Austria is Free!

Incorporating material from JFG's writeups of the people involved (ie POAS & supplements) and of the stamps depicting those people.

Karl Renner Karl Renner was born on 14th December 1870 in Unter-Tannowitz (or Dolni-Dunajovice), a Moravian market spot north of Nikolsburg (or Mikulov), the nearest large town some 8km distant. He was the tenth son of Matthäus and Marie Habinger Renner, who were farmers. The family had to struggle for its very existence, so he had a hard but not joyless youth. His cleverness and eagerness to learn were noticed by his teachers in the village school, and they urged his father to let this very talented youngster continue his studies. Matthäus ventured the attempt despite the ever more hard-pressed material circumstances into which the family came, due to poor harvests and the unfavourable economic development of agriculture in the 1870s (remember the panic of 1873 - translator's note).

Since the hope for free tuition in the Piarist gymnasium in Nikolsburg fell through, the whole plan was in danger of failure after just a few weeks. But the tough will to self-assertion of the 11-year old won out! Since the paternal home could provide only a roof over his head and a scant measure of daily bread, the small boy walked day after day, summer and winter, morning and evening, in all kinds of weather for two hours from his native village to school in Nikolsdorf, and back. This was an almost superhuman demand on an undernourished child, but perhaps the precondition for the robust health which Karl Renner enjoyed into his ripe old age.

He obtained a position in the Library of the Imperial Council and after studying law at the University of Vienna he obtained the degree of Doktor juris in the spring of 1896. Whilst still a student he married his wife Luise, and the pair remained devoted to each other till his death. Influenced mainly by his parents he became a member of the Social Democratic Party, then led by Viktor Adler. Opposed to the Habsburg monarchy, Dr. Renner was prominent as a party leader and was elected as deputy to the National Assembly in 1908. He thought deeply about the social and political problems of his times. His publications were nationalistic, in line with the trend of the period. His Fight of the Austrian Tribes and the State, Principles of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Marxism were followed by The Self-Determination of Nations.

In 1918, Austria-Hungary collapsed and on Nov 12th Dr. Renner formed the first, temporary Cabinet of the Austrian Republic. In the first republican elections in February 1919, Dr. Renner's party emerged as the largest representation in the National Constitutional Assembly and he became the first State Chancellor of the young republic. After the signing of the Treaty of St. Germain in 1919, which reduced Austria to a small, powerless state, a new coalition government was formed in which Dr. Renner added to the Chancellorship the portfolio of Foreign affairs. When that coalition was dissolved, he continued as Foreign Minister until he resigned in October 1919. Elected to the National Assembly in 1920, he remained a member until 1934 and acted as its President from 1931 to 1933.

He was one of the Socialist leaders imprisoned in 1934 when the Dollfuss regime, supported by Austrian Fascists, crushed the revolt of the Socialist workers by force and outlawed the Socialist party. Because of lack of sufficient evidence against him, Dr. Renner was released a few months later and during the following years remained politically inactive. That was the decisive period when Austria under Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg drifted more and more into the Nazi camp and as a German appendage could no longer be regarded as an independent nation. Dr. Renner supported Austria's union with Germany in pre-Hitler days, declaring that 'Austria has no future'. With the rise of nazism, however, the question of Anschluss took on different aspects, and when Hitler's forces marched into Austria on March 13, 1938, all freedom-loving Austrians, including Dr. Renner, realised that they had fought a losing battle. When Anschluss was completed and Austrian democratic forces went underground, Dr. Renner left his home in Vienna and went to live at Gloggnitz in Lower Austria.

Seven years later, on April 3rd 1945, he established contact with the Russian occupation forces that had marched into Austria, and on 20 April he was asked by the Russians to form the first Austrian Provisional Government and become its C Öhancellor. The new Government took office on 27 April; it was a coalition consisting of 10 Social Democrats, 7 Communists, 9 conservatives and 3 non-party representatives. The Declaration of Austrian Independence was issued, stating in part 'The Democratic Republic of Austria is re-established and shall be conducted in the spirit of the constitution of 1920' - not, note, a reversion to the immediately pre-Anschluss situation - and 'The Anschluss ... is null and void'. Dr. Renner and his wife were provided by the Government with a house in the American zone of Vienna. Following a broadening to include all the provinces, Renner's Government was eventually (20 October 1945) recognized by the Allied occupation powers, and soon afterwards it issued the first call for elections in Austria in eleven years.

General elections were held on 25 November 1945, and on 20 December Dr. Renner was elected Federal President for a term of six years, thus giving him the rare distinction of being chosen twice for virtually the same office, both after a world war. He received the unanimous vote of the two houses of Parliament, representing all three parties, including the Communists. Later he moved into the famous Hofburg palace on the Ring, the first non-royal head of the Austrian state to govern from the previous residence of the Habsburgs. As president, Dr. Renner pleaded for the return to Austria of South Tyrol, condemned the zoning of Austria by the occupation powers, and asked for a reduction in the numbers of the occupation forces. He stressed political unity and disclaimed Pan-German aims, saying he had always been an internationalist.

