MELCHIOR-O01 · Report

Austria’s Epstein Island: Walter Ludwig Funcke-Bonnet, a Major Donor in the SOS Children’s Villages System

Subject
Walter Ludwig Funcke-Bonnet
Born / Died
27 July 1929 – 23 August 2022
Preambolo

Lupara bianca. The pattern is familiar from mafia trials: first the perpetrator dies, then his patron. The problem disappears together with the solution. What remains are the butterfly effect, a moth in the dark, a smirk, and a deep culture of fear.

August 2022, 09:54, Amstetten Hospital. Only days after the house search, the perpetrator, Walter Ludwig Funcke-Bonnet, dies. The police note cynically that nothing was found, even though the investigation had been publicly announced. At 93, out in the provinces, persuasion does not take much. The old rules still apply there: “Don’t let him suffer, doctor.” Already sedated, the patient receives the bolus, the mercy shot of morphine. Spectators are unwelcome. In hospital jargon, the euphemism is “closing time.” The patient now needs privacy. “A clinically internal matter.” Logistically ideal in the morning.

What exactly happened no longer matters. The wealthy man was cremated, the hair samples too. All that remains is a digital logbook. Sealed for thirty years, then deleted, together with the liability.

The patron could not protect him. That sealed his own fate as well. In April 2024, Helmut Kutin dies in Bangkok, at 10:24 on a Tuesday.

Damnatio memoriae, the censorship of memory. The client is a ghost. His lawyer as well. Dr. Meyer, from the NRW firm BRANDI. He prefers to stay hidden. He avoids confrontation. Lets others place caparra on his behalf. The great architect of silence. A mediator! The silence does not need to hold for long, only until the prosecutor’s office closes the investigation. Amico di tutti, amico di nessuno.

Christian Moser? A coin toss. He remains loyal. Always interested. Funcke never trusted him. This is his chance at a second life.

Timestamps that glow in the dark

Opernball Macabre · Vienna Waltz with Corpses

SOS Children’s Villages International, SOS Children’s Villages Austria
17 minutes by bicycle. Gentle hills.
Current State of Knowledge · 15 April 2026 · Identification
Full Name
Walter Ludwig Funcke-Bonnet
Date of Birth
27 July 1929, Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Time of Death
Tuesday, 23 August 2022, 09:54, Amstetten Hospital, Lower Austria
Primary Residence
Suttnerstraße 9, 3361 Aschbach-Markt (Amstetten), Lower Austria · since approximately 1970
Also Known As
Walter Funcke-Bonnet · Walter Lutz Funcke-Bonnet · Walter Funcke · Walter Lutz Funcke · major donor · F.B. · heir to a brewing dynasty
Memberships
Doemensianer brewing family (retired master brewer) · Senior Citizens’ Association · Alpine Club Salzburg (70-year jubilarian, June 2021)
Relevant Roles
Major donor and sponsor of SOS Children’s Villages · former sponsor of the Vienna Boys’ Choir · patron of the Lutro Foundation
Burial
8 September 2022, 11:00, local village church · funeral service with urn burial, W.E. funeral services. Minimalist.
Photo Documentation

Who is Walter Ludwig Funcke-Bonnet, the mysterious major donor whose name has become taboo?

Anyone reckless enough to mention the name is quickly met with vague threats from lawyers. The implication is sustained in part by journalists and SOS staff who have already been successfully intimidated.

