Theodor Körner (Federal President)

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Theodor Körner, Mayor's Gallery of the Vienna City Hall (excerpt)
Theodor Körner statue by Hilde Uray , 1963, Rathausplatz, Vienna

Theodor Körner , from 1900 to 1919 Edler von Siegringen (born April 24, 1873 in Újszőny near Komorn, Austria-Hungary , today part of Komárom , Hungary ; † January 4, 1957 in Vienna ) was an Austrian general and politician ( SPÖ ). He was Mayor of Vienna (1945–1951) and from 1951 to 1957 the first Austrian Federal President directly elected by the federal people .

life and career

Körner's family came from Kratzau in Bohemia, where he grew up with his siblings Rosa and Richard . He was a great-nephew of the poet Theodor Körner . His father was an Austro-Hungarian captain who was stationed in Komorn at the time of his birth . As a high school student, Theodor Körner attended the kk Staats-Realschule Wien 2., Vereinsgasse , for one school year, as he said in a greeting to mark the 100th anniversary of the school .

In the Austro-Hungarian Army

From 1888, Theodor Körner attended the military high school of the kuk army in Mährisch Weißkirchen and then the kuk technical military academy in the Viennese collegiate barracks . This was founded by Prince Eugene in 1717 and thus had a much longer tradition than the famous Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. Theodor Körner graduated from the so-called "Genius Department" and was trained for pioneer service . In the 38 subjects he was able to achieve in more than half of the subjects the calculus "excellent", his linguistic knowledge was consistently assessed as very good, only the grade was "good" in the legal theory. As the best in his class, he was allowed to choose his first place of employment himself, choosing Klosterneuburg . After being withdrawn from service with his brother Richard on August 18, 1894, he spent his three years as a lieutenant in the troop service there. In the autumn of 1897 he was able to qualify for admission to the kuk war school , i.e. for general staff training .

In the same year he saved the Vienna District Meidling before a flood by several dangerous Verklausungen of Vienna removed -Zuflüsse person at the top of its pioneers. As a reward, he was awarded the Military Merit Cross III. Class awarded.

After completing the war school, which he had completed in 1899 with rank 28 of 89 participants, the now lieutenant was assigned to the 72nd Infantry Brigade in Agram .

In 1904, Körner was transferred to the telegraph office of the General Staff. In the meantime, a captain in the General Staff Corps, the entire reorganization of the army's liaison system was entrusted to him, for which a separate central office had to be created for the telegraph system in the event of mobilization. Körner mastered the task brilliantly and was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown III. Excellent class and promoted to major in 1910. He spent the years 1908 to 1910 as a general staff officer in Mostar , then he served in the Hungarian infantry regiment in Leutschau (ung. Löcse) . In 1912 he was appointed as a teacher for the operational general staff service at the war school in Vienna, where he remained until the outbreak of the First World War .

Hardly used nobility rank

When Körner's father was raised to hereditary nobility with the predicate " Edler von Siegringen" in 1900 , he and his entire family were entitled to use the nobility predicate as an addition to their names. Theodor Körner made hardly any use of it, however. As his biographer Eric C. Kollman writes, Körner “forgets” to report this status survey to his superiors, and therefore appears in the military schematic behind his brother Richard, who now appears as Edler von Siegringen , simply as Theodor Körner, captain . However, according to Kollman, it is incorrect that he never used the title of nobility. But at that time, as the example of Field Marshal Conrad and a letter from Koerner Koerner to the then Colonel Carl von Bardolff shows, it was not customary for officers to use their aristocratic additions to their names. The Nobility Repeal Act , which German Austria enacted in the spring of 1919, ended such additions legally.

First World War

During the First World War , Körner was initially assigned to Bosnia . There he was supposed to collect and reorganize the troops that had been split up by the failed offensives of the Austro-Hungarian Army . A job he didn't like very much. Eventually he was transferred to the new high command of the Balkan Forces in Peterwardein and appointed head of the operations department. When Italy's entry into the war became more and more apparent in 1915, Körner conceived the deployment and operational plans for the defense in the Isonzo battles .