Dr. Renner repeatedly made it plain he favored the United Nations rather then the Communist brand of Internationalism, and consequently, when the Communist International was reorganized as the Communist Information Bureau at Warsaw in 1947, he was denounced as a traitor to the working class. A few weeks later Dr. Renner called for an immediate peace treaty with Austria 'to free her from imposed international entanglements' and to restore her sovereignty.

In 1948 Dr. Renner told the annual conference of Austrian trade unions that a one-party state cannot bring about social progress. He urged the delegates to adhere to democratic methods to obtain 'a truly social state'. He held up as a model the United States and Great Britain, which he said had drawn ahead of the rest of the world by change without revolution. In a 1949 radio appeal for admission of Austria to the United Nations, Dr. Renner said there was 'no serious political group in Austria which covets anything but true, full and peaceful democracy'. Soon afterward in 1949 the Austrian right-wing parties decisively defeated the Communists in the second postwar elections. Dr. Karl Renner died on Saturday Dec 30th 1950. His body lay in state for two days in the Hofburg; he was buried in Vienna on Thursday January 4th 1951.

Theodor von Körner was born at Komorn in Hungary on 24th April 1873 as the son of Theodor Karl von Körner, who was a captain of artillery stationed there, and his wife Karoline Fousek. At the age of ten years he entered the Military High-school at Mährisch-Weisskirchen and went thence to the Technical-Military Academy in Vienna, receiving a commission in the Klosterneuberger Pioneers in 1894. He was a staff captain at the age of 26 years, a lieutenant-colonel at the beginning of the 1st World War and later became Chief of Staff on the Isonzo front. At the end of the War he became head of a bureau at the War Ministry charged with the re-organisation of the army of the 1st Republic and he ended his active military career as a general and Inspector of the Army. When he retired in 1924 he joined the Social Democratic Party and in 1925 became its delegate from Vienna to the Federal Council. He was President of this Council when it was dissolved by Dollfuss in February 1934 and spent the remainder of that year in prison. From his release in 1935 to the end of the 2nd World War he lived quietly in Vienna, but upon the liberation of that city in 1945 he became its Burgermaster in Mid-April of that year and it was mainly due to his initiative that the city made such a remarkable recovery. Upon the death of President Renner he was the Social Democratic Party candidate for the Presidency and was elected on the second ballot on 27th May 1951 as 2nd President of the 2nd Austrian Republic. He died in office on 4th January 1957 having contributed greatly to his country's political stability.

Julius Raab, the second Chancellor of the Second Republic, was born on 29th November 1891 at St. Pölten in Lower Austria. He was the son of Herr Julius Raab, a building contractor, and of his wife Franziske Wohlmeyer. The boy was educated at the grammar school attached to the Benedictine Abbey of Seitenstetten and at the Vienna Technical University. His studies in Vienna were interrupted by service as a lieutenant in the first World War. Upon his discharge in 1918, Mr. Raab returned to the Institute of Technology where he graduated in engineering in 1922. He had served throughout the First World War as a lieutenant in the infantry, with considerable distinction, and after that war became interested in politics as a student. Although, after graduation, he joined his father's business and even founded his own, he was elected to the lower House of Parliament in 1929 for his home constituency representing the Christian Socialist Party. He was thus active in the politics of the First Republic, being a member of the National Council from 1929 to 1934, of the Economic Council from 1934 to 1938. In January of 1938 he was appointed Minister of Trade and Communications in the last Austrian cabinet before the annexation of Austria by Germany. Julius Raab then withdrew completely from public life during the period of the Anschluss. From 1938 to 1945 the Nazis would not permit Dr. Raab to work in his own business, and he joined a road construction company. In this capacity, he fearlessly gave temporary refuge to many individuals who were persecuted by the Nazis. One of these people was Leopold Figl, who later became Austria's first post-war chancellor. After the liberation in 1945, Dr. Raab, as one of the founders of the Austrian People's Party, joined the first post-war cabinet and became Minister of Commerce under Chancellor Leopold Figl. On 1st April 1953 he succeeded as Chancellor and negotiated the State Treaty of 1955 by which the occupying powers withdrew from Austria which became a permanently neutral country. On 11th April 1961 he resigned as Chancellor but continued to be active in political life; standing as a candidate for the Presidency in 1963 but losing to Dr. Schärf. Dr. Raab died in Vienna on 8 January 1964, after a long illness. He is today honoured as the man most responsible for Austria's freedom. Dr. Figl said it best at his friend's funeral on 14 January 1964, that 'As long as the red-white-red flag flies over a free Austria, the name of Julius Raab will not be forgotten'. He has twice been honoured on Austrian postage stamps [SG 1819, 2279 ie ANK 1722, 2077], on 27 November 1981 and on 29 November 1991, on the occasion of what would have been his 100th birthday

