Josef Holaubek

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Josef "Joschi" Holaubek (born January 5, 1907 in Vienna ; † February 10, 1999 there ) was fire brigade commander of Vienna from May 1945 to 1947 and then until 1972 as police chief head of the Vienna Federal Police Department .

He gained fame among the general public when, in 1971, unarmed and in civilian clothes, he was able to persuade an escaped felon who had armed himself and holed up with several hostages in a residential building to give up.

Life

Education and advancement

Josef Holaubek was born on January 5th, 1907 in Vienna and learned the carpentry trade. The young Josef was an active “Red Falcon” well before 1934 , and later he was responsible for the entire Red Falcon movement in Vienna.

As a social democrat , Holaubek was imprisoned several times during the Austro-Fascist corporate state . As an active firefighter , he was involved in fighting the fire in the Vienna Rotunda on September 17, 1937. During the Nazi dictatorship he was a Gestapo prisoner and served as a fire brigade soldier in the Polish Gotenhafen (Gdynia or Gdynia) during World War II .

On May 29, 1945 he was provisionally appointed by Mayor Theodor Körner and on October 23, 1945 definitively as fire director , at that time the official title of fire brigade commander of Vienna, and rebuilt the Vienna fire brigade . In 1947 - the cooperation of the ÖVP and SPÖ with the communists , which began in 1945 under the goodwill of the Red Army , came to an end - he was appointed police president of Vienna by Interior Minister Oskar Helmer and remained so until 1972. Although he had no knowledge of police work, he had years of experience Anchoring in one of the two governing parties and strict anti-communism is the most important quality , given the fear of communist infiltration that arose in the first years of the occupation (following the example of popular democracies established in neighboring countries ). With "a hard hand he cleared the police apparatus of communist functionaries who had established themselves in many key positions."

In 1948 Holaubek became the first president of the newly founded Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association and remained so until 1972. From 1961 to 1980 he was also president of the International Technical Committee for Preventive Fire Protection and Fire Extinguishing CTIF .

Holaubek as police chief

Term of office

Holaubek, with his affable nature, knew how to achieve great popularity in Vienna. In contrast to police chiefs before and after him, he was never seen in police uniform ; he grew into the role of a well-respected grandfather who understands human weaknesses. Every day in the morning his chauffeur picked him up from his apartment at Hietzinger Larochegasse 14. At seven o'clock he was sitting behind his desk in the Vienna Federal Police Directorate in the Palais Erzherzog Wilhelm on Parkring 8 . After 5 p.m., when the offices were already vacant, the President picked up the phones himself. His chauffeur, on the other hand, had a few concerns at the beginning, so that he should have confided to his hair clipper: "I can only tell you one thing - the [Holaubek] will definitely not hold out for a long time ..."

Together with the then Social Democratic union leader Franz Olah , head of Building and Wood Workers, he was instrumental in the defeat of the Communist strike movement in the year was 1950. The aim of the strikers, the black-red coalition government, the federal government Figl II to case bring: “When the fate of the republic was on the knife edge, 115 police officers and 21 gendarmes were injured . But no deaths were recorded on either side. That would have led to catastrophe because the Soviet occupying power would certainly have intervened. "

Other important stages in Holaubek's career were the police security of the events on the occasion of the conclusion of the Austrian State Treaty on May 15, 1955 and at the summit meeting between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev on June 3 and 4, 1961. Holaubek was at the meeting “for Top form "accumulated: On the first day of the negotiations, the Soviet security chief denied journalists access to the Soviet embassy in Reisnerstrasse in the 3rd district, which is said to have put the then TV director Gerhard Freund " into great excitement ". In order to save the broadcast by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) and to supply the world with the film recordings that subsequently became historic, Police President Holaubek and TV boss Freund dragged the cable drums and cameras into the conference room with their own hands. The next day, the American presidential couple messed up their schedule when they did not appear in time for the state banquet at Schönbrunn Palace . After about 20 minutes of delay, the hosts, Federal President Adolf Schärf , tried to spread a good mood with moderate success, while the Khrushchevs were visibly angry. Again it was Holaubek who quickly saved the situation: he personally “had the wagons from the US residence [according to other sources from the Hotel Imperial on the Ringstrasse; Note] to the palace [Schönbrunn] yourself at a hell of a speed. Mrs. Jackie's hairdresser hadn't finished in time. 'Whether a king, a president or a first lady - everyone is just human', he dictated to his friend Georg Markus [later] in his notepad. "