Photograph from the death notice of Walter Ludwig Funcke-Bonnet
Death Notice Photo Walter Ludwig Funcke-Bonnet on the minimalist death notice. Funeral on 8 September 2022, parish church of Aschbach. Viewing and urn burial on consecutive days, organized by the Senior Citizens’ Association. Source: Death notice
90th birthday jubilee celebration, Aschbach 2019 — Walter Ludwig Funcke-Bonnet second person from the left
Unpixelated Photo · 90th Jubilee, 2019 Walter Funcke-Bonnet in the front row, second person from the left. Original caption: “90-year jubilarians: standing left to right: Vice Mayor Gottfried Bühringer, Mayor Martin Schlöglhofer and Dean Father Georg Haumer; seated left to right: Friedrich Wagner, Walter Ludwig Funcke, Alfred Schickermüller, Maria Ettlinger and Josef Weinfurter.” Source local jubilee announcements
FALTER 44/2025 pixelated version of the jubilee photograph
First Report · FALTER 44/2025 · 28 October 2025 Pixelated version, with F.B. visually highlighted. All other persons depicted are irrelevant to the incident. Caption context: reference to an email dated 6 February 2017 to Christian Moser, with a postscript referring to a card and noting that Helmut Kutin should be informed (4 October 1941, Italy – 23 April 2024, Children’s Village Bangkok). CM’s reply to Kutin in the postscript: “Three nights at the training centre have been agreed.” Note: light grey diagonal text “TRA” = TRANSLATED. falter.at/zeitung/20251028/eine-institution-in-truemmern-und-ein-neuer-schlimmer-verdacht
Internal Correspondence · 2013
“I sincerely wish that, through your visits to Nepal, you may finally be able to bear your difficult childhood and youth.”
Helmut Kutin Honorary President, SOS Children’s Villages International · to Walter Funcke-Bonnet

IIPOSTHUMINT Timeline

1929
27 July 1929

Birth

Walter Ludwig Funcke-Bonnet is born in Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.

1955
7 September 1955

SOS secures trademark rights · Funcke-Bonnet at the Vienna Boys’ Choir

SOS Austria secures trademark rights, including for the “playing children” logo. Informal, direct control over other members, independent of SOS International, was established early and designed to survive scandal and exclusion.

The timing coincides with the beginning of Funcke-Bonnet’s pedo-philanthropic activities around the Vienna Boys’ Choir: he accompanied them, was often seen in dressing rooms, took photographs, and invited boys to his brewery. He also appears to have donated to the Vienna Boys’ Choir, which, however, provides no records.

Walter Funcke was in his mid-twenties in 1955, not his late twenties. The differing age stated in FALTER is either a research error or the result of the pseudonymization campaign around the double name Walter Funcke-Bonnet.
1970s

Move to Aschbach-Markt

Funcke-Bonnet moves from Germany to Aschbach-Markt; house in his ownership at Suttnerstraße 9, “still standing behind a hedge of arborvitae” (FALTER). He is driven off a farm because of his inclinations, by the father-in-law of the interviewed farmer’s wife in a colourful apron in the doorway of a Mostviertel four-sided farmhouse.

Further observed patterns from the 1970s and the following decades: regular guest at parish youth events · donation of a sculpture to a kindergarten · moving in elevated circles, friendly with politicians · closely connected to Helmut Kutin.

Neighbour: “His inclination was known.” Witnesses on the incident, according to FALTER 51/2025: he wanted “the boy to sleep in his bed” and “he was into children.”
1973

First SOS Children’s Village in Nepal

Built after a visit by Hermann Gmeiner and contact with the Nepalese royal family. From the beginning, the institutions were run hierarchically, informally and authoritatively. The culture of silence was of the highest importance. Once it later became known that Gmeiner was paedophilic, much started to make sense.

1974

SOS Children’s Village Suriname · “the horror show” is founded

One of the most catastrophic SOS Children’s Village sites. Thirty-two years of continuous horror, 1974 to 2006. Only in 2021, in connection with the Wiersholm report, was the issue even partially acknowledged. At no point did a policy on sexual abuse exist.

1998

Lutro Foundation first appears in Liechtenstein records

Funcke-Bonnet is said to have invested a large part of his assets here.

2003

Kutin joins the foundation board · Funcke-Bonnet in Nepal

Helmut Kutin becomes a member of the foundation board of the Lutro Foundation. In the same year, Kutin, as SOS president, is informed by fax that Funcke-Bonnet is presumably in Nepal.

2005

First documented trip to Nepal

A Christmas letter from Funcke-Bonnet to SOS Children’s Villages mentions the trip, the first trip documented by Funcke-Bonnet himself.

