Felix Slavik

Felix Slavik (born May 3, 1912 in Vienna ; † October 6, 1980 ibid) was an Austrian politician of the Socialist or today: Social Democratic Party of Austria .

Life

Felix Slavik learned the profession of precision mechanic in the years 1926 to 1929 at the advanced training school for mechanical engineering and practiced it until the end of the Second World War . From 1925 he was politically active in the socialist youth, 1926-1929 school clerk of the metal workers youth. After the establishment of the clerical authoritarian corporate state , Slavik was active in the illegal movement Revolutionary Socialists of Austria in 1934 . Because of this, he was imprisoned by the police in 1935 and taken to the Wöllersdorf detention center . From November 1939 to December 1943 Slavik was also imprisoned in the Nazi system for political reasons. After his release, he joined resistance group O5 . At times he also worked in a weaving mill . Towards the end of the war, from 1943 to 1945, he worked as a magician.

After the war ended, Felix Slavik's political career began. In 1945/1946 he was the leading city councilor for housing in Vienna (see state government and city senate Körner I ), in 1946 he was sent by the state of Vienna to the federal council and in 1949 he was elected to the national council as an SPÖ candidate . Felix Slavik held this position until 1957.

From 1957 onwards, Felix Slavik was City Councilor for Finance and Vice Mayor for almost twelve years (see state government and city senate Jonas II , Jonas III , Jonas IV , Marek I and Marek II ). On December 21, 1970, he was elected the new mayor of the city (see the state government and city senate Slavik ).

Honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery

Since the end of the 1950s, he had long been against building a subway in Vienna and favored the monorail system of the Alweg-Bahn , which, however, never caught on in Europe. Slavik's statement at the Forum Alpbach on September 2, 1972 , that he was "an absolute opponent of the belts - like the Danube Canal motorway " caused a great media stir , with which Slavik de facto carried the relevant plans of the 1960s to the grave. Felix Slavik resigned as mayor after three years , as he had only received a two-thirds majority in the elections to the executive committee of the Vienna SPÖ on June 2, 1973 . The ongoing criticism of Slavik in the media and the fact that Slavik had been on the losing side at the referendum on the construction of the observatory park in Währing played a decisive role in this internal party confidence crisis .

He died in 1980 and was buried in a grave of honor in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 14 C, number 58 A). Felix-Slavik-Straße in Vienna- Floridsdorf (21st district) is named after him.

Awards

• 1962: Large gold medal with the star for services to the Republic of Austria
• 1969: Large gold medal for services to the state of Vienna with the star
• 1975: Large silver medal on ribbon for services to the Republic of Austria
• Large Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany with the star

swell

1. ↑ Broucek, Peter: Military Resistance , p. 403
2. ↑ Arbeiter-Zeitung September 3, 1972 p. 1 ( Memento from March 18, 2018 in the Internet Archive )

Web links

• Felix Slavik on the website of the Austrian Parliament
• Literature by and about Felix Slavik in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Felix Slavik in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Felix Slavik. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)
• Archive recordings with and about Felix Slavik in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library (speeches, parliamentary debates, radio broadcasts)

predecessor	Office	successor
Bruno Marek	Mayor of Vienna 1970 - 1973	Leopold Gratz