In 1962, Holaubek and Mayor Franz Jonas invented the traffic control center in Vienna. The background to this was that more and more electronic traffic lights (instead of the traffic light systems operated manually by the police directly at the intersections) were in operation in the city and the number of motor vehicles had increased more and more. In order to be able to better monitor and optimize the resulting increase in road traffic (see " Green Wave "), ten were now (in the first expansion stage) from the traffic control center in the Vienna Rossauer barracks from the Vienna Federal Police Directorate around the Schottentor attached traffic lights are remotely controlled; three cameras also provided real-time images for monitoring the traffic in these areas.

Holaubek, 40 years old when he took office and a member of the SPÖ, neither an academic nor a police officer, was the longest serving officer with 25 years of office and is also one of the best and most popular police presidents in Vienna.

Hans Werner Scheidl characterized Josef “Joschi” Holaubek in the press in June 2011 (on the occasion of 50 years after the Kennedy – Khrushchev summit in June 1961) as follows:

“... he was a 'first hour' man after 1945 when it came to rebuilding the Viennese professional fire brigade: Josef Holaubek, who the Viennese later lovingly called 'Joschi'.

He never went to police school and never carried a gun. During his tenure, he bought water cannons - and never used them. A legendary Viennese police chief with the longest term in office: September 1947 to December 31, 1972. He looked after around a hundred state visits, with charm and circumspection, with rumbling joviality and always with a glance at the lurking camera lenses. "

- Hans Werner Scheidl : In: Die Presse , 3./4. June 2011.

"It's me, the (your) President"

Josef Holaubek became legendary when the three prisoners Walter Schubirsch (then 22 years old), Alfred Nejedly (25) and Adolf Schandl (35) broke out of the Stein prison on November 4, 1971 . The three perpetrators had overpowered two judicial officers, appropriated their firearms and forced several hostages to flee. After Schandl fled on his own (he was arrested on November 20 in Vienna-Hernals), the other two prisoners holed up with four hostages in a residential building in Vienna-Donaustadt. While Nejedly surrendered to the police on November 6th after hours of siege, Schubirsch remained in the apartment with three loaded pistols and threatened to kill hostages. Despite objections from the security officers on site, Holaubek stepped in front of the apartment unarmed and in civilian clothes and was finally able to persuade Schubirsch personally to give up and escort him to the police car.

His saying “I am the President!” With which he identified himself to Schubirsch became legendary. In the media and in public he has been and is quoted differently in different ways, be it with the words “It's your President!”, A statement that would, however, make no sense; be it with "Come here Walter, it's your President"; be it with “It's me, Holaubek, your President - I do kane sham! Take a look, Schubirsch - look through the Guckerl! ”After his early release from prison, Holaubek continued to look after the" escape king "Schubirsch, met with him again and again in Café Prückel , supported him financially and got him a job in a monastery. Schubirsch was the only one of the three stone breakouts who found his way back to a regular life and did not relapse. Schandl was convicted in 1992 of serious joint robbery and an exchange of fire with the gendarmerie and Nejedly in 2009 for serious bodily harm.

Jovial understanding of office

Holaubek enjoyed being a thoroughly public person; He regarded the journalists around him as his protégés, some of whom could boast of his friendship. He embodied a jovial understanding of office of his time. It was rumored again and again that he (the SPÖ functionary) was able to broker community apartments in a beautiful suburban location; the privileged, on the other hand, kept iron silence. In terms of good behavior towards him, it was a matter of course “that slippery women were not reported, which the president in the coffee house would willingly told: ' Word of honor, it stays with us!'” Today, Holaubek's understanding of office would no longer be tolerated.