2006

SOS Children’s Village Suriname closes after 32 years

SOS Children’s Village Suriname in Paramaribo closes its doors, 1974 to 2006. Suriname deserves a separate dossier. Here, only a few findings from the Verinorm report, already sanitized, are included.

Verinorm report Suriname excerpt, yellow pepper passage
Verinorm Report Suriname (Excerpt 1) Note: “yellow pepper” refers to a chili variety, extremely hot. Source: suriname.png
Verinorm report Suriname excerpt 2
Verinorm Report Suriname (Excerpt 2) Source: suriname2.png
“The senior staff member abuses you, your mother abuses you... I wanted to die.” Victim · Suriname · Verinorm report
“It was a heartless, loveless place where there was no room for authenticity, personality and growth. ... Safety was not there.” General description of the facilities · Verinorm report
2007

Christmas letter · multiple visits per year

I was in Nepal several times this year as well, of course.
Walter Funcke-Bonnet
Christmas letter to SOS Children’s Villages · 2007
2008
24 September 2008

Property transferred to SOS

Title transferred to SOS Children’s Villages, Stafflerstr. 10a, Innsbruck. Funcke-Bonnet retains residence rights and a right of first refusal, for his person only. No partner, spouse, children or parents are mentioned.

2009

Governor Platter pledges support for SOS Lumbini

As part of the 60th anniversary celebrations in Imst. Since 2009, SOS International, through the framework agreement, has had both the right and the duty to monitor the use of Austrian donation funds in focus countries such as Nepal.

Any meaningful separation between SOS Austria, holder of the trademark rights, and SOS International, the supervisory body, was and remains impossible.
2010
8 October 2010

Opening ceremony · SOS Children’s Village Nepal Lumbini

Funcke-Bonnet sat next to Christian Moser, active for SOS Children’s Villages Austria from 1996, managing director from 2008, suspended following allegations on 4 October 2025, dismissed on 5 December 2025. Also present: Nepal’s president Dr Rambaran Yadav and governor Günther Platter of the ÖVP.

According to FALTER, in substance: Christian Moser was an alleged accomplice and organizer of the major donor’s visits. Implied, or stated outright: abuse in exchange for donations routed through the Lutro Foundation. Funcke-Bonnet stayed overnight in the children’s villages, as shown by email correspondence with the national director of SOS Children’s Villages Nepal.

On the occasion of the opening of SOS Children’s Village Lumbini, we placed Mr Funcke-Bonnet especially at the centre, and he “blossomed.”
Helmut Kutin
In writing to colleagues · 2010
ISC: “During inaugural openings of Villages, where other donors (editor’s note: PLURAL) visited Villages in the presence of the same former senior official” — the Epstein Island-style network appears far more plausible because of the presence of other “special donors” than as a single case involving total donations of €1 million, a drop in the bucket.
2010 – 2014

Concrete allegation · sexual abuse in Nepal

FALTER 51/2025: “sexually abused boys between the ages of 13 and 16 in a Nepali SOS Children’s Village.” In SOS Children’s Village Lumbini, the major donor often stayed for months in the guesthouse.

ISC: “The donor was given special treatment, including permission to access Villages unsupervised” ... “stay in the guest facilities located within the Village”.

During this period, Funcke-Bonnet is said to have paid at least €1 million through the Lutro Foundation, the transaction disguised as a donation, in order to gain access to children in Nepal.

The real sum was likely far higher. An organization on the scale of SOS would not engage so intensely with a single donor over €1 million. From a criminalistic point of view, turnover also produces costs, is distributed across persons, and comes with structural complexity. €1 million does not justify this level of courtship and cover-up.
2012

Eyewitness issues warning

In 2012, a Nepali SOS staff member warns about Funcke-Bonnet. She saw with her own eyes how he left a child’s room with his trousers open.

This year too I was there for more than two months: Sanothimi, Kavre and Lumbini.
Walter Funcke-Bonnet
Personal correspondence · 2012
2013

Child delivered from Nepal to Austria

A Nepali minor is delivered with the assistance of SOS Children’s Villages to the major donor in the Mostviertel. The boy spends only one night in SOS Hinterbrühl, which had been named as the destination on the visa invitation, after which he is taken to Funcke-Bonnet.

