Helmut Krebs (Tourism Director)

Helmut Krebs (born December 10, 1924 in Vienna ; † May 12, 1997 in Vienna- Döbling ) was an official of the Vienna city administration and worked in public relations for the city of Vienna as well as tourism director for tourism to Vienna.

Life

Helmut Krebs studied after his military service in the Armed Forces at the Vienna University of Journalism and English and was founded in 1954 with a dissertation on Karl Kraus Dr. phil. PhD. During his studies he made friends with the later mayor of Vienna, Leopold Gratz, who was active among socialist students .

Activity in the magistrate

In the same year he entered the service of the City of Vienna under Mayor Franz Jonas and initially worked in the Department for Special Tasks of the Vienna City Building Department, which was responsible for public relations work on the numerous building projects of the city administration and urban planning. When Kurt Heller and city planner Roland Rainer took office in 1958 ( word of mouth : In Vienna it will be brighter and rainer ), this was pushed considerably. The area of ​​responsibility of the department also included pointing out the upward development of Vienna after the Second World War with exhibitions abroad .

In accordance with the scope of the reconstruction after the war destruction , the monthly magazine published by the city building authority was called der aufbau . Krebs was responsible for the editorial coordination of the expert contributions. In addition to the magazine, the office also published numerous brochures in which construction projects were documented according to sectors (residential construction, road construction, school construction, etc.).

As the successor to Rudolf Boeck, who had been in office since 1946, Krebs was appointed head of the department for special tasks in 1964. In his contacts with German city administrations, he became aware that local public relations work there was often carried out in the “press and information service”, where media work and public relations work were carried out under cross-departmental management. In the mid-1960s, under Mayor Bruno Marek , he therefore proposed that the press office belonging to the City of Vienna's Magistrate Directorate be expanded to include the City of Vienna's press and information service with the Department for Special Tasks of the Building Directorate.

The proposal was implemented in the summer of 1967. The previous head of the press office, editor-in-chief Wilhelm Adametz, was appointed head of the new department of the municipal administration, while Helmut Krebs became his deputy. In 1968 the “PID” was able to move into rooms on the 4th floor of the extended “Forum Cinema” (1st, Rathausstrasse 1) .

The Vienna City Administration's “Open Day”, which has been held annually since 1967, and the ombudsman functions for communal matters, had a positive effect, as did the central information point called “ City Hall Information”, later “City Information”, in the Friedrich-Schmidt-Platz entrance area of the Vienna City Hall .

In 1968, on the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the republic , the “PID” organized the interactive “Vienna Jubilee Exhibition 1968”, for which a temporary building, was organized under Krebs' direction in the Volkshalle and in the arcade courtyard of the town hall. "Diascope" called, was built. Among other things, the New Danube project (structurally: relief channel) with Danube Island , implemented from 1972 onwards, was presented there.

Tourism Director

At the invitation of Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner , President of the Vienna Tourist Association , Krebs succeeded Walter Minarz as Managing Director of the Association on January 1, 1973 under Mayor Felix Slavik (old title: General Secretary; new title: Regional Foreign Transport Director). In the same year his friend Leopold Gratz (until 1984) became mayor. Krebs remained in office under Fröhlich-Sandner's successor, Hans Mayr , who was elected on December 18, 1984 .

In 1974 the Vienna Tourist Association organized the exhibition Viena Gloriosa, Austria Creativa , for which the emigrated Austrian Otto Heller (Consul General) had campaigned in cooperation with the Federal Chamber of Commerce in São Paulo , Brazil, under the direction of Krebs . (Initiatives for the Austrian State Treaty , which ended the occupation, came from Brazil in the 1950s .) Further joint appearances followed overseas. In 1978, to strengthen the interests of the cities in tourism marketing throughout Austria, Krebs founded the city tourism working group of the provincial capitals and the federal capital ("ArGe Cities"). Joint advertising campaigns were carried out by Vienna, Salzburg , Innsbruck and Vienna Airport in 1986/1987 in the United States , with Salzburg worldwide for the Mozart year 1991.

Thanks to very good contacts with top politicians in the City of Vienna, Krebs succeeded in gradually expanding the association's area of ​​responsibility and budget and working actively to increase tourism to Vienna. From the “PID” he was able to “take” the task of organizing city administration exhibitions abroad with him to the tourist association. Regular “Vienna Tourism Conferences” served to make the concerns of the industry public. In 1990, the first year after the removal of the Iron Curtain , the Viennese tourism industry achieved a record that was only exceeded in 1998 during the tenure of Mayor Helmut Zilk with 7.5 million overnight stays.