After the start of the war on May 23, 1915, he was promoted to colonel - Chief of Staff of the XV. Army Corps appointed. The XV. Army Corps was commanded by Rudolf Stöger-Steiner von Steinstätten and had to defend a combat strip of 27 kilometers from Krn to Auzza. Körner therefore immediately had extensive positions and a deep defense system built. He did the same after the ninth battle of the Isonzo (October 31 to November 4, 1916) as Chief of Staff of the VII Army Corps, so that the front on the Isonzo could be held.

His fame as an officer in the front line would later benefit him as a politician. His superiors Archduke Eugen and Colonel-General Svetozar Boroević von Bojna applied for Körner to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Maria Theresa Order , but this was rejected by the IV Chapter on March 7, 1921. Finally, at the end of 1917, Körner was appointed Chief of Staff of all the forces of the Isonzo Front, now combined as the 1st Isonzo Army .

However, the breakthrough at Flitsch - Tolmein and the advance over the Tagliamento to the Piave could not change the final defeat of the Central Powers .

After the armistice at Villa Giusti on November 3, 1918, Körner made his way to Ljubljana with around eighty soldiers to escape Italian captivity. There - according to Kollman - he was seen crying bitterly in front of everyone .

His brother Richard Körner , Lieutenant Colonel of the Artillery Staff, fell as early as 1915. According to Kollman, he owes the construction of the Isonzo front, as he repeatedly drove over the Isonzo with only one 30.5 cm gun and was already approaching the deployment of the Italians several times by repeatedly severely damaging the only unloading station in Cormòns . To this day, this excellent performance has remained largely unknown, even among experts. Although Richard Körner would have earned the Military Maria Theresa Order , he was only found worthy of the Golden Medal of Bravery for officers posthumously by the chapter of the order in 1931 .

Even as a major, Theodor Körner was exposed to investigations in connection with the exposure of his friend, Colonel Alfred Redl . Redl wanted von Körner exam questions for his nephew , who was actually his homosexual friend. However, since it can be proven that it was a question of the previous year, which was not prohibited, all allegations proved to be irrelevant. In Redl's office, a photo of Körner sent three weeks before the unmasking with the completely harmless dedication: "In sincere admiration and gratitude and loyal, warm friendship" was found, which also caused the high-ranking military intelligence employee Maximilian Ronge , who was loyal to the Habsburg castle , to falsely disseminate it Körner is homosexual.

In the army of the republic

After the end of the war, Körner became head of the presidential office of the State Office for Army Affairs of the German-Austrian People's Army . In this function he was particularly committed to the distribution of consumer goods to the population, which were still stored in considerable quantities in the depots of the former Kuk army.

In building the Armed Forces he remembered, among other things, the difficult task of selecting those fifteen hundred officers from nearly ten thousand volunteers messages in the new professional army in accordance with the Treaty of St. Germain were allowed to serve. This quickly led to strong disagreements with the respective Christian Social Ministers, in particular with Carl Vaugoin , which led to Körner's retirement in 1924. However, this also included promotion to general.

Social democratic politician

In the same year (1924) Körner joined the Social Democratic Labor Party . Then began his career as a politician. He became a representative of Vienna in the Federal Council ( II. , III. And IV. Legislative period ) and worked as an advisor to the Republican Protection Association , but got into a conflict with the Schutzbund leader Alexander Eifler and resigned in 1930.

When the civil war broke out on February 12, 1934, he was arrested like many other Social Democrats, but released under strict conditions at the end of the year. According to the criminal act of the regional court for criminal matters, the indictment was based on the criminal offense § 58 b and c StG . After that he had little contact with other social democrats and was mainly concerned with military science work. With his Clausewitz studies in 1937 he tried to lead a discussion with German military circles about the fact that a war against the Soviet Union could not be won. In this context he also acquired considerable knowledge of the Russian language. After the bomb attack against Hitler on July 20, 1944, he was arrested again, but soon released because no one could prove his actual contacts with the resistance. At that time, Körner was particularly nervous because immediately before his arrest after a house search in Mahlerstraße 5 by the Gestapo, his long-time partner, Baroness Netka Latscher-Lauendorf (née von Callenberg), the widow of the former Minister of Defense, Julius Freiherr von Latscher-Lauendorf , died.