Behind the single case there may be a multiplicity of individual cases which, taken together, would be visually indistinguishable from plurality.
Neighbour testimony · FALTER
“The neighbours also remember the boy from Nepal. F.B. is said to have claimed that, as a sponsor, he was allowed to bring SOS Children’s Village children into his house.”
FALTER reporting Neighbourhood inquiries, Aschbach-Markt · 2025
2014

Assault in Altmünster documented

F.B. invites children from SOS Children’s Village Altmünster in Upper Austria to a farm in Aschbach-Markt. In an email, the attending SOS mother describes how F.B. “patted” an eight-year-old boy on the buttocks with his right hand and fondled him “in the crotch” with his left. He promised the children that the following summer they would be allowed to stay with him “alone, without a caregiver.”

“Kutin knows.” Internal documents · FALTER
Internal SOS documents
“It is demonstrably proven by internal documents that he knew about the man’s sexual inclination, and that he acted on it with Children’s Village children.”
FALTER On Helmut Kutin · 2025
2015

Nepal issues a visiting ban

SOS Children’s Villages Nepal issues a visiting ban for Funcke-Bonnet. Children had reported “incidents.” The case was closed by SOS Innsbruck after the report from Nepal, not pursued further.

“They was (sic!) happy therefore and homefeeling.” Walter Funcke-Bonnet · letter
We don’t speak about it.
SOS Children’s Villages Nepal
Internal response to a report · 2015
2015 – 2020

Blackmail threats

Funcke-Bonnet threatens to “withdraw his money from SOS” and to “spill everything” — the connection to the visiting ban is obvious. Internal documents show that Helmut Kutin was supposed to prevent this and visited him personally.

2016

Kutin leaves the Lutro foundation board

2017

Despite the ban · business as usual

Despite the official policy and the redundant prohibition addressed specifically to Funcke-Bonnet, forbidding him from staying overnight in SOS facilities or moving about unsupervised, the practice continues.

Three nights at the training camp have been agreed.
Internal communication
SOS Children’s Villages · 2017
2020

SOS Nepal · formal hotel solution

SOS Nepal to Funcke-Bonnet: “We have already informed you several times that you are always warmly welcome as a visitor in the SOS Children’s Villages in Nepal, but that an overnight stay in the SOS Children’s Village is not possible. I ask you to accept this decision.” They would, however, “assist in finding hotels near the SOS Children’s Villages. We can also chauffeur you to and from the hotel.”

While the exploitation operation continues, Funcke-Bonnet and his patron-protector Kutin enter the wear-out phase. With the word “hotel,” their economic remaining useful life is effectively dated and decided. The tonal structure of the syndicate is breaking apart. From this point on, an amicable solution is no longer on the table.
2021
25 April 2021

Wiersholm report · “A Duty to Act”

Report by the Norwegian law firm Wiersholm is published, but not publicly accessible. It becomes the basis for parts of the ISC report.

ISC Final Report · 2023
“Culture of fear and intimidation, and/or an inability to speak out.”
Independent Special Commission Summary Report · 262 pages
Photo Documentation

Aschbach MAN TGM fire engine series, 18.440, blessed

>>Click here to download the HD desktop wallpaper<<

Fire engine blessing, Aschbach
Baptism certificate checksum: a599c81657bc9154749583c6cf0f90ed1016f812bed7f8bfb04aa91141984989
Intermezzo · ore piccole

Bravi ragazzi. Two brothers from the Alps. Matia and Jurghito. Carved from the same block of wood. They baptized this place “The Village of Children.” Unusual. Poetic. Disrespectful. There, where the bosses sit, in Innsbruck, right next to the pasta crime scene: a kindergarten. For that, they were given gold medals.

Journalista Capolista. Just before the main act, the secret files fall into their laps. A coincidence! Then, meticulous work. Every line a new negotiation. Playing with fire. Centimeter by centimeter, they scrape the wallpaper off the walls. And they are still breathing. A little faster than before, but that is the price. La vita loca.