Under Holaubek, he himself was traveling in the company car with the well-known registration number “W 100,000”, the Viennese “number needle” flourished: Even though the (old black) license plates with the low, mostly three or four-digit “ W ” numbers were Deputy Director of the Vienna Transport Office, Bernhard Wesiak, according to "the high political dignitaries [were] reserved", so these were still a coveted commodity among the celebrities and those who considered themselves important enough: "Those who held something up for themselves, had a three-digit number plate (also two 'press' service vehicles rolled proudly through the city with it). ”“ As a reward for good behavior there were three-digit car numbers, personally 'awarded' by the President. The fact that the square in front of the Vienna Tourist Office bears his name can be understood as a winking reference to these times of the 'number nobility'. This cheap and lovable satisfaction of so many vanities has been disdainfully ended by a later Minister of Transport . "

Holaubek's popularity was probably also due to his feeling for the concerns and needs of the population and also for when something in his police apparatus did not go as it should have been. The Arbeiter-Zeitung (AZ), for example, reported in 1967 on "the maudlin story [of] an old mother". She would have filled out her passport forms incorrectly and would therefore have been rudely expelled from the district commissioner, the passport office at the time. Desperate, she turned on the AZ . Promptly, a detective stood at her door the next day. In the opinion of the "old mother" it was the president who is said to have brought her the finished passport with himself .

On the other hand, the respective federal government could rely on Holaubek in every emergency. For example, according to Thomas Chorherr - the former “press” doyen - the entire federal government was gathered on the bier of a deceased Federal President , but the wreath was missing: “'Joschi' waved, and there was a wreath. Nobody looked at the bow. It said 'Gebrüder Groh'. "

Regular guest at Gutruf

Erni Mangold described in her biography in 2016: “... Holaubek was, like us, a regular at the [Viennese trendy restaurant] Gutruf . / He loved and cursed us at the same time because he knew we were driving drunk. … ”When she, Mangold,“ had just brought five or six friends home ”one day, she got hungry again and wanted to go to a restaurant in Annagasse ,“ where you could eat goulash soup at five in the morning . ”On the On the way there she caused a traffic accident , broke her ulna and knocked out a tooth. "Children, you make me sick," Holaubek groaned, but he helped me. I had to pay 1000 schillings, but I was allowed to keep my driver's license. He was just like that. ”And Mangold continues:“ Like me, Holaubek went to many balls. I often met him there, most of the time I found him completely exhausted because many women wanted to dance with him. ... "

When two policemen wanted to see that everything was going well, because of the noise from the Gutruf, Holaubek came out of the so-called "intellektstüberl" and is said to have asked the two: "What is it?", To which the policemen are said to have replied: Mr. President. ”-“ Well then, everything is fine. ”- The police officers are quoted with“ Yes, Mr. President. ”And are said to have left the bar saluting.

Social and private

Josef Holaubek was among others with Theodor Körner , then Mayor of Vienna, and Paul Speiser , Vice Mayor, co-founder of the Austrian Kinderfreunde , which was re-established on October 14, 1945, and was chairman of the Vienna Kinderfreunde from 1947, succeeding Speiser. Under his leadership, the so-called Sonnenlanderholungsstätten were rebuilt over thousands of hours of voluntary work and the after-school care centers were further developed. Likewise, the day of the child was celebrated on a large scale every year .

Holaubek was married (his wife “was an avid theater-goer”; quoted from Peter Matić , 2016). The family lived in the 13th district, Hietzing , at Larochegasse 14 (corner of Elßlergasse), just around the corner from the Wenzgasse grammar school , where his daughter Johanna went to school.

death

Vienna Central Cemetery - honor grave of Josef Holaubek

Josef Holaubek died at the age of 92 on February 10, 1999 in Vienna and was buried in a grave of honor in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 15 G, number 1).

Awards

Posthumous recognition

In recognition of his 25 years of service as head of the Vienna Federal Police Directorate, part of the Liechtenwerder Platz located in the ninth district of Vienna, Alsergrund , was renamed Josef-Holaubek-Platz . There is a large federal office building in which several departments of the interior ministry and the police are housed.

