Erwin Nowak (firefighter)

Erwin Nowak (born September 20, 1930 in Krems an der Donau ; † July 11, 2004 in Stratzing ) was a civil servant at the Krems an der Donau magistrate , commander of the Lower Austrian Fire Brigade Association and President of the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association .

Life

Honorary regional fire director, Councilor Erwin Nowak, joined the Krems an der Donau volunteer fire brigade in 1944 at the age of 14 and experienced dramatic missions after bomb attacks in the last days of the war. After the war he immediately got involved in rebuilding the fire brigade and worked as a group commander and in the administration.

Professionally, he experienced a storybook career as a civil servant of the Magistrates of the city of Krems.

In 1969, Nowak organized the international fire service competitions in Krems with others and shortly afterwards became fire service, section and district fire service commander.

In 1976 he was elected as Sepp Kast's deputy in the Lower Austrian Fire Brigade Association and also took on important tasks in the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association .

After Sepp Kast reached the age limit in 1982 and therefore had to resign from his position, Erwin Nowak was elected state fire brigade commander, a position he held for 13 years.

In 1988 he followed Sepp Kast as President of the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association, which he handed over to Manfred Seidl from Burgenland in 1999 .

Work in the Lower Austrian Fire Brigade Association

One of the greatest successes of President Erwin Nowak in 1993 was the implementation of the tax exemption for fire brigade parties. In doing so, he secured an important financial basis for countless fire departments in Austria.

Within the fire service, President Nowak was particularly interested in standardizing training in Austria. During his term of office, this ambitious project was put into practice. Both in basic training and in advanced courses. Since then, the state fire brigade schools have been teaching according to nationwide training documents that have been drawn up according to teaching and learning pedagogical principles.

He paid particular attention to the development of youth fire fighters in Lower Austria.

With the production of video films to support the fire brigade training, but also to inform the population z. B. in the area of ​​fire prevention, the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association under President Nowak took pioneering steps towards the use of modern media.

The structural reform in the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association is also inseparably linked to the presidency of Erwin Nowak: specialist committees have advanced to represent interests, presentations and subject areas have been upgraded to working bodies that create important decision-making bases.

Erwin Nowak embodied a calm and pragmatic management style, emphasized accuracy and clear processes. He tried not to solve problems in conflict, but through objective negotiations.

Functions, Promotions, Appointments and Awards (Excerpt)

• Extinguishing Master (1946)
• Secretary (1954)
• District Fire Brigade Council (1962)
• Deputy Commander of the Krems-Stadt Volunteer Fire Brigade (1962)
• Commander of the Krems-Stadt Voluntary Fire Brigade (1971)
• Commander of the Krems-Stadt fire department command (1971)
• Commander of the Krems District Fire Brigade Command (1971)
• Deputy Commander of the Lower Austria Fire Brigade Association (1976)
• Member of the Technical Committee for Voluntary Fire Brigades in the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association (1976)
• Head of the department " Fire Brigade Youth " in the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association (1976)
• Head of the "Presidential Affairs" division in the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association (1979)
• State Fire Director and Commander of the Lower Austrian State Fire Brigade Association (1982)
• President of the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association (1988)
• Silver Commander's Cross of Honor for Services to the State of Lower Austria (1995)
• Honorary President of the Austrian Federal Fire Brigade Association (1998)
• Great Silver Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria (1999)
• Professional title: Government Councilor

Individual evidence

1. ^ The new regional fire brigade commander, Erwin Nowak. In:  brand aus , year 1976, issue No. 10, p. 369 (online at ANNO ). .
2. ^ Ovations for President Erwin Nowak. In:  brand aus , 1995, issue No. 11, p. 389 (online at ANNO ).
3. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF file; 6.59 MB)

Web links

• Obituary for Erwin Nowak on the ÖBFV website of July 20, 2004, accessed on December 26, 2008