Alois Rechberger

Alois Rechberger (born April 30, 1935 in Hartberg ; † July 15, 2009 in Bruck an der Mur ) was an Austrian politician ( SPÖ ) and blacksmith. From 1975 to 1987 Rechberger was a member of the Austrian National Council and President of the Chamber for Workers and Salaried Employees in Styria.

Rechberger was an orphan at an early age and spent his childhood with foster parents in Kapfenberg , whom he had come to through the aid campaign of the social democratic daily Neue Zeit . By chance, his foster parents were also called Rechberger. He attended compulsory school and then from 1954 learned the profession of blacksmith at the Boehler steel works, where he worked as an open-die and expanded steel blacksmith in the Erlachhammer forge of the Böhler company until 1966.

Rechberger began his political career in 1965 as the district chairman of the young generation in the Bruck an der Mur district . He held various functions within the SPÖ and was a member of the plenary assembly of the Chamber for Workers and Salaried Employees for Styria between 1969 and 1979. He was also involved in the metal-mining-energy trade union and was a department works council from 1961, education officer from 1964 and chairman of the workers' works council from 1968. In 1980 he was promoted to deputy central works council chairman, in 1985 he took over the function of central works council and workers' works council chairman of the United Stainless Steel Works (VEW) in Mürz Valley himself. In addition, Rechberger was a member of the SPÖ in the National Council from November 4, 1975 to December 16, 1987, and thereafter from October 1, 1987 to June 20, 1990 President of the Styrian Chamber of Labor.

After Rechberger had generously supported an election campaign with funds from the Chamber of Labor, he was sentenced to a heavy fine and a conditional prison sentence. According to the court ruling, Rechberger misused 360,000 schillings in chamber money during the election campaign, including financing cigars with the money. Rechberger also became known for his fees as a multifunctional, and Jörg Haider repeatedly presented him as a “parade bigwig”. Rechberger lost the battle for his Chamber of Labor pension of 80,000 Schillings gross monthly and had to file for personal bankruptcy after the process because he could not bear the legal costs. After the SPÖ broke with him, he entered the local council elections in Kapfenberg in 1995 with a list of names and immediately won five mandates, whereby his reputation as a fighter for the workers and the weak in society benefited him. Rechberger was sworn in as the second deputy mayor of the city of Kapfenberg, but after several strokes he had to say goodbye to politics. He died in 2009 in the regional hospital in Bruck an der Mur.

Web links

• Alois Rechberger on the website of the Austrian Parliament
• ORF Styria "Alois Rechberger is dead", July 15, 2009
• diepresse.at "Styria: Ex-AK boss Alois Rechberger has died", July 15, 2009