Ernst Koref

Ernst Koref (born March 11, 1891 in Linz ; † November 15, 1988 there ) was a social democratic politician and mayor of Linz from 1945 to 1962.

Life

Ernst Koref was born in Linz, the fifth of nine children of a railway official. He attended grammar school in Linz and, thanks to his talent that was conspicuous at an early age, was allowed to give a speech on the occasion of Emperor Franz Josef's 60th anniversary in government. Koref then studied German and English in Vienna , but worked as a court master in noble houses in order to earn a living . In 1914 he received his doctorate. phil. and had to serve as an officer in the First World War after graduating . He was deployed on the Russian front, was taken prisoner, escaped and finished his military service as an interpreter on the Italian front. After the war ended, Koref joined the social democracy, where he represented a moderate line. Koref worked as a teacher and on the state school board, as well as in the education system of the SDAP . After the Second World War he worked as a state school inspector. From 1927 to 1934 Koref was a member of the Linz City Council and from 1930 to 1934 a member of the National Council ( fourth legislative period ). Under the dictatorships that followed, he served political prison sentences in 1934 and 1944. Koref and his siblings were in Nazism because of their partial Jewish origin by the Nuremberg laws discriminated against.

After the dismissal of the National Socialist Mayor Franz Langoth , Koref was installed as Mayor of Linz by the American occupying forces on May 7, 1945 and was confirmed in office by the following democratic elections. As a mediator at the first international conference , Koref was able to successfully prevent the conference from being broken off.

Dr. Ernst Koref remained mayor until September 10, 1962. Edmund Aigner was his successor . Until 1958 Koref was also active as a member of the National Council ( V , VI , VII and VIII legislative periods ). In 1980 Koref published his memoirs in The Tides of My Life , in 1981 the review of When I was 19 .

It can be attributed to Koref that the reconstruction after the Second World War proceeded quickly. The housing shortage was alleviated by the creation of housing associations . In addition, numerous parks were created, including the Botanical Garden ; numerous kindergartens, day care centers and schools, such as the school center at Bindermichl, were built or rebuilt. In addition, during his term of office, the most important visible feature of which is the character of Linz as an industrial city, the building decision for the Linz University , the establishment of the adult education center and new gallery (now Lentos ), the art school (now art university) and the Modernization of the general hospital . The founding of the Kepler University was also important to him. In terms of educational policy, he represented the classic humanistic ideal of education - also in contradiction to the zeitgeist.

Ernst Koref is regarded as the most important mayor of Linz after 1945. From 1958 to 1965 he was a member of the Federal Council ( 8th , 9th and 10th legislative periods ). His daughter Beatrix Eypeltauer , who also went into politics, was State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Buildings and Technology from 1979 to 1987 . Koref's great-grandson, Felix Eypeltauer has been a member of NEOS since 2019 .

The politician was buried at the Urnenhain Linz-Urfahr .

Awards and honors

• Honorary member of the Red Cross (1950)
• Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria (1955)
• Great Ring of Honor of Linz (1958)
• Honorary Citizen of Linz (1962)
• Honorary member of the Austrian Association of Cities (1963)
• Great Decoration of Honor of the Province of Upper Austria (1966)
• Honorary Senator of the University of Social and Economic Sciences , Linz (1969)
• Medal of Honor for Services to the Liberation of Austria (1977)
• Large Viktor Adler badge
• Silver medal for bravery, 1st class
• In Linz, the Koref Promenade, which was named after Ernst Koref in 1992, runs between the Lentos Art Museum and the railway bridge.
• During his tenure as mayor of Linz, the municipal council decided to build the Bindermichler school center, which was then named in 1962. To this day, the school center at Ramsauerstraße 61 is called the Dr. Ernst Koref School . It houses the music elementary school 30 and the new music middle school 22, the former secondary schools 21 and 22.
• In the Kulturquartier Ursulinenhof in Linz there is the Club Gallery Linz of the Dr. Ernst Koref Foundation .
• Ernst Koref is considered a famous Upper Austrian in the naturalization test for Upper Austria .

