Edmund Gutmann

Who is Edmund Gutmann?

Baron Edmund Gutmann von Gelse und Belišće was Croatian nobleman, industrialist and together with his family founder of the settlement which became Belišće, Croatia.

Baron Gutmann was born to a Jewish family of Salamon Heinrich and Nanette Gutmann, as oldest of nine children. He had four brothers and four sister: Isidor, Vilim, Ladislav, Alfred, Hedwig, Emma, Berta and Ida. His father established the wood-processing company "H.S. Gutmann" in Hungary. After the retirement of his father, Baron Gutmann and his brothers took over the company. Baron Gutmann bought in February 1884, on a ten year lease, the complex of oak forests from Baron of Valpovo, Gustav Hillenprand Prandau. Soon after the first residential houses of Gutmann settlement - colony were built, fire department, post office, primary school building, the chapel at the cemetery were also built, together with electric grid and water supply with sewage. The "H.S. Gutmann" company created the first kilometers of forest industrial railway, which quickly grew into a local railway station with public transportation. Gutmann palace in Belišće center was built by Baron Gutmann for his son Arthur and daughter in law Stefania.