The Josef Holaubek Medal has been awarded as a special honor as part of the Raiffeisen Security Merit Prize since 2009. This medal is awarded to selected Viennese police officers who were injured while on duty. The first award was made to District Inspector Wilhelm Seper, who suffered life-threatening stab wounds on April 8, 2009 while persecuting and subsequently overpowering a fugitive.

Publications

  • as publisher: The Austrian fire brigade. Your story u. their heroes. Überreuter, Vienna / Heidelberg 1979, ISBN 3800031566 .

Film, photo and radio

literature

  • Entry on Holaubek, Josef in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
  • Josef Holaubek in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  • Holaubek, Josef. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)
  • 100 years of Josef Holaubek: "With one leg in Siberia". In: Public Safety , 5–6 / 07, pp. 72–73. ( Full text online (PDF; 115 kB), accessed on November 20, 2009.)
  • With the escapee in the coffee house. The Viennese police chief Josef Holaubek. In: Georg Markus : Between us said. Encounters with contemporary witnesses. Amalthea, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-85002-648-2 , 2nd chapter (without pagination ).
  • Hans Werner Scheidl: Holaubek: “I, the President!”, Or simply “Joschi”. In: Die Presse , print edition, June 4, 2011.
  • Wilhelm Theuretsbacher: Vienna's forgotten policewomen. For almost fifty years the existence of the "Holaubek girls" was concealed. In: Kurier , December 28, 2019. Article online , accessed April 21, 2019.
  • Police: shooting range instead of paperwork. There have been police women in Vienna for 50 years. Once smiled at at times, now indispensable. A review. In: Wiener Zeitung , March 9, 2017, see subtitle: “Holaubek girls” as pioneers. Article online , accessed April 21, 2019.
  • November 6, 1971: “Kumm 'ausse, I am, der President.” In: Wiener Zeitung , series “100 Years of the Republic - Chronicle”, November 6, 2018. Article online , accessed on April 21, 2019.
  • Hans Hautmann : 1945–1955: The Vienna Police. In the decade of the Allied occupation. In: kripo.at - online magazine of the Austrian Criminal Police Association. In the series of reports, unknown edition, pp. 23–27. Herein p. 27: Organizational reforms in the Holaubek era.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Wiener Kinderfreunde mourn their former chairman Josef Holaubek. In: APA-OTS press release of the Wiener Kinderfreunde, February 11, 1999, accessed on April 21, 2019: "The Wiener Kinderfreunde mourn the loss of a long-time friend, companion and pioneer of the Kinderfreunde movement."
  2. ↑ Teddy Podgorski : Tales from Ambush. Haymon, Innsbruck 2010, ISBN 978-3-85218-644-3 . Here: Review in Teddy Podgorski / Stories from Ambush. In: oepb / Redaktion Österreichisches Pressebüro, Gernot W. K. Aglas (Ed.), April 9, 2018, accessed on April 21, 2019.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Hans Werner Scheidl: Holaubek: "I, the President!", Or simply "the Joschi". ("50 years ago the legendary Viennese police chief Josef Holaubek was himself in the public spotlight: the effort involved in the Khrushchev - Kennedy 1961 summit was his greatest challenge.") In: Die Presse , June 3, 2011, accessed on April 21, 2019 .
  4. ^ The CTIF International Fire Brigade Competitions. Here: 1969: In Krems the fathers of the competitions showed their skills. In: CTIF website , February 5, 2018, accessed April 21, 2019.
  5. ↑ Vienna traffic control center. CityUNKNOWN series . In: Club Wien - A service from the City of Vienna. City of Vienna (Ed.), May 14, 2018, accessed on April 21, 2019.
  6. ^ A b Hans Hautmann: 1945–1955: The Vienna Police. In the decade of the Allied occupation. In: kripo.at in the series of reports ( “assets” , unknown edition, but before July 2018), pp. 23–27. Herein p. 27: Organizational reforms in the Holaubek era. (PDF; with photo of Holaubek in official uniform; caption: “Josef Holaubek, the most popular police chief of all time”), accessed on April 21, 2019.
  7. ↑ a b The Gutruf. In: Ö1 Hörbilder on September 13, 2008, accessed on November 20, 2009.
  8. ↑ Blue light and gray light - The online magazine: Stone escapee Alfred Nejedly active again - shot in the stomach! ( Memento of January 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), November 21, 2008. Retrieved November 20, 2009
