Hans-Georg Possanner

Hans-Georg Possanner (actually Georg Hans or Georg also: Hans Georg ; * September 27, 1940 ; † February 27, 2006 ) was an Austrian diplomat , counselor , journalist and press spokesman as well as a retired officer . D.

Life

Origin and education

Georg Possanner comes from the old Austrian family Possanner, until the nobility annulment law of 1919 barons / barons Possanner von Ehrenthal . He graduated from the Schottengymnasium in Vienna in 1958 and completed his officer training at the Alma Mater Theresiana in Wiener Neustadt from 1960 to 1963 and a general staff training at the Vienna National Defense Academy .

Career

After completing his military training in 1963, he stayed as a career officer in the Austrian Armed Forces and switched to journalism in 1972 . As the foreign policy editor of the Austrian daily Die Presse , he reported on the conflicts in the Near and Middle East in his capacity as person responsible for defense and security policy . From 1981 to 1987 he worked for the press in Washington as a correspondent for the United States and the UN, and then until autumn 1988 as an EC (now European Union , EU) and NATO correspondent in Brussels . He then moved to the newly founded daily Der Standard , where he was a member of the founding editorial team from the first editorial meeting on October 19, 1988 and then also reported from Brussels. After returning to Vienna in 1992, he was European and diplomatic correspondent for Standard until 1993 .

Even before Austria joined the EU, he again moved to Brussels, where from 1993 he designed and established the information and visit service at the (then still) Austrian EC mission and then became its head. When he joined the EU at the beginning of 1995, he was appointed press spokesman at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union , the position he held until his death in February 2006: “Georg wanted the Austrian Council Presidency to be the crowning glory of his career actively helping to shape it in his capacity as press officer. Unfortunately, this was no longer granted to him. "( Ursula Plassnik )

family

Possanner was married separately to Helene Possanner († October 18, 2015; née Ludwigstorff ) with adult children from this marriage. He had two twin daughters (* 1999) with his partner Irene Schulte (born June 20, 1964, managing director of the Salzburg Federation of Industrialists ). His private interests that counted gathering of walking sticks .

Demise

Possanner died of cancer just a few days after the diagnosis at the age of 66 and is buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery (Group 33 / H, Row 1, No. 7).

In its obituary, the Standard praised Hans-Georg Possanner and Günter Hanreich, who also died at the time, as “something like the 'men of the first hour' in Brussels: one of them, as spokesman for the Permanent Representation, was Austria's voice in the Union for almost ten years ; ... ”and described Possanner as a“ passionate European ”.

Awards

• State award for journalistic achievements in the field of comprehensive national defense.

Web links

• Federal Chancellor Schüssel on the death of Hans-Georg Possanner and Günter Hanreich. In: OTS broadcast by the press spokeswoman for Wolfgang Schüssel , then Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria, February 27, 2006.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Entry in the cemetery database of the Vienna cemeteries, accessed on June 20, 2018.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Georg Possanner: Of stick collectors and other covetous beings. In: Der Stocksammler , No. 23, December 1996, pp. 5ff. ( Full text online; PDF, 21.5 MB ( Memento from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ))
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Mag. Irene Schulte , Managing Director of the Association of Industry in Salzburg. In the “Profile” (called “Interview”) in: Club Carriere der Algoprint Marketing GesmbH (Ed.), Accessed on June 20, 2018. Here under To Success: “Above all, my deceased life partner Georg Possanna [actually: Possanner, note. ] has had a very positive impact on me for over ten years. ”As well as on about career: “ 1999 was another milestone in my career, the birth of my twin daughters. ”
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Foreign Minister Plassnik on the death of Georg Possanner, press spokesman for the permanent representation of Austria to the EU. In: OTS broadcast by the press department of Ursula Plassnik , then Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, February 27, 2006, accessed on June 20, 2018.
5. ↑ Note: Georg Possanner is the form of name under which Possanner published in the press and in the standard .
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Georg Possanner. Obituary by Moritz Röttinger. And: we mourn: "Hans Georg Possanner, MJ 58, ..." In: Schottillion. The magazine for young and old Scots. Edited by the Old Scots Association of former Scots high school students. Issue 16, June 2006, p. 9 ( full text online ; PDF.)
7. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Hans-Georg Possanner - Press Spokesman for the Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union. Curriculum Vitae and awards on the Forum Alpbach website , undated, accessed on June 20, 2018.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} Mourning for two EU-Austrians: Eurostat boss Günter Hanreich and press spokesman Hans-Georg Possanner died of cancer within a few days. In: Der Standard , Faces of Europe, print edition, February 28, 2006, accessed on June 20, 2018.
9. ^ Gerfried Sperl : A newspaper as a daily spark - 25 years of Der Standard. In: Der Standard , print edition 19./20. October 2013, accessed June 20, 2018.
10. ↑ Death reports in: Schottenpfarrblatt. Pfarrblatt No. 53, p. 7, Schottenpfarre (Ed.), Vienna 2015.
11. ^ Industriellevereinigung Salzburg GmbH, FN 194454m, Mag. Irene Schulte as managing director, entry from June 19, 2004 in the commercial register . ( Online in Firmenmonitor.at of the Wiener Zeitung , accessed on June 20, 2018.)
12. ↑ See Nekrolog February 24, 2006 , "Günter Hanreich, Austrian head of the statistical office of the EU ( Eurostat ), 51", about which Der Standard writes in the (simultaneous) obituary (with Possanner): "... is considered the architect of the transit contract".