Franz Greiter (politician, 1896)

Franz Greiter (born October 29, 1896 in Heiligkreuz near Hall in Tirol , Austria-Hungary ; † July 27, 1978 in Innsbruck ) was an Austrian lawyer , politician and mayor of Innsbruck from 1951 to 1956.

Live and act

Franz Greiter was born on October 29, 1896 as the son of the lawyer Josef Greiter (1866–1957) in the village of Heiligkreuz near Hall in Tyrol. At a young age he moved with his family to Upper Austria , where his father ran a law firm in Wels . In 1909 the Greiter family moved back to Tyrol and settled in Innsbruck. Before that, Franz Greiter attended elementary school in Wels and then switched to the Stella Matutina Jesuit college in Feldkirch in Vorarlberg . Here graduated he began in 1914 and subsequently studied at the Faculty of Law of the University of Innsbruck , where he in 1920 to Dr. iur. PhD . In the year of his enrollment , Greiter joined the student association AV Austria Innsbruck (AIn) on October 22, 1914 . His father was already a member of this Catholic, colored, non-striking student union in the ÖCV .

Already in March 1915 Greiter, with the couleur name Ivo , was drafted into the 1st Austro-Hungarian Tyrolean Jäger Regiment , where he did his military service on the Italian front until November 1918 . After he was taken prisoner of war in Italy, he was held captive in Sicily and did not return home from the First World War until August 1919 . His last military rank was that of a first lieutenant in the reserve. His military awards and honors include the Military Merit Cross with war decorations and swords , as well as the Karl Troop Cross . After the war, as already mentioned, he finished his law studies and, like his father, pursued a career as a lawyer. As such he worked for a time in Frohnleiten in Styria , among others , before he joined his father's office in Innsbruck in 1926. His father ran this firm into old age; until his death in 1957 at the age of 90. In the meantime, during the Second World War , both were withdrawn from the bar; in the spring of 1945 the ban was lifted again.

Working in local politics

From 1929 Greiter was active in Innsbruck local politics, where he was a local councilor from that year and also a city councilor in 1933/34. After the Anschluss he lost all his public offices and was on a list of 60 Tyrolean personalities who were to be arrested after the Anschluss. As this list was already known to the public beforehand, Greiter still had time to pack a small suitcase after the last radio announcement by the then Federal Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg on the evening of March 11, 1938. He was arrested at around three in the morning the following day and held in police custody in Innsbruck for 30 days. After his release, he spent most of the Second World War in Innsbruck and was arrested again by the Gestapo here in August 1944 . He was then held in Reichenau camp for at least two months . According to other reports, he was still imprisoned when the Americans liberated the camp and was present when the Americans asked which of the politicians present had been sentenced to death, whereupon Anton Melzer answered. The then 47-year-old Melzer then temporarily took over the office of mayor; Greiter was appointed vice mayor.

From 1946 Greiter acted again as a local council and at the same time again as a city council in Innsbruck. Among other things, the Innsbruck municipal utilities were part of his portfolio . On April 9, 1951, when the SPÖ was the strongest party in the local council , Greiter was elected mayor of Innsbruck with the help of the VdU . His predecessor Anton Melzer held this position until his death on March 12, 1951. In his tenure, among other things, the first application was Innsbruck to Winter Olympic Games , but subsequently to the surprise participants Squaw Valley went and there, in 1960, took place. Furthermore, the withdrawal of the French troops fell during his term of office after the signing of the Austrian State Treaty on May 15, 1955. Greiter held his mayor's office until December 11, 1956; Innsbruck's municipal policy, which was shaped by Catholic personalities from 1945 to 1956, also ended in this year. Alois Lugger created a narrow majority within the ÖVP with his own list , whereupon Greiter resigned, but remained in the local council. In 1962 he resigned from the municipal council, in which he acted as the executive councilor from 1959 to 1962.

As early as 1953, Greiter was a candidate in the elections for the Tyrolean state parliament , to which he was subsequently elected. Thereupon he belonged from November 24, 1953 to the Tyrolean parliament of the III. Legislative period in the constituency of Innsbruck-Stadt , but resigned his mandate after six months on May 25, 1954. According to other sources, he was stripped of his mandate by the Constitutional Court . Instead, Hans Gamper moved from the Mitte constituency to Greiter's mandate, before leaving the state parliament himself on January 29, 1957. Herbert Guglberger then followed Gamper's mandate and was sworn in on May 25, 1954. From 1957 to 1968, Franz Greiter was a member of the Girozentrale's supervisory board . Greiter received the ring of honor from the city of Innsbruck.

On July 27, 1978 Greiter died, who was married to a daughter of the painter Philipp Anton Fridolin Schumacher , also a member of the AV Austria Innsbruck, and with her the son Ivo Greiter , who also embarked on a career as a lawyer and joined his father's office , was 81 years old in Innsbruck and was buried at the Wilten cemetery.

In Innsbruck today the Franz-Greiter-Promenade at Huttererpark is named after him.

Web links

• Franz Greiter on the official website of the Austrian Cartel Association
• Innsbruck's mayor: from "Olympia-Luis" to the first woman as city boss
• Entry on Franz Greiter on the website of the Tyrolean Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Death picture of Josef Greiter , accessed on January 11, 2020
2. ↑ Article in the Tiroler Bauernzeitung, June 2004
3. ↑ Ivo Greiter on the official website of his law firm Greiter, Pegger, Kofler & Partner , accessed on April 4, 2018
4. ↑ Street names of the state capital Innsbruck (pdf), accessed on April 4, 2018