Johann Haselgruber

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Johann Haselgruber (* uncertain: February 4, 1919 in Linz ; † November 8, 1967 in Vienna ) was an Austrian entrepreneur who caused a sensation at the end of the 1950s due to a party donation affair and the bankruptcy of his company.

life and career

Haselgruber was an apprentice in a Linz grocery store and an illegal member of the NSDAP . From 1940 a soldier in the German Wehrmacht , Haselgruber was already involved in the organization of metals for the German armaments industry during the war. After 1945 he initially worked as a scrap and metal wholesaler in Germany and was involved in business with the East, which earned him a highly critical article in Spiegel on April 25, 1951. In 1951 he founded an ironworks (rolling mill, later also steelworks) in St. Andrä-Wölker in Lower Austria , the administrative center of which was in Vienna . In the short term, the company became a large company, employing up to 1,400 people shortly before the crisis of 1958. The heavily indebted ironworks with excellent contacts to the East soon ran into difficulties, however, with Haselgruber apparently trying to obtain further loan assistance through "loans" to the Vienna ÖVP . (According to the Arbeiter-Zeitung of August 30, 1958, claims by the company “against political organizations” of ATS 17 to 23 million were reported in the settlement procedure ).

A compensation ultimately proved to be impossible. The nationalized Österreichisch-Alpine Montangesellschaft continued to run the steelworks with around 200 employees until 1967, when it was finally shut down. In 1977 the former company premises were bought by the municipality of St. Andrä Wölker, who built apartments and an industrial area there.

