my reference to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein last week in a post on Science and the Mind. Ludwig, at various times an engineer, philosopher, clarinettist, soldier, architect, and, during the Second World War, medical orderly, was the son of one of the richest steel magnates of Central and Eastern Europe.
Karl Wittgenstein’s Vienna-based empire extended even to Kladno, just outside Prague, where, in 1889, he set up a world-famous steel mill, naming it the Poldi Works after his wife, Leopoldine.
It was at this mill that crucial components were manufactured in the late 1920s for the Sydney Harbour Bridge (which I can see from where I am writing this).
Ludwig inherited billions, but gave all of it away to his sister Margaret (who was painted by Klimt) and to his brother Paul (who lost a hand in the First World War and for whom Ravel wrote a piano concerto just for one hand), preferring a solitary, thoughtful, existence in a cottage in Ireland and a hut in Norway. He was famously difficult company.
Never mind, he was the greatest philosopher of them all.
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The Poldi Steelworks in Kladno, near Prague.
Poldi Steelworks logo
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Adam Bager 
I very much enjoyed this post and I didn’t know about this connection to Wittgenstein. I would like to add though that he was also rural school teacher for young children and, when that didn’t go well, a gardener briefly afterwards before his sister gave him the architect job.
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Yes, indeed. I missed that out. He was said to be rather harsh. He was also a dab hand with a poker and nearly poked Katl P’s eye out!
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Oh yeah, that’s one of the funnier Wittgenstein incidents (although for someone so inclined to melancholy he could be absolutely hilarious some times) Regarding Popper though, I think Popper had it coming.
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Yes, I’m on W’s side, but it was probably much easier to live up to W’s standard of enemy than friend.
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For sure. Anyone who can spew wrath at poor old G.E. Moore is obviously a difficult person. Nevertheless, I owe him my own passion for philosophy so it’s hard for me to say anything too critical about the guy.
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I studied Wittgenstein with Peter Hacker 35 years ago and now run a consulting and software company. Still miss those Oxford days!
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Wow. You studied with Peter Hacker. I’ve definitely heard of him. Funny you should mention Oxford too, Wittgenstein once referred to it as the “influenza area” or something like that. I think it was because his linguistic style philosophy had migrated there by then
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Thanks for your comments. I’m currently in Australia and must sleep. Keep in touch.
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For sure. Take it easy.
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The Art of Consulting – Designing (Pragmatism) – Adam Bager