Hubert Gorbach

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Hubert Gorbach (2005)

Hubert Gorbach (born July 27, 1956 in Frastanz , Vorarlberg ) is a former Austrian politician (first FPÖ , then BZÖ ). From 2003 to 2007, Gorbach was Vice Chancellor of the Republic of Austria and Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology in the Federal Government Schüssel II .

education and profession

Gorbach attended schools in Frastanz and Feldkirch ; He passed his Matura in 1977 at the commercial academy . In 1978 he did military service in the Austrian Armed Forces . In 1978/79 he worked as an export manager at the household appliance manufacturer Elektra Bregenz . From 1979 to 1987 he was department head, authorized representative, authorized signatory and supervisory board member of Textilwerke Ganahl and Ganahl AG. From 1987 to 1993 he was managing director of the special screw manufacturer Kolb GmbH. From 1999 to 2003 he was a member of the supervisory board of Vorarlberger Krankenhaus-Betriebsgesellschaft , from 2007 to 2017 a member of the board of directors of RHI AG , a listed manufacturer of refractory materials. Hubert Gorbach is currently the owner and managing director of Gorbach Consulting GmbH , a management consultancy he founded in his place of residence in Frastanz.

Political career

Activity in the FPÖ

From 1980 to 1985 he was federal chairman of the Ring of Freedom Youth (RFJ). From 1980 to 1985 he was also a member of the federal party executive committee of the FPÖ and from 1980 to 1992 of the federal party leadership and from 1992 to 2005 of the federal party presidium. From 1984 to 1992 he was regional party chairman and then until 2004 regional party chairman of the FPÖ Vorarlberg . From 2000 to 2002 he acted as a federal party representative.

From 1985 to 1992 he was a member of the local council of Frastanz and from 1990 to 1992 he was a member of the local council of Frastanz.

From 1989 to 1993 he represented the Freedom Party as a member of the Vorarlberg state parliament . There he was chairman of the economics committee. On October 6, 1993, Gorbach succeeded his party colleague Hans-Dieter Grabher, who had left the Vorarlberg state government , as state councilor, and from 1999 he was state governor in the state government; In 2003 he left office.

In 2000/01 he was a member of the ORF Board of Trustees.

Activity in the BZÖ

From February 28, 2003 to January 11, 2007, Gorbach was Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology, and from October 21, 2003 he also held the office of Vice Chancellor, replacing Herbert Haupt . In this function, Gerhard Sailer served as Minister Secretary. Gorbach became known, among other things, for the "Tempo 160 test route" on the Tauern motorway and for his application for a blue light. Gorbach himself later stated that the application for a flashing light for his company car had never been made and the reports about it had turned out to be newspaper ducks.

On April 5, 2005, he joined the newly founded party Bündnis Zukunft Österreich (BZÖ) led by Jörg Haider , together with other top representatives of the FPÖ . When, on April 11, 2005, a representative of the FPÖ Vorarlberg, which had not joined the BZÖ and later declared its independence, demanded Gorbach's exclusion from the party, Gorbach's criticism was preceded by the latter and left the FPÖ.

After the severe defeat of the BZÖ in regional elections in Styria and Vienna , he took over the executive chairmanship of the party.

At the end of July 2006, Gorbach ruled out a candidacy as the top candidate of the BZÖ Vorarlberg for the 2006 National Council election in Austria .

During his tenure, in his capacity as Minister of Infrastructure, he sold ÖBB - Bodenseeschifffahrt to the VLB consortium, consisting of Illwerke and the tourism company Walter Klaus .

Professional reorientation

After retiring from politics, he switched to the private sector as manager of the corporate group of tourism entrepreneur Walter Klaus. After only four months he left the company and then founded his own consulting company Gorbach Consulting , with which he oversees infrastructure projects in Russia and Belarus, among other things. Since 2009 Gorbach has also been President of the Snow Academy, a training facility for snowmaking technology .

His letter to the British Finance Minister Alistair Darling , in which he described his professional situation with the reference “The world in Vorarlberg is too small”, caused a stir . For this project, Gorbach used his old stationery as Vice Chancellor, with the Austrian state insignia, handwritten with "aD" for " out of service ". This approach was sharply criticized by politicians and the media in Austria, and prosecution under administrative criminal law was not ruled out at first, but was put back after brief prosecution. Even the British newspaper The Guardian and the Financial Times commented on the letter with unusual mockery and published extracts of it. The Austrian Association of Translators and Interpreters, Universitas, voted the letter to the British Finance Minister Darling the "offense of the season".

In December 2010, as he explained, Gorbach was in Minsk as an observer of the 2010 presidential elections in Belarus at the invitation of the foreign minister there, Sjarhej Martynau . While observers from the OSCE stated in their report that the elections did not meet democratic standards, he certified that the ballot, as far as he observed it, “fully met Western European standards”.

In August 2011 it became known that Gorbach was suspected of having carried out the new version of the Universal Services Ordinance (UDVO, regulates the nationwide minimum coverage obligation with telecommunications services) in 2006 as a minister in the interests of Telekom Austria , and for this by the company after he left the ministerial office 264,000 euros to have been paid. This allegation is part of the telecommunications affair . He was then expelled from the party by Josef Bucher , chairman of the BZÖ. The investigations against Hubert Gorbach in connection with the Telekom affair were closed by the public prosecutor in October 2017 as part of a diversion against payment of a sum of money, the procedural costs and a partial compensation of 100,000 euros to Telekom.

At the end of May 2018, the operating company for the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel (Brennerbasistunnel Gesellschaft - BBT SE) announced that Hubert Gorbach will in future be a member of the company's Supervisory Board. BBT SE is owned 50% each by the Italian Republic and the Republic of Austria, with the Austrian share being held by ÖBB Infrastruktur AG, which has been headed by Supervisory Board Chairman Gilbert Trattner since February 2018 .

Awards (excerpt)

Web links

Commons : Hubert Gorbach  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography on the homepage of the Austrian Parliament
  2. ^ ORF : 160 and Blaulicht: Gorbach rejects green criticism ( memento from September 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), December 16, 2005
  3. ↑ Sandra Nemetschke: Hubert Gorbach: "I was and still am in the line of fire". In: Vorarlberg Online (vol.at). March 22, 2015, accessed August 7, 2018 .
  4. ^ ORF: Gorbach leaves Klaus Holding , May 25, 2007
  5. ↑ a b Die Presse : Ex-Vice Gorbach election observer for Belarus , December 20, 2010
  6. ↑ Gorbach is President of the Snow Academy, ORF Vorarlberg (September 24, 2009)
  7. ↑ Original text of the letter
  8. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / orf.at
  9. ↑ Article in the Guardian of September 28, 2007
  10. ↑ Article in the Financial Times of September 28, 2007 (subject to a fee)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ft.com  
  11. ↑ ORF: evil Translation Prize for Gorbach
  12. ↑ Der Standard : Universal Service Ordinance - Gorbach amended ordinance in October 2006 , 25 August 2011
  13. ↑ Der Standard : Gorbach and the Telekom - Telekom affair could expand , August 25, 2011
  14. ↑ Telekom: Gorbach accepts diversity offer from the judiciary. In: diePresse.com . June 7, 2017. Retrieved August 7, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Vorarlberg Online : BBT Supervisory Board: Hubert Gorbach has a new task - Greens romp , May 25, 2018
  16. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Gorbach, Hubert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (FPÖ), member of the state parliament and Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Frastanz , Vorarlberg