Schanzkowsky family

The Schanzkowsky family is a wealthy Askhuban family descending from Slawomir Ferdynand Schanzkowsky (1312-1380), born in Wozek, Kingdom of Mordvania, who consolidated the family business in the 1360s. Schanzkowsky was able to establish an international banking family through his four sons, who expanded the family business to Biyra, Severyane, and Angiris. The family was elevated to noble rank in the Kingdom of Biyra and the Kingdom of Mordvania.

During the 14th century, the Schanzkowsky family possessed one of the largest private fortune in eastern Brigidna. The family's wealth was divided among various descendants, and today their interests cover a diverse range of fields, including financial services, real estate, mining, energy, mixed farming, winemaking and charity.

Overview

The Schanzkowsky family comes from an Avalsyanist ethnic Askhuban family from Dodzyn, Mordvania. The family's ascent to international prominance began in 1304, with the birth of Bogumil Seweryn Schanzkowsky, a money changer based in Wotek, who moved to Wotek, where he founded a financial house in 1339. Bogumil Seweryn Schankowsky (1304-1351) died childless and his brother Slawomir Ferdynand Schanzkowsky (1312-1380) took the family business. Slawomir consolidated and expanded the family business, spreading through eastern Brigidna installing each of his sons in the main regional financial centres to conduct business.

The Schanzkowsky family was able to create a regional banking business which was able to survive for several generations by keeping control of their banks in family hands, allowing them to maintain full secrecy about the size of their fortunes. Slawomir Schanzkowsky and his immediate successors successfully kept the fortune in the family with carefully arranged marriages, often between first or second-cousins (similar to royal intermarriage). By early 15th century, however, almost all Schanzkowsky's branches had started to marry outside the family, usually into the aristocracy or other financial dinasties.

History

Angirisian branch

Slawomir Schanzkowsky’s fourth son, Miroslaw Robert Schanzkowsky (1350-1413) moved to Angiris, where his bank arranged substantial loans to the Angirisian government and various Near East states. Miroslaw Robert converted to Ostrid Church in 1391.

His sons and daughters married to the nobility, although their banking business was not as successful as other family branches, as the family wealth of their descendants turned to agriculture and real estate. The Angirisian branch became mostly exctinct in the early 16th century, as the only male descendant Lucius Albrekt Ambrosius-Schanzkowsky (1499-1563) moved to the Arberian monarchy, where he established himself and founded a successful energy company. His only son, Eugent Frederik (1529- ), was forced to leave the country after the end of the Arberian monarchy, and lost most of his wealth and assets, after the Kyrzbekistani government nationalized his company and most of his land properties were seized.

Eugent Frederik moved to Nyland, where he still lives. His sons Ermil and Alban started in the 1580s a small but successful winery company.

Biyran branch

The Schanzkowsky banking family in the Biyran Kingdom was founded in 1369 by Wladislaw Ferdynand Schanzkowsky (1338-1397), who settle in Wrolaw. He invested in the steel and textile industries, founding his own banking business in 1374.

Wladylsaw Ferdynand’s banking activities were soon related to the Biyran nobility and royal house, investing in many public projects. In the 1390s, his bank was able to supply enough coin to the Biyran central bank to enable it to avert a liquidity crisis.

His son Lech Volodymyr (1371-1429) married to Countess Halina Sabina von Budny, and he was promoted into the Biyran nobility, becoming Baron of Wieliczka in 1409.

Mordvanian branch

Pawel Mieczyslaw Schanzkowsky (1334-1405) inherited Slawomir Ferdynand’s bank, and expanded the business through Mordvania. He played an important role in financing the construction of railways and the mining business. At his death, his bank employed more than 1,000 people only in Mestarka, and it was considered the top bank in eastern Brigidna. His son Tymoteusz Ferdynand (1362-1421) married to the daughter of an impoverished Mordvanian noble, acquiring a nobility title.

Tymoteusz Ferdynand’s son Wladyslaw Mariusz (1390-1469) and was renowned for the several palaces he ordered to build and owned. He was appointed to the royal assembly -Upper House during the Mordvanian monarchy- in 1439, as his descendants until 1512. He helped to fund the creation of Mestarka Narodni Opera, which still exists today.

