Unternehmer

Entrepreneur (and entrepreneurial associations, also employers' associations): Entrepreneurs are persons who run market-oriented enterprises in the production and service sectors irrespective of whether they own the business or not. On the basis of this definition, the concept of entrepreneurship presupposed the existence of supralocal market conditions. J. A. Schumpeter and other political economists regarded entrepreneurs as the vehicles of economic innovation. As the number of entrepreneurs increased, it became necessary to establish entrepreneurial associations to safeguard their interests. The Inner Austrian (1837) and the Lower Austrian (1839) Gewerbeverein can be considered to have been the first entrepreneurial associations in present-day Austria; their membership also included scholars and other individuals. The chambers of commerce founded from 1848, which were typical entrepreneurial associations, at the same time represented governmental interests as public-law corporations. Free associations of entrepreneurs were the Industrielle Club (Industrial Club, 1875), the "Centralverband der Industriellen Österreichs" (Central Association of Austrian Industry, 1892/93), and the "Bund österreichischer Industrieller" (League of Austrian Industry, 1897). The major entrepreneurial associations were merged in 1919 to form the Federation of Austrian Industry. Employers' Associations, Interest Groups, Federation of Austrian Industry.

Literature: G. Sturmayr, Industrielle Interessenpolitik in der Donaumonarchie, doctoral thesis, Innsbruck 1991.