Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner

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Gertrude Sandner (1970)
Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner signature 1976.jpg

Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner (born April 25, 1926 as Gertrude Kastner in Vienna ; † June 13, 2008 there ) was a professional teacher and Austrian politician ( SPÖ ).

Private life

Gertrude Kastner attended the teacher training college during the Second World War and married a soldier who did not return from the war. Since this (first) marriage she had the family name Sandner. Gertrude Sandner taught as a primary school teacher from 1948.

She caused a stir when, already a prominent SPÖ politician, on February 10, 1971 , she married the ÖVP municipal councilor Josef Fröhlich , landlord and representative of the Viennese tourism industry. Josef Fröhlich resigned from the local council on this occasion, but retained his functions in the Chamber of Commerce for decades. At that time, marriages of politicians “of different party colors” were still absolutely uncommon. In her last years Fröhlich-Sandner lived separately from Josef Fröhlich.

politics

In addition to her work as a teacher, Sandner was involved with Kinderfreunde and the SPÖ.

In 1959 she was elected to the municipal council for the 6th district . From 1965 she was the city ​​councilor for culture, school administration and sport under Mayor Bruno Marek , and from 1969 to 1984 she was also deputy mayor and deputy governor (see the seven state governments and city senates from Marek I to Gratz IV ). At the same time she was president of the Wiener Festwochen , the Wiener Symphoniker , the Wiener Tourismusverband (now the Wiener Tourismusverband) and other institutions. She also remained in the city senate under the mayors Felix Slavik (during whose term of office she married politically unconventionally, see Private) and Leopold Gratz .

As City Councilor for Culture, she represented the dialogue with the Vienna 1968 movement . Through negotiations with squatters ( Arena , Amerlinghaus , Gassergasse ), the Spittelberg district, which is popular today , was preserved thanks to her, as was the Raimund Theater, which was bought by the city administration in 1962 under her predecessor Hans Mandl . Fröhlich-Sandner introduced " street workers ", social-therapeutic shared apartments and small family-like groups in urban homes instead of dormitories in the municipal department 13 in Vienna via the regional youth department .

1979 Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner handed at the request of Mayor Gratz cultural agendas of the newly fetched by him in the city senate media star Helmut Zilk and was then was elected until 1984 as Zilk mayor, as Executive City Councilor for Education and extracurricular youth work.

On September 10, 1984, Federal Chancellor Fred Sinowatz brought her into the red-blue federal government of Sinowatz as Federal Minister for Family, Youth and Consumer Protection ; she belonged to the government until the end of the following federal government, Vranitzky I, on January 21, 1987.

In 2011 it became known that in Wilhelminenberg Castle , which served as a home for special school women from 1961 to 1977 , according to victims' statements, there had been numerous attacks and rape by girls housed there. The city administration felt compelled to set up a commission to investigate these criminal incidents, which had long since become legally statute-barred. It should also be clarified whether the political level was aware of the incidents at the time and how they reacted to them if necessary.

The chairwoman of the commission, judge Barbara Helige, said in an interview with the Viennese weekly newspaper Falter in June 2013 :

Question: So the city knew and watched?
Helige: The MA 11 knew everything, until 1973 Maria Jacobi was the city councilor in charge, after which Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner was responsible. We found letters to Jacobi. She was fully informed - but not about the sexual assault.

Honors

Vienna Central Cemetery - honor grave of Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner
Campus Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner in the Nordbahnviertel in Vienna-Leopoldstadt

Fiction

Peter Henisch had his novel The Little Figure of My Father , published in 1975, begin with a scene in the Vienna City Hall in which his father Walter Henisch was honored by the Vice Mayor for his services as a photographer. Since Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner was the first female vice mayor and first female city councilor for culture in Vienna, the scene undoubtedly refers to her, although her name does not appear in the text.

Web links

Commons : Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rape in the children's home? , on orf.at , October 15, 2011, last accessed on March 28, 2013; Georg Hönigsberger, Julia Schrenk: Children's home of horror: “We were all raped and sold.” On kurier.at , December 5, 2011, last accessed on March 28, 2013. Violence and humiliation. In: Der Spiegel from February 27, 2012.
  2. ↑ Barbara Helige heads the investigation commission , report dated October 21, 2011 on the website of the Viennese daily newspaper Der Standard
  3. ↑ Florian Klenk, Barbara Tóth: "The city knew everything" , conversation about the great shame of Red Vienna and the lessons for the present , in: Falter weekly newspaper , Vienna, No. 25/2013, June 19, 2013, p. 16 ff.
  4. ↑ Site plan of the grave on Hedwig Abraham's website, Guide: Art and Culture in Vienna
  5. ^ Campus Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner on the website of the Vienna city administration
  6. ↑ Peter Henisch: The small figure of my father , S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, Fischer-Taschenbuch, 1980, ISBN 3-596-22097-1 , p. 7 f.
personal data
SURNAME Fröhlich-Sandner, Gertrude
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sandner, Gertrude; Kastner, Gertrude (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (SPÖ), member of the state parliament
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 2008
Place of death Vienna