After the end of World War II , he was a Member of the National Council ( V. and VI legislative period. ) And after many other candidates had canceled nominated as mayor of Vienna, on 17 April 1945 by the Soviet city commander General Alexei Blagodatow confirmed. He replaced Rudolf Prikryl as mayor, who only held this position for three days.

In this office and that of the Federal President, Körner benefited greatly from his language skills and his capacity as a former General of the Federal Army, who was not guilty of anything during the First World War and was also active in the resistance, in negotiations with the occupying powers. After all, in the post-war period it was primarily a matter of regaining Austria's freedom and sovereignty, which was finally achieved with the State Treaty of 1955.

Federal Presidency

After Karl Renner's death in 1950, the SPÖ nominated him as a candidate for the federal presidential election. In a runoff election on May 27, 1951, he unexpectedly won against Heinrich Gleißner , the candidate of the ÖVP . This made Körner the first federal president of Austria to be elected by the people . He himself was not particularly pleased with the victory and his hearing loss was already troubling him, but in the interests of the state he accepted his office. In contrast to his tenure as mayor, his administration was less harsh.

Since Körner was known to be unconventional and his party friends feared that he might lose his role as Federal President, Vice Chancellor Adolf Schärf persuaded him to accept the ambitious young diplomat and later Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky as an advisor to the presidential chancellery . Kreisky worked there from 1951 to 1953 and was close friends with Körner, whom he knew from before the Second World War.

After the federal government was unable to agree on the budget and resigned, new elections were held in 1953 . As a result, the ÖVP, under the leadership of Leopold Figl, demanded a concentration government with the participation of the VdU . Körner strictly refused to accept this party into the government. (The "third camp" did not enter the cabinet until thirty years later, in the Sinowatz government.)

death

On July 28, 1956, Körner suffered a stroke with right-sided paralysis in Mürzsteg and learned to write with his left hand. When, after physical therapy , he wanted to show Hans Hoff how well he could walk again, he suddenly collapsed dead on January 4, 1957. Gustinus Ambrosi took a death mask from Theodor Körner .

Körner was laid out in an open coffin in the ballroom of the Vienna City Hall and buried on January 10, 1957 with the participation of the Vienna Philharmonic after a funeral procession on the Ringstrasse with commemoration in front of the parliament and after two consecration in the crypt of the Austrian Federal Presidents at the Vienna Central Cemetery . The funeral saw more people on the street than any since November 1916, when Emperor Franz Joseph was buried.

Curiosities

Körner was known for always going out in a suit, even in winter, but without a hat and coat. A hat was only used on special ceremonial occasions when it was unavoidable. During official journeys by train, as Federal President, he initially jumped off the train while it was still moving, because he wanted to avoid the red carpet that was rolled out on the platform; later his advisors stopped him.

At one event he sat next to Cardinal Innitzer , who wore cardinal purple. His saying comes from this encounter: Your Eminence, this time you are the red one and I am the black one.

Grains were said to have homosexual tendencies. Once there was the rumor that Ronge had started about Redl's suicide (see above). Later, different living conditions of the mostly self-supporting lifelong bachelor did not necessarily correspond to the then common ideas of a politician. In fact, he had a long-term relationship with Antoinette Latscher von Lauendorf and, from around 1949, was very close friends with Beatrix ("Trix") Hartmann-Bolla de Csáford Jobbaháza (1906–1989), who was 33 years younger and married in Kitzbühel . Trix's daughter Chérica Schreyer-Hartmann, who published a book about this relationship with the red emperor in 2009, sold over 40 of his letters to his lover and photographs from this period to the Austrian National Library and is publicly accessible there.