Leopold Figl was born on 2nd October 1902 at Rust, near Tulln, in Lower Austria. He was the son of Josef Figl, a farmer, and of his wife, Josefa Erdhofer. He was the third child, in a family of nine children. His father, a farmer, died when young Leopold was 11 years old. The young lad was a gifted student and was educated first at the village school in Rust and then at the grammar school at St. Pölten. Leopold Figl met Julius Raab in 1918 at the end of the first World War. Together, the two friends founded the Catholic Students Association 'Nibelungia' in 1919. Raab and Figl remained lifelong close friends. Finally he went to the College of Agriculture in Vienna and, whilst still a student in 1927 he became the secretary of the Lower Austrian branch of the Austrian Farmers' League (wierdly, his predecessor in that office seems to have been Dolfuss!). Leopold Figl graduated in 1930 as an agricultural scientist and, in that year also, he married Hilde Hemala by whom he had a son and a daughter. He now rose in the Lower Austrian Farmers' League; becoming the deputy director in 1931 and the director in 1933, heading the 110,000 members of that organisation. In the following year he was appointed as a member of the Federal Economic Council, whilst in 1935 he became the President of the Farmers' League.

As Director of the Lower Austrian Farmers' League, he spoke courageously against the Nazis. Together with Julius Raab he was a witness to Chancellor Schuschnigg's resignation radio speech on 11 March 1938. Figl was one of the first arrested when Hitler's armies rolled into Austria on 12 March 1938. He was sent to the Dachau concentration camp where he was flogged in front of fellow prisoners. In all, Dr. Figl spent a total of 62 months of detention, not only in Dachau, but at Flossenbuerg, and at Mauthausen. During a period of release under strict supervision, in 1943, he worked in Julius Raab's road-building firm until he was re-arrested in May 1944 for plotting with others to resurrect the Farmers' Union after Austria's liberation. He was sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp and charged with high treason. He was taken to Vienna in March of 1945 for trial and execution, but the fall of Vienna to the Russian Army put an end to his imprisonment.

Leopold Figl at once began the reconstruction of the Farmers' League and acted as a co-founder of the Austrian People's Party of which he later became Chairman. After a short period as provincial Governor of Lower Austria, he became Federal Chancellor in December 1945 and held that position until April 1953 when he was replaced by Julius Raab. He next again acted as Director of the Farmers' League until 23rd November 1953 when he was appointed as Foreign Minister. In this position he negotiated the State Treaty of 15th May 1955 by which Austria regained her independence. He resigned his ministry in 1959; becoming the President of the Austrian Parliament until 1962 and then Provincial Governor of Lower Austria again. Dr. Figl died of cancer in Vienna on 9 May 1965. Figure 11 shows the two postage stamps issued in his honour, 27 April 1970 [SG 2251, ANK 2046], on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Second Republic

Bruno Kreisky was born on 22nd January 1911 in Vienna. He was the son of Maximilian Kreisky, the General Director of the Austrian Wool Industry and Textile AG, and of his wife Irene Felix. He thus grew up in a wealthy middle class Viennese Jewish family and was educated at an academic grammar school. However, he was early attracted to socialism and, in 1926, became a member of the Socialist Youth Movement. When, in 1930, he entered the University of Vienna to study law and economics he proved to be a brilliant student, graduating in 1933 and obtaining his doctorate in 1938. In 1934, Bruno Kreisky became a leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Youth. In 1935 he was detained in the Wöllersdorf Anhaltelager by the conservative government for his activities in the Social Democratic Party, which was then banned in Austria. At the time of the German Anschluss of Austria, Dr. Kreisky was arrested and put in protective detention by the Gestapo. He later escaped and made his way to Sweden, where he became a leader of the Austrian refugees. There, on 23rd April 1942, he married Vera Fürth and they had two children, Peter Steffan and Suzanne Christine. From 1946 to 1950 they remained in Sweden where Dr. Kreisky was a member of the Austrian Embassy staff. On 22nd June 1951 he returned to Austria as deputy chief of cabinet in the office of the Federal President, Dr Körner and in 1953, he was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1955 he was a member of the Austrian negotiating team that flew to Moscow to discuss the State Treaty with the Russians. He then co-chaired the Austrian group at the Ambassadors Conference. He was elected to the Austrian Parliament in 1956 and became both Foreign Minister and Deputy Chairman of the Socialist Party in 1959. On 1st February 1967, Dr.Kreisky became Party Chairman and in March 1970 became the first Social Democrat to serve as the Austrian Federal Chancellor in a minority government which was confirmed with an absolute majority on 10th December 1971. This majority was increased in 1975 and 1979 and under his chancellorship, Austria enjoyed a period of great prosperity; being known as the 'Era Kreisky' when the protection of employment and social security received priority. After he lost his absolute majority in the 1982/3 elections, Dr. Kreisky withdrew from active politics and became very ill. Nevertheless, he chaired a commission on European employment which published its report in 1987. Bruno Kreisky died of a heart ailment on 29th July 1990 in Vienna

For an interesting commentary on Kreisky's feelings about his Jewish origins see "An American Jew in Vienna" by Alan Levy, working paper 00-2 of the Centre for Austrian Studies at the University of Minnesota.

©Andy Taylor. Last updated 22 Nov 2000