25 June 2021

ICSR Global Report published

SOS Children’s Villages usually publishes the 3-page summary; an 11-page version can occasionally also be found. Full version: 33 pages.

6 October 2021

Cybersecurity incident

SOS Children’s Villages International reports a cybersecurity incident.

1 December 2021

Whistleblower reports abuse of eight children

A whistleblower in Nepal reports the sexual abuse of eight children by Funcke-Bonnet. SOS International reports the case to the Austrian authorities.

The whistleblower from Nepal inflicted a fatal wound on the organization, one that may also have amounted, in consequence, to the green light for Funcke-Bonnet and Helmut Kutin. Words sharper than a kukri. Today, nobody wants to hear anything about Nepal. Both the major donor and SOS Children’s Villages Nepal belong to the SOS Children’s Villages Austria inter:national spectrum.
2 December 2021

Kutin blocks further action

No “further steps” would be taken against the accused because “it was with Kutin in final instance.” The honorary president continued to keep his hand over the major donor.

9 December 2021

Statement of facts submitted

One week later, SOS Children’s Villages Austria finally does submit a statement of facts to the public prosecutor’s office.

2022

House search · death · investigation discontinued

FALTER: In the summer of 2022, criminal police ring F.B.’s doorbell in Aschbach-Markt. “But he wasn’t there,” says Mayor Martin Schlöglhofer, who was present at the house search, presumably because a search without the suspect present may only be carried out in the presence of uninvolved witnesses. Police report no findings. The accused was in hospital. The search likely took place the day before, on Monday, or on Thursday or Friday. Corrections welcome if the factual record differs.

Tuesday, 23 August 2022, 09:54: Funcke-Bonnet dies in Amstetten Hospital at the age of 93. The investigation is discontinued by the public prosecutor’s office.

The fact that a deceased person can no longer be criminally convicted does not release law enforcement authorities from the duty to continue clarifying open questions of participation, facilitation, concealment, and organizational responsibility. The 991-page brick is sitting with the public prosecutor’s office. Meanwhile, a strikingly cheap information-suppression campaign is underway. Cheap not because it is ineffective, but because of its short time horizon: it does not need to disprove the truth or convince anyone permanently. It merely needs to survive the current investigation. Nepal is meant to fade, the major donor is meant to remain hidden, and the rest is meant to dissolve into procedural fog. This is precisely where the matter potentially ceases to be an NGO scandal and turns into an international problem. Once state bodies participate in such shielding, or knowingly tolerate it, suspicion no longer falls only on an organization, but on the integrity of the state itself.
October 2022

Property wound down to SOS

The property is transferred to SOS; rights are deleted from the land register. Residence right deleted on 10 October 2022.

December 2022

Christmas party · SOS Children’s Villages Vienna

FALTER reports on a defendant: in December 2022, at a Christmas party, he is said to have told a colleague that he had become intimate with one of the boys. The colleague did not report it at the time.

“I suppose I repressed it.” Witness in court · quoted by FALTER
A recurring pattern: the past can only be guessed at, the future only speculated about. About the present, we do not speak.
24 May 2023

Property sold

Funcke-Bonnet’s property is sold by SOS to M.H. for €199,300. District Court Amstetten, TZ 1513/2023, EZ 533, plot 21/5, Suttnerstraße 9, 780 m². Signing for SOS: Mag. Elisabeth Hauser (Managing Director) and Mag. Christian Moser (Managing Director).

Warranty largely excluded · upper floor without building-law occupancy permit · no documentation on the oil tank installation · property transferred cleared of furnishings.
6 June 2023

ISC Report Part 1 (262 pp.) published

The Independent Special Commission publishes Part 1 of 2, 991 page brick in total. Central findings:

