MATZEL, ASCHER:

By: Isidore Singer

Hungarian soldier and philanthropist; born 1763 at Stampfen, Hungary; died Nov. 22, 1842. At the age of seventeen he entered the service of the Jewish hospital in Vienna, of which he became the superintendent in 1799. Emperor Joseph II. appointed him during the war with the Turks superintendent of the hospital in the fortress of Leopoldstadt, which Position he later exchanged for that of director of the hospital of Semlin. The emperor bestowed on him many tokens of his appreciation, among others a diamond ring with the emperor's initials.

After the close of the war Matzel returned to Vienna to resume charge of the Jewish hospital. In 1813 he received from Emperor Francis the gold medal of honor and from the Emperor of Russia the Order of Merit. In 1814 Matzel became manager of the military magazine of munitions, and in 1830, during the cholera epidemic, he became chief of the board of health of the Rossau, a suburb of Vienna.

S.