Gerhard Hirschmann (politician, 1951)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gerhard Hirschmann (born April 28, 1951 in Gnas ; † September 27, 2019 between Vienna and Graz ) was an Austrian politician ( ÖVP , then "List Hirschmann"). From 1993 to 2003 he was Provincial Councilor in Styria .

education

After graduating from the Carnerigasse grammar school, Hirschmann studied theology and law at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz. In 1975 he received a scholarship from the French government and studied for another year at the University of Strasbourg .

Career beyond politics

After completing his studies, Hirschmann became head of the Afro-Asian Institute in Graz. In 1978 and 1979 he worked as an editor for the Kleine Zeitung in Graz. From 1979 he devoted himself entirely to his political career.

After the temporary end of his political career, he worked as a member of the Management Board of Energie Steiermark Holding AG ( ESTAG ) in 2003 and 2004 until he had to vacate his post as part of the so-called ESTAG scandal . In 2004 he founded a lobbying agency with two partners .

Politician career

From 1979 to 1981 Hirschmann worked as managing director of the “Model Styria” of the Styrian People's Party . His political career within the People's Party was very successful, from 1981 to 1989 he was state party secretary and from 1983 a member of the Styrian state parliament . In 1989 he was appointed managing party chairman and club chairman of the Styrian People's Party. From 1993 to 2003 he was a member of the Styrian state government in numerous departments, until he temporarily withdrew into the private sector.

Governor Josef Krainer junior , who had always supported Hirschmann, resigned after massive losses in the 1995 state elections on December 18 of that year. He proposed Hirschmann as his successor, who, however, after a brief period of thought, gave up and in turn proposed Waltraud Klasnic . The reasons for the waiver were mainly internal to the party: “Hirschmann, who always knew about his polarizing effect and also celebrated it, had to know that his nomination would cause unrest, probably also resistance, in any case at least violent opposition from not inconsiderable parts of the functionaries would trigger, all the more so since as the party chairman he probably had to bear his share in the election defeat ”.

The ESTAG scandal was followed by a break with the People's Party, which culminated in the fact that Hirschmann ran his own party , the “Hirschmann List”, founded in 2005 , in the 2005 Styrian state elections. The Hirschmann list won 2.05 percent of the vote in this state parliament election and thus did not make it into the state parliament.

Hirschmann died of heart failure on September 27, 2019 on a train traveling from Vienna to Graz . Hirschmann's coffin was laid out in the Graz Landhaus, former Bishop Egon Kapellari celebrated the funeral mass in the parish church of Graz-St. Vitus. After the funeral service, Hirschmann was buried in the family grave at the local cemetery.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Politics: Gerhard Hirschmann died of heart failure. September 28, 2019, accessed September 28, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Dieter Binder / Heinz P. Wassermann: The Styrian People's Party or the return of the estates. Leykam Verlag, Graz 2008, ISBN 978-3-7011-0111-5 , p. 98
  3. ↑ Hubert Patterer : The silent death of a lateral thinker . In: kleinezeitung.at, September 28, 2019, accessed on September 28, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Hirschmann, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (ÖVP, Hirschmann list), member of the state parliament
DATE OF BIRTH April 28, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz , Styria
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 2019