  9. ↑ Stein: 3 prisoners fled with hostages . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 5, 1971, p. 1 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  10. ↑ The hostages remained intact - gangsters went into hiding . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 6, 1971, p. 1 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  11. ↑ Vienna takes a deep breath: the gangsters surrendered - this is how the police wore the kidnappers down . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 7, 1971, p. 1 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  12. ↑ “The President” would have turned out to be a hundred. The legendary Viennese police chief was on you and you with criminals. ( Memento of November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wiener Zeitung , January 1, 2007, accessed on April 21, 2019.
  13. ↑ Two and a half years imprisonment for legendary stone escapee. In: DiePresse.com / APA , June 30, 2009, accessed April 21, 2019.
  14. ↑ See number needle, number nobility of the, -s, none : owner of a prestigious license plate. In: ÖVWB - The Austrian Folk Dictionary. Roland Russwurm / ISNED GmbH (ed.), Accessed on April 21, 2019.
  15. ↑ Only a few Viennese cars with black license plates: The end of the number needle. (“Nostalgia resonates not only with many cars, but also with the old black license plates. After all, they were something 'typically Austrian' and sometimes also fraught with privileges - those with a low 'W' number were finally allowed to use the 'number pin 'count. ") In: Wiener Zeitung , November 7, 2003, accessed on April 21, 2019.
  16. ^ Explanatory panel on Josef-Holaubek-Platz in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  17. ↑ Erni Mangold: Leave me alone - memories. Recorded by Doris Priesching. New edition supplemented for the 90th birthday. Amalthea Signum, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-99050-063-7 , without pagination ( full text in the Google book search, p. 37f.).
  18. ↑ New beginning of a great movement. On October 14, 1945, the Kinderfreunde were re-established. In: Die Kinderfreunde Wien. Austrian Children's Friends - Regional Organization Vienna (Ed.)
  19. ↑ Peter Matić : I'll just say it. - Memories. Recorded by Norbert Mayer , Amalthea Signum, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-99050-051-4 , without pagination . ( Full text in Google Book Search, p. 77.)
  20. ↑ Note: Nothing is known about other children.
  21. ↑ a b c List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  22. ↑ Honor for Police President Josef Holaubek. In: Historical review of the town hall correspondence , January 13, 1967.
  23. ^ Medal holder Heinrich Henne Medal , accessed on May 14, 2019
  24. ↑ 32nd Raiffeisen Security Merit Award ( Memento from May 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), subtitle: Josef Holaubek Medal for Special Use, December 9, 2009, accessed on April 21, 2019.
  25. ↑ In it: “At the age of 19 [in 1970], Christa Karas was Austria's first female crime reporter. She was there when Police President Holaubek personally led one of the three escapes from stone [...]. "- ​​Question FAQ: " Keyword Stein escape: You were there when the legendary Police President Joschi Holaubek one of the three escapees, Walter Schubirsch, with the words, 'It's me who persuaded the' President 'to give up? ”- Christa Karas:“ Yes, my photographer and I were lucky enough to find a family who lived right across from the observed object and let us into the apartment. I phoned the editorial office practically all the time. Holaubek rushed into the scene and said: 'I'm having you arrested, you are putting yourself in great danger.' I said, 'But, Mr. President, don't you see he's about to give up? Don't bother about me. ' Schubirsch was in possession of a gun that was owned by the judiciary and didn't know how to get rid of it. Everyone shouted, 'Drop it!' But he didn't want to because he was afraid that it would be damaged and that it might be turned into yet another charge. To watch that was pretty banal and bizarre. "
personal data
SURNAME Holaubek, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Joschi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian policeman, police chief of Vienna
DATE OF BIRTH January 5, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1999
Place of death Vienna