  • “culture of fear and intimidation, and/or an inability to speak out”
  • “In seven of the 10 Villages visited by the ISC, reports have been received of pregnancies among children and youth cared for and supported by SOS CV, of minor age.”
  • “Sexual abuse among children and youth cared for and supported by SOS CV, which leads to pregnancies, have also been reported.”
  • On the handling of pregnancies: member organizations would have to give priority to the respective national law. “An illustrative example is Nepal”: “Sexual relations with a female below the age of 18 years is prohibited by law and considered rape punishable by imprisonment”
  • “In such strict legal landscapes, the organization should ensure to put in place adequate preventive and protective measures accommodating local considerations, such as age of consent.”
  • “they attempted to protect ... the perpetrators from facing legal consequences that may negatively affect their lives ... in Nepal, harsh legal consequences, such as a prison sentence, can be compounded by backlash from the larger community.”
The ISC appears to object that laws against the rape of minors, in combination with their enforcement and theatrical public head-shaking in the neighborhood, create an apparently unbudgeted rule-of-law atmosphere of intimidation. The toxic working climate thereby created encourages recurring tonal incidents.
The 262-page “small brick” is based largely on the firm Wiersholm’s “A Duty to Act” report, commissioned by eight SOS members who have ideas of their own about what should happen to Austria. Neither the 11-page summary nor the full report is public; Wiersholm was not available for questioning on the report.

One thing is clear: this is about more than merely €1 billion in assets. The passive stance of the public prosecutor’s office could be interpreted as a casus belli. If the 130 members begin to form coalitions, it becomes a diplomatic problem.
2024
Tuesday, 23 April 2024, 10:24

Death of Helmut Kutin in Bangkok

After investigations begin in Munich, Helmut Kutin dies in Bangkok, Thailand. He was 82 years old. SOS Children’s Villages Austria omits the circumstances. Thailand reports death in hospital, on an intensive care unit, at 10:24 on a Tuesday. Only a few media outlets repeat the original notice from Thailand; most repeat the later Austrian version, which contains fewer details.

2025
1 July 2025

New board chair: Domenico Parisi

Domenico Parisi, alias Mimmo Parisi, becomes Chair of the Executive Board of SOS Children’s Villages International.

Big name, laminated smile, multiple parallel leadership roles, a recurring MO in SOS Children’s Villages:
· Chair of the International Board, SOS Children’s Villages International
· Executive Director, Data Science Academic Institute, Mississippi State University
· Executive Director, MSU Rome Center, Mississippi State University
· Advisor to the National Board, SOS Children’s Villages Italy
18 November 2025

SOS-CV lawyer receives reading access

19 November 2025

991-page report reaches the public prosecutor’s office

The 991-page brick reaches the public prosecutor’s office. Have a copy? Please send it to: tipped_research244@aleeas.com

IIILutro Foundation · Liechtenstein

Network diagram of the Lutro Foundation, connections to Kutin, Batliner, and the Panama Papers
Lutro Foundation Network Diagram Visualization of the links between Funcke-Bonnet · Kutin · Batliner · Panama Papers. Source: lutro-stiftung-netzwerk.png

The foundation underwent supplementary liquidation, in effect a double liquidation. Most of the major donor’s assets were apparently held in the Liechtenstein-based Lutro Foundation. According to FALTER, it first became visible in 1998.

The Lutro Foundation had a Panama Papers-linked figure on its foundation board: Angelika Moosleithner-Batliner, daughter of trustee Herbert Batliner, who died in 2019 and managed foundations through which the CDU concealed party donations in the 1990s.

DateEvent
1998First appearance in Liechtenstein records
2 November 2009Registered · FL-0001.547.458-9, Vaduz
2003 – 2016Helmut Kutin sits on the foundation board
30 September 2020Dissolved, enters liquidation
23 February 2022Foundation deleted before expiry of the statutory blocking period
30 January 2024Supplementary liquidation opened

LEI: 529900MWLQ02DG3IQ315
Register number: FL-0001.547.458-9
Seat: Vaduz · registered 2 November 2009, deleted 22 February 2022

Coda

Eight members. Shoulder to shoulder. In the name of the children. It warms my heart. If I did not know how families build coalitions. There is only one reason. The big prize. The king of the jungle is wounded. Territory is being redistributed.

Austria wanted to become leader of the wolves, but now the wolves are sharpening their knives. Waiting. Watching. Slowly circling, coming closer and closer. Like a spiral. And the eight are not the only ones. There are another 130.