literature

• Josef Gruber, Ernst Koref (both editors from July 1, 1933 to March 30, 1934): Tagblatt (Linz). Organ for the interests of the working people . Gutenberg, Linz 1916–1975.
• Edmund Aigner (Hrsg.), Ernst Koref (Hrsg.): Ausseerland-Tagblatt. Newspaper of the creative people in town and country . SPÖ , Regional Organization Upper Austria, Linz 1949–1955.
• Ernst Koref: We need apartments! Presentation at the 5th Austrian Association of Cities on December 11, 1949 . Publishing house of the Austrian community newspaper, Vienna 1950.
• Ernst Koref: Speech at the unveiling of the memorial plaque at Hermann Bahr's birthplace in Linz on July 18, 1953 . Sn, s. l. 1953.
• Ernst Koref (Ed.): The communities and [also: in] Europe. Report to the Austrian Association of Cities on December 4th and 5th, 1954 . Small series for the local council. Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1955.
• Magistrate of the state capital Linz (ed.), Ernst Koref (co-author): Linz - structure and performance (1945–1954) . Gutenberg, Linz 1955.
• Hanns Kreczi (Ed.), Ernst Koref: Documenta Lentiae. Doctor Ernst Koref on his 65th birthday, March 11, 1956 . Culture Office of the City of Linz, Linz 1956.
• Rudolf Altmüller (ed.), Ernst Koref: To the freedom of art. Festschrift Dr. Ernst Koref, dedicated to the honorary president of the Association for the Promotion of Contemporary Art, Club of Encounters, on the occasion of the 80th birthday anniversary on March 11, 1971 . Series of publications of the Association for the Promotion of Contemporary Art, Volume 1. Association for the Promotion of Contemporary Art, Linz 1971.
• Ernst Koref: Thoughts on the Dollfuß debate in the National Council. In: Anton Benya: Forty years later. March 4, 1933 in the judgment of contemporaries and historians . Doctor Karl Renner Institute, Vienna 1973, p. 27–.
• Ernst Koref: On March 4, 1933 - Forgiven, but not forgotten. In: Anton Benya: Forty years later. March 4, 1933 in the judgment of contemporaries and historians . Doctor Karl Renner Institute, Vienna 1973, p. 7–.
• Hermann Nussbaumer, Ernst Koref: Upper Austria's way to freedom. A sound documentation for Ernst Koref's birthday . Documentation of our time (contains: documents from the "Linzer Woche 1975", archive recordings and interviews with leading men of the first post-war years), 2 records ( 33 ¹ ⁄ ₃   min ⁻¹ , 30 cm), 1 booklet. Documentation of our time, Linz / Salzburg 1976.
• Franz Schimanko (Ed., Red.), Ernst Koref: Dedicated to the honorary chairman of the state education organization of the SPÖ Upper Austria Comrade Dr. Ernst Koref on his 90th birthday . In: Bildungskurier. Volume 32.1981.1. SPÖ regional organization Upper Austria, regional education committee, Linz 1981.
• Franz Dobusch (Ed.), Ernst Koref: Communal political perspectives. Social democratic considerations of a future-oriented community policy. Festschrift in memory of the former mayor of Linz, Hofrat Dr. Ernst Koref on the occasion of his 100th birthday . Orac, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-7007-0160-8 .

Web links

• Biography of Ernst Koref on the server of the federal state of Upper Austria .
• Ernst Koref on the website of the Austrian Parliament
• Literature by and about Ernst Koref in the catalog of the German National Library
• Interviews, radio reports and recordings with Ernst Koref in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Matricula Online - Linz - Holy Family (formerly St. Josef), Baptisms - Duplicates 1891, entry no. 85, 1st line
2. ^ Ernst Koref: The technique of the new Shakespeare translation by Friedrich Gundolf . Dissertation. University of Vienna, Vienna 1913, Permalink Austrian Library Association .
3. ↑ Alfred Payrleitner: In the beginning there was ... How nine federal states became one again . In: oesterreich.orf.at. September 24, 2005, accessed November 1, 2010.
4. ↑ Ernst Koref (with a foreword by Bruno Kreisky ): The tides of my life . Jugend & Volk, Vienna / Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7141-6540-1 .
5. ↑ Ernst Koref: When I was 19 . Jugend & Volk, Vienna / Munich 1981, ISBN 3-224-10415-5 .
6. ^ "Linz-Bilder" (...) characterization of Linz as an industrial city . In: ooe.orf.at. November 27, 2007, accessed November 1, 2010.
7. ↑ For a quick Salem procedure. (...) Koref warns of violence and anarchy . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . February 1, 1969, p. 2, bottom center.
8. ↑ Thanks to resistance fighters. In: The New Reminder Call . Volume 30, No. 6 June 1977 (online at ANNO ).
9. ^ Citizenship Act (...) Multiple choice test . In: ooe.orf.at. March 25, 2006, accessed November 1, 2010.
10. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .
11. ^ Catalog list Austrian National Library and catalog list Austrian National Library .
12. ↑ Catalog list Austrian National Library .
13. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .
14. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .
15. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .
16. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .
17. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .
18. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .
19. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .
20. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .
21. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association .

predecessor	Office	successor
Franz Langoth	Mayor of Linz 1945–1962	Edmund Aigner