Unlike other members of the Mordvanian nobility, who opposed the abolition of the monarchy and even funded the royal family in their exile in Biyra and Oslanburg, Radzimierz Gawel Schanzkowsky (1495-1576) was not politically active during the Mordvanian republican revolution in 1544. Although he was deprived of all this nobility titles with the abolition of the monarchy, he allegedly funded Mladen Savincek’s Mordvanian Republican Party for the 1548 national election. The family banking business was renamed “Schanz Investment Group” in 1570. The Schanz Investment Group owns the Kavunek Bank and the Schanz Bank -the first and sixth, respectively, most important Mordvanian banks-, the supermarket chain Hivro, and the Novice Media Group.

Radzimierz Gawel was rumoured to have close and friendly relations with Bogdan Privsek, who was four times head of government between 1554 and 1585.

His second son Miroslaw Wincenty Schanzkowsky (1526-1600) founded and owned Dnevno Glasove, a conservative newspaper, which became the main opposition newspaper after Milan Kravanja’s election in 1564. His third son Radek Tymon (born in 1538) created the supermarket chain Hivro -one of the most successful supermarket chains in several Marzanna countries- and was a member of the Mordvanian parliament from 1579 and 1585.

Wieslaw Dejan Schanzkowsky (born in 1524) replaced his father as Schanz Investment Group chairman after the retirement of his father in 1572. He was replaced by his own son, Wladislaw Radzimierz (born in 1550) in 1599.

Wieslaw Dejan Schanzkowsky also founded the Freedom Center, a non-profit civil rights organization in 1579.

Severyan branch

Slawomir Schanzkowsky’s fifth son, Roman Bonifacy Schanzkowsky (1346-1402) established in Severyane, where he founded a bank in the 1380s and the Severyan branch had vast wealth and position in Severyan society.

However, they were surprised by the Severyan revolution in 1465, they were forced to surrender most of their business to the new socialist regime and flee the country. Their palaces and houses were confiscated, plundered and destroyed by the communists.

Some of the members of the Severyan branch moved to Biyra, although most of them established soon in West Brigidna.

James Benjamin Schanzkowsky (born in 1538), is the most prominent descendant of the Severyan branch. A Florinthian citizen, he is the owner of Ryba-Schanzkowsky Industries.

Almost three centuries later, the Severyan and Mordvanian branches reunited with the marriage of Laura Symphorienne, James Benjamin’s daughter, with Bronimir Szymond Schanzkowsky (born in 1574), who is Radek Tymon Schanzkowsky’s second son.

In recent years, legal representatives of the Schanzkowsky family’s Severyan branch have started legal action in Severyane for illegal take over of the family during the communist regime.

Modern businesses, investments, and philanthropy

Since the early 16th century, the family has taken a low-key public profile, donating many famous estates, as well as vast quantities of art, to charity, and generally avoiding conspicuous displays of wealth. The family business are on a smaller scale that they were in the past, although they include a diverse range of fields, including: real estate, financial services, farming, energy, winemaking and nonprofits.

Freedom Center

• See also: Freedom Center

Art and charity

The family once had one of the largest private art collections in Brigidna, and a significant proportion of the art in the world’s public museums are Schanzkowsky family donations which were sometimes donated anonymously.

Cultural influence

In eastern Brigidna, the word “Schanzkowsky” was throughout the 15th and 16th centuries a synonym for seemingly endless wealth, expensive glamour, and decadent taste.

Conspiracy theories

Over more than two centuries, the Schanzkowsky family has been the subject of conspiracy theories in Marzanna. These theories take differing forms, such as claiming that the family controls the national government through their wealth and banking business, or behind the regime change of several governments.

It has been claimed that the Schankowsky family was behind the Mordvanian republican revolution, the rise of the political career of Zvezdana Serebryak, the creation of East Kaljurand, the birth of the West Brigidnan Union or the election to the presidency to Agnieszka Szczepanska in 1596.

Many conspiracy theories about the Schanzkowsky family arise from anti-Askhuban prejudice.

See also

• Freedom Center