A commission? Thank you, but we will make our own. Against one wolf, the lupara helps. Against a pack, nothing helps. Why are the wolves not helping the public prosecutor’s office? Why are they keeping their cards on the table? Omertà, it is not about honor. Protecting the enemy, absurd. It is about blood, and that blood one must spill oneself. Whoever runs to the police gives the opponent a discount.

IVDetail Data · Identity, Land Register, Ancestors

FieldData
Land RegisterCadastral Municipality Aschbach, Plot No. 21/5, Land Register Sheet 533, Area: 780 m²
Current OwnerM.H., born --.--.1979, Rathausgasse --/-, 33-- Aschbach-Markt
24 September 2008Ownership right → SOS Children’s Villages, Stafflerstr. 10a, 6020 Innsbruck; residence right → Walter Lutz Funcke
10 October 2022Residence right deleted, after death in August 2022
12 June 2023Change of ownership / sale to H. for €199,300
Former Telephone No.0747676166 (telephone directory, opendi) · entry since 27 September 2011, last modified 6 October 2011
Incentive SchemeMunicipality of Aschbach-Markt, building-land mobilization 2008: plot 21/5 not included in the subsidy program
Died inAmstetten Hospital, Lower Austria · circumstances unclear
Burial8 September 2022, 11:00, parish church of Aschbach, urn burial. Viewing the day before at 09:00. Funeral services by Schimböck Weistrach. Minimalist death notice, Senior Citizens’ Association, parish of Aschbach.
Age at Death93 years. Frequent media error: 87 or 88
InitialsF.B., for the double name Funcke-Bonnet, highly unusual
MembershipsDoemensianer brewing family (retired master brewer, Walter-Lutz Funcke-Bonnet, Aschbach-Markt, 27 July 1929) · Senior Citizens’ Association · Alpine Club Salzburg (70-year jubilarian, June 2021; Hoch Hinaus, issue 262, p. 17, alpenverein-salzburg.at)
External RolesFormer donor / sponsor of the Vienna Boys’ Choir · major donor, sponsor, patron of SOS Children’s Villages · patron of the Liechtenstein-based Lutro Foundation
OriginHeir to the Bonnet brewery in Meisenheim, 37 km from Bad Kreuznach · presumably of the Funcke minor nobility line, a ghetto-letter nobility line · unclear connection to the Funcke screw works in NRW, about 130 km from the place of birth
No ConnectionFunck-Bricher brewery, Luxembourg · according to expert opinion, no connection, see below

Possible grandfathers / father:

Funke Paul, wine wholesaler, Bad Kreuznach circa 1921, directory entries
Funke Paul, Wine Wholesaler · Bad Kreuznach circa 1921 Funke Paul, wine wholesaler, Kurhausstr. 14, telephone 1032, Bad Kreuznach, around 1921. Source: funke-paul-1921.png

Ludwig Bonnet, occupation: cooper, barrel maker, Lauergasse 539, Kreuznach, register number KREACHJN39WU.

Funcke-Bircher Clarification

Luxembourg Funck, roughly Funck-Bricher brewery · no connection established

“To the best of my knowledge, there is no connection between the two families. Funck is a relatively common surname in Luxembourg. In this book you can learn a great deal about the Funck-Bricher family and brewery: Claude Y., La Brasserie Nationale — d'artisans locaux à l'acteur mondial (ISBN 9782879961064). But even there I could not find any connection between the two families.” · Expert on request.

VSources

Corrections, clarifications, questions, or tips: tipped_research244@aleeas.com

Disclaimer · Melchior

Several people contributed to this article. The article is stably distributed, in mirrors and via IPFS.

I have never had suicidal thoughts. I do not know what it is like to suffer from depression. Pressure and adversity invigorate me. I have no personal or health problems. I can operate windows safely and reliably, drive a car and monitor the integrity of my brakes, cross the street, and de-escalate robbery situations. I do not take drugs, I do not drink alcohol. I have never been in hospital as a patient.

— Melchior