Georgios Sinas
Γεώργιος Σίνας
Contemporary portrait
Born(1783-11-20)November 20, 1783
Niš, Ottoman Empire (modern-day Niš, Serbia)
DiedMay 18, 1856(1856-05-18) (aged 72)
Vienna, Austrian Empire
NationalityAustrian, Greek
OccupationBusinessman
Known forBanking and benefaction
ChildrenSimon Sinas

Georgios Sinas (Greek: Γεώργιος Σίνας, German: Georg Sina; 20 November 1783 – 18 May 1856) was an Austrian-Greek entrepreneur and banker. He became a national benefactor of Greece and was the father of another Greek national benefactor, Simon Sinas. He was also the founder of the National Observatory of Athens.

Biography

Georgios Sinas was born in Niš.[1] The Sinas family came from Moscopole, Ottoman Empire (now southern Albania).[2][3][4] The ethnic origin of the family has been described as Aromanian,[5][6][7][8][9] Hellenized Aromanian,[10] or Greek.[11][12][13][14][15] Regardless of their ethnic origin, the Sinas family in Vienna were part of the social-cultural Greek merchant class which maintained close relations with the newly founded Greek state of their era. At an early age Sinas lost his mother and was raised by his aunt in Serres (today in Greece), where he lived during his first school years. Approximately in 1790 he moved with his father, the tobacco and cotton merchant Georgios Sinas the Elder (1753–1822), to the Habsburg residence Vienna, where he finished his ground level studies. At the age of 20, he became involved with his father's businesses and managed to take initiatives and successfully expanded the family business.

He became chief director of the National bank of Austria, a position that he retained for 25 years. Moreover, he became a successful banker and subsidized not only enterprises but states and royal families in Europe.[16] Already in 1818, he and his father were raised to Hungarian nobility by Emperor Francis I of Austria. He has contributed financially in the construction of the Chain Bridge (Budapest), the first permanent connection across the Danube between Buda and Pest, which is used even today. His name is inscribed on the base of the south western foundation of the bridge on the Buda side.

Georgios Sinas retained relations with the newly established Kingdom of Greece and in 1833 was made the ambassador of Greece to Austria by King Otto, a position he held for the rest of his life. He financially supported the Greek community in Vienna and his family's hometown of Moscopole, modern southern Albania.[17][18] Moreover, he donated huge amounts of money to philanthropic, cultural and educational institutions of the Greek state, like:

Sinas' greatest donation to Greece was the financing of the Athens National Observatory (1845) a work of the Danish architect Theophil Hansen.[19] His son, Simon Sinas, continued his work on the fields of business and benefaction.

References

  1. ^ "ΓΙΑΝΝΕΝΑ ΠΟΛΗ ΤΩΝ ΕΥΕΡΓΕΤΩΝﾍ". www.giannena-e.gr. Retrieved 2021-07-23.
  2. ^ Edgar Augustus Jerome Johnson. The Journal of economic history. vol. 20. Economic History Association at Johns Hopkins University., 1960, p. 302: "The Sina merchant family of Moschopolis settled in Sarajevo c. 1750"
  3. ^ Βορειοηπειρώτες ευεργέτες
  4. ^ Chatziioannou, Maria (2010). "Mediterranean Pathways of Greek Merchants to Victorian England". The Historical Review. 7: 218. The success of the migrant-entrepreneur is not only illustrated by such impressive careers as the Rothschilds of Jewish background, or, in the Greek case, that of S. Sinas in Vienna, originally from the Vlach-populated Moschopolis, or A. Syngros and the Ralli brothers from Chios, but can be identified in strategic choices of medium-sized merchants as well
  5. ^ Kahl, Thede (2003). "Aromanians in Greece: Minority or Vlach-speaking Greeks?" (PDF). Jahrbücher für Geschichte und Kultur Südosteuropas. 5: 205–219.
  6. ^ Jovanovski, Dalibor; Minov, Nikola (2017). "Ioannis Kolettis: The Vlach from the ruling elite of Greece". Balcanica Posnaniensia. Acta et Studia. 24: 222. doi:10.14746/bp.2017.24.13.
  7. ^ Kahl, Thede (2002). "The ethnicity of Aromanians after 1990: the identity of a minority that behaves like a majority". Ethnologia Balkanica. 6: 145–169.
  8. ^ Özkırımlı, Umut; Sofos, Spyros (2008). Tormented by History: Nationalism in Greece and Turkey. Hurst. p. 146. ISBN 978-1850659051.
  9. ^ Bogdan, Gheorghe (1992). MEMORY, IDENTITY, TYPOLOGY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY RECONSTRUCTION OF VLACH ETHNOHISTORY (PDF) (Ph.D). University of British Columbia. p. 162.
  10. ^ Richard Clogg (20 June 2002). A Concise History of Greece. Cambridge University Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-521-00479-4. a Hellenised Vlach whose family came from Moschopolis in southern Albania...
  11. ^ Gerő, András; Poór, János (1997). Budapest: a history from its beginnings to 1998. Social Science Monographs. p. 83. ISBN 0-88033-359-6. In George Sina, a Viennese banker of Greek extraction, he found his financier; in William Tierney Clark his designer and in Adam Clark his engineer
  12. ^ Pfeiffer, Ida (2008). A Woman's Journey Round the World. BiblioBazaar. p. 514. ISBN 978-0-554-23516-5. The small observatory was built by Baron Sina, the well-known banker in Vienna, who is by birth a Greek. The royal palace, which is of modern date, is built of brilliant white marble, in the form of a large quadrangle.
  13. ^ Landes, David S. (2006). Dynasties: fortunes and misfortunes of the world's great family businesses. Viking. p. 64. ISBN 0-670-03338-3. Baron Georg von Sina, banker of Greek extraction and longtime pillar of Austrian finance, joined them in this endeavor, while gaining the valuable
  14. ^ Cameron, Rondo E.; Bovykin, Ivanovich, Valery; Ananʹich, B. V. (1991). International banking, 1870-1914. Oxford University Press US. p. 328. ISBN 0-19-506271-X. A banker named Sina of Greek origin, who was known to have good French contact.((cite book)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Birēs, Manos G.; Kardamitsē-Adamē, Maro (2004). Neoclassical Architecture in Greece. Getty Publications. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-89236-775-7. Georgios Sinas, an expatriate Greek resident in Vienna
  16. ^ http://www.alanier.at/Sina1.html (English and German)
  17. ^ Edgar Augustus Jerome Johnson. The Journal of economic history. vol. 20. Economic History Association at Johns Hopkins University., 1960, p. 302: "The Sina merchant family of Moschopolis settled in Sarajevo c. 1750"
  18. ^ William O. McCagg. Jewish nobles and geniuses in modern Hungary. East European Quarterly; distributed by Columbia University Press, New York, 1972, p. 54: "By the time the vengeful Turks had let Albanian robbers sack Moschopolis in the 1780s, Sina was sufficiently rich to be invulnerable to this disaster, which ruined many of his compatriots"
  19. ^ Imperialism and Science: Social Impact and Interaction. George Vlahakis. ABC-CLIO, 2006. ISBN 1-85109-673-6
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