In April 1991, Krebs managed the relocation of his team from office building 9., Kinderspitalgasse 5, where the Tourist Association had its seat chosen by Krebs since the summer of 1973, to Palais Grassalkovics , 2., Obere Augartenstrasse 40 (where the association will then be active until the end of June 2014 was). On October 1, 1991, Krebs, 67, passed his office on to Karl Seitlinger, who on June 26, 1991 had been elected as his successor by the Tourism Commission , the association's supervisory board, at the suggestion of Mayr. Krebs remained a member of the association's advertising committee until his death.

death

Helmut Krebs was married to Edith Hüttl (December 8, 1924– May 17, 2009). In 1949 she completed her dissertation at the University of Vienna on women in Austrian social democracy and worked for decades in the Chamber of Labor and Employees . The couple had a daughter. Helmut Krebs died on May 12, 1997 shortly after returning from a trip to Israel. Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner , Leopold Gratz and Hans Mayr attended his farewell in the Simmering fire hall on May 21, 1997 . Edith Krebs' grave is in the Baumgartner Friedhof in Vienna; for Helmut Krebs there is no entry in the city grave site search.

Own works

• The thought of peace in the works of Karl Kraus . Phil. Diss., Vienna 1953, 152 pages
• Housing for the people. In: Austria, country on the rise . Edited by Robert Stern, Vienna 1955, p. 184 ff. (See keyword community housing )
• New kindergartens in the city of Vienna . Edited by Wiener Stadtbauamt. Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1956, 154 pages
• Social green in Vienna . Edited by Stadtbauamt Wien, 2nd edition, Vienna 1957, 95 pages
• Jugendgästehaus Hütteldorf , Helmut Krebs (Red.), Ed. Stadtbauamtsdirektion Wien, Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1958 (House design: Fred Freyler )
• Franz Glück, Helmut Krebs: Historical Museum of the City of Vienna , Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1959 (published for the opening of the new Vienna Museum on Karlsplatz )
• Social housing in the city of Vienna . Edited by Wiener Stadtbauamt. Book series Der Aufbau , No. 32. Vienna 1956, 187 pages (with lists of all buildings 1919–1955)
• The Wiener Stadthalle , published by Stadtbauamtsdirektion Wien, Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1958
• Special school of the city of Vienna for physically handicapped children: 18th district, Währinger Strasse 173–181 , Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1959, 1960, 43 pages
• With Franz Stadlmann and Richard Kurfürst -West: The new Vienna. A city with a conscience . Illustrated by Rudolf Angerer . Verlag für Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1960, 1962, 170 pp.
• The Vienna Blind Garden , Vienna 1960 (see keyword Wertheimsteinpark )
• New building of the general hospital (university clinics) , published by Wiener Stadtbauamt, special print from issue 6/7 of the magazine Der Aufbau , Vienna 1966
• International Center Vienna (VIC). Vienna International Center , Helmut Krebs (ed.), Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1979

Honors

• Large Silver Medal for Services to the State of Vienna, September 25, 1991

literature

• Felix Czeike : Historisches Lexikon Wien , Volume 6 (supplementary volume), Kremayr & Scheriau / Orac, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-218-00741-0 , p. 111

Web links

• Vienna tourism
• Website of the Vienna Tourist Board

Individual evidence

1. ^ Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 1: A – Da. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 , p. 411.
2. ^ Review of the correspondence from the City Hall , October 6, 1967, on the website of the Vienna City Administration
3. ^ The Vienna Jubilee Exhibition 1968. In: City of Vienna. Official organ of the federal capital , published by the Press and Information Service of the City of Vienna, special issue ( To a budget ), September 1968, p. 14
4. ↑ From the “open door” to the anniversary. In: Tageszeitung Arbeiter-Zeitung , Vienna, October 8, 1968, p. 5
5. ↑ [1]
6. ↑ Tourist Association for Vienna (ed.): Arbeitsbericht 1978, Preview 1979 , Vienna, March 23, 1979
7. ↑ Wiener Tourismusverband (publisher): Vienna Tourism from A to Z. Work report 1986/87 , supplement to tourist austria international , Vienna, July 3, 1987, p. 18 f.
8. ^ Wiener Tourismusverband (ed.): Vienna Tourism. 50 years & the future. 1955-2005 , Vienna 2005, p. 43; as a PDF file on the Vienna Tourist Board website ( memento of the original dated November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ^ Wiener Tourismusverband (publisher): Work report 1991/92 of the Wiener Tourismusverband , Vienna 1992, p. 3