Christian Broda

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Christian Broda (seated, first from left) in the Kreisky I cabinet (1970)

Christian Broda (born March 12, 1916 in Vienna ; † February 1, 1987 there ) was an Austrian politician ( SPÖ ).

Life

Christian Broda grew up together with his brother Engelbert , who later became a famous chemist, in a middle-class Viennese family of lawyers and artists. His godfather was Hans Kelsen , his uncle the film director GW Pabst . At a young age he became a member of the Association of Socialist Middle School Students and the Socialist Youth Movement. As a result of his participation in the Austrian Civil War , he was taken into political custody in 1934 “for communist activities”.

After his release, he began to study law . Although a communist until 1945, he received his doctorate in 1940 from the University of Vienna with a thesis on people and leadership. A contribution to the problem of political decision-making in the Second German Reich .

After completing his studies, Broda was a soldier in the German Wehrmacht . In 1943 he was suspected of belonging to the communist resistance group The Soldiers' Council and transferred to the Vienna Gestapo . Originally charged with “supporting an underground communist organization”, which has been punishable by death since the outbreak of war with the Soviet Union, he was sentenced to three months in prison for “failing to report a treasonous enterprise”. Six other members of the organization were arrested and sentenced to death in the following weeks, including Alfred Rabofsky . Before the Wehrmacht surrendered, he finished his military service and joined the Free Austria resistance group in Ried im Innkreis .

Time after World War II

After the war, Broda opened a law firm and switched from the KPÖ to the SPÖ in the summer of 1945 . Broda was a member of the board of directors of the Association of Socialist Jurists and High-ranking Freemasons .

He is considered one of the actors in the so-called Vienna Newspaper War in 1958, because at the time he signed an oral contract with Fritz Molden on behalf of the Social Democrats , in which he assured him financial support against the rival newspapers Kurier and Bild-Telegraf and thus against the ÖVP . On March 10, 1958, just two days before the outbreak of the newspaper war, Broda made an offer to buy the newspaper, which was limited to one day, to the publishing director of the Bild-Telegraph, Hans Behrmann . It was refused.

In the successor newspaper of the Bild Telegraph, the Express , Broda was a silent partner for the Social Democrats with 50 percent .

Political functions

From 1957 to 1959 Broda represented the SPÖ in the Federal Council , from 1959 to 1983 in the National Council .

In 1960 he was Minister of Justice in the third cabinet of Julius Raab . In this position he worked until the beginning of an ÖVP sole government in 1966. The high point of his career was the abolition of the death penalty in the National Council in 1968. This was one of Broda's greatest political goals.

Founding documents of the Social Aid Association for Women and Children at Risk (1978)

From 1970 to 1983 he was again Minister of Justice in the SPÖ's sole government under Bruno Kreisky . During this term of office, the major reform of family law fell with a reorganization of the legal status of illegitimate children in 1970, equality between men and women in civil law in 1975 and the reorganization of parent and child law in 1977, as well as the entry into force of a new penal code in 1975, which included criminal liability of homosexuality repealed and the possibility of an abortion has been created. In 1978, together with Irmtraut Leirer , Johanna Dohnal and others, he was the founder of the Association Social Aid for Women and Children at Risk, which created the first women's refuge in Vienna . In 1979 a new consumer protection law was passed and in 1982 the reform of the guardianship for disabled people.

These pragmatic merits of Broda and his repeatedly represented utopia of a “prison-free society” are contrasted with allegations of politicization of the judiciary through instructions to the public prosecutor, in particular the “cold amnesty”, which is not only criticized by Simon Wiesenthal , that is, the silent cessation of criminal proceedings for NS -Crime. In this way, the SPÖ wanted to prevent the acquittal of those accused of mass murder, which could be expected by jury, from harming Austria's reputation. As the superior of the public prosecutor's office , Broda allowed that during his tenure in office such proceedings were usually carried out with little energy and the intention of unsuccessfulness. Broda was one of those Social Democrats who made the most massive efforts to "promote the careers" of former Nazis.

At the beginning of the eighties, Justice Minister Broda gave massive protection to the Nazi doctor and party friend Heinrich Gross , who, as head of the “Reich Committee Department” at the Vienna “Euthanasia” Clinic Am Spiegelgrund, abused disabled children for research purposes and was involved in their murder, so none Proceedings were opened. The film Meine liebe Republik (2007) by Elisabeth Scharang deals with this topic.

The SPÖ-affiliated political scientist Norbert Leser described Broda as someone “who bent the law according to his intentions and used it as a weapon against his enemies and as a shield for his friends”.

Broda is buried in a grave of honor in the Vienna Central Cemetery.

Awards

Honorary grave of Christian Broda at the Vienna Central Cemetery
Memorial plaque in Vienna-Penzing

estate

The Austrian National Library in Vienna has the Christian Broda archive in its collection of manuscripts and old prints , which has been accessible for research since 1992. In 2010 another 200 portfolios were acquired from his estate. The content ranges from correspondence with Bruno Kreisky and Bruno Pittermann to relevant media reports.

literature

  • Christian Broda's estate in the manuscript, autograph and estate collection of the Austrian National Library, Vienna.
  • Béla Rásky: Christian Broda. In: Herbert Dachs (Ed.): The politicians. Careers and work of important representatives of the Second Republic. Manz, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-214-05964-5 .
  • Maria Wirth: Christian Broda. A political biography. V&R unipress u. a. Göttingen u. a. 2011, ISBN 978-3-89971-829-4 , Contemporary History in Context, 5th (Also: Dissertation at the University of Vienna , Vienna 2010.)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Broda Johann Christian. In: Victims Database. Gestapo victim, edited by the documentation archive of the Austrian resistance . Retrieved September 21, 2013.
  2. ↑ Note: Not to be confused with Hitler's Third Reich .
  3. ↑ Henrik Kreutz: From the open to the closed society. Contribution to the congress of the Austrian Society for Sociology, Vienna 2000. ( Catalog slip University Library Vienna .)
  4. ^ Franz Olah: Erlebtes Jahrhundert: Memories , Amalthea, Vienna 2008, 258-269.
  5. ↑ Document desired.
  6. ^ Anton Pelinka : Simon Wiesenthal and Austrian domestic politics. (PDF; 30 kB) In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance.
  7. ^ Peter Schwarz, Wolfgang Neugebauer: The will to walk upright. Disclosure of the role of the BSA in the social integration of former National Socialists. Ed .: Association of Social Democratic Academics, Intellectuals and Artists (BSA), Czernin, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-7076-0196-X . (Quoted after the SPÖ academics campaigned for Nazis after the World War. In: science. ORF .at, undated. Retrieved on November 4, 2011.)
  8. ↑ This is how Der Spiegel hates 52/1990
  9. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  10. ^ Addendum to the Christian Broda archive. In: Newsletter of the Austrian National Library, No. 4, November 2010, p. 10.
personal data
SURNAME Broda, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (SPÖ), member of the National Council, member of the Federal Council
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1987
Place of death Vienna