Awards (selection)

Fonts

  • Ilona Duczynska (Ed. And commented): Theodor Körner. On outposts. Selected writings 1928–1938 . Europaverlag, Vienna 1977, ISBN 3-203-50617-3 .
  • Theodor Körner: Memorandum on the army of the republic. Publishing house of the military association, Vienna 1924

literature

  • Gustav K. Bienek: A life for Austria . Verlag für Jugend und Volk / Verlag Jungbrunnen 1953.
  • Ilona Duczynska: The Democratic Bolshevik. On the theory and practice of violence. List, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-471-66570-6 .
  • Karl Glaubauf : The People's Army from 1918-20 and the founding of the republic . Stöhr-Verlag, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-901208-08-9 .
  • Karl Haas:  Körner, Theodor. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-428-00193-1 , pp. 389-391 ( digitized version ).
  • Ludwig Jedlicka: An army in the shadow of the parties. Vienna 1955.
  • Eric C. Kollman: Theodor Körner. Military and Politics , Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-7028-0054-9 , and R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-486-43661-9 (standard work).
  • Thea Leitner : Grains up close . Danubia Verlag, Vienna 1951.
  • Thea Leitner: Chicken Coop and Nobel Ball. 1938-1955. Life in war and peace . Verlag Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-8000-3927-3 .
  • Andreas Pittler: Theodor Körner. Gerold-Verlag, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-9502631-7-6 .
  • Cherica Schreyer-Hartmann: Theodor Körner. The red emperor and the nightingales - myth and truth. Brandstätter, Vienna / Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-85033-363-4 .

See also

Web links

Commons : Theodor Körner (politician)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herbert Dachs, Peter Gerlich , Wolfgang C. Müller (ed.): The politicians: careers and work of important representatives of the Second Republic. Manz, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-214-05964-5 , p. 307
  2. ↑ Eric C. Kollman: Theodor Körner. Military and Politics , Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-7028-0054-9 , and R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-486-43661-9 , p. 24 and note 19 on p. 393.
  3. ↑ Eric C. Kollman: Theodor Körner. Military and Politics , Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-7028-0054-9 , and R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-486-43661-9 , p. 36 f.
  4. ^ Eric C. Kollman: Theodor Körner - Militär und Politik , Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-7028-0054-9 , and R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-486-43661-9 , p 65.
  5. ↑ Eric C. Kollman: Theodor Körner. Military and Politics , Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-7028-0054-9 , and R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-486-43661-9 , p. 73.
  6. ↑ Theodor Körner: The top spy Redl and the "No. 25 ". diepresse.com, November 13, 2009; The press, November 14, 2009
  7. ↑ Herbert Lackner: Contemporary history: The first spy , profile, March 17, 2007.
  8. ↑ Regional Court for Criminal Matters: Criminal record against Theodor Körner, Friedrich Mayer , Karl Schneller and Alois Jakotzky on account of § 58b, c, Vienna 1934 (inventory 1 in the Vienna City Archives, 14th-21st century: permanent link to file 3.1.4. A1.K25.1 ).
  9. ↑ May 6 and 27, 1951: Election of the Federal President
  10. ↑ It goes quite well even without a First Lady , Die Presse, August 28, 2009
  11. ^ Federal President Theodor Körner. :  Social Security. Journal for the Austrian social security / social security. Specialized journal for social security , year 1957, p. 1 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / maintenance / sos(With illustration of the death mask.)
  12. ^ Funeral service for the Austrian Federal President Dr. hc Theodor Körner , Verlag der Österreichische Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1957
  13. ↑ Eric C. Kollman: Theodor Körner. Military and Politics , Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1973, ISBN 3-7028-0054-9 , and R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-486-43661-9 , p. 390.
  14. ↑ Theodor Körner's last great love. In: Newsletter of the Austrian National Library, Vienna, No. 4 / November 2010, p. 9.
predecessor government office successor
Rudolf Prikryl Mayor of Vienna
1945 - 1951 		Franz Jonas
personal data
SURNAME Körner, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian general and politician (SPÖ), member of the National Council, member of the Federal Council, Federal President (1951–1957)
BIRTH DATE April 24, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Komorn
DATE OF DEATH 4th January 1957
PLACE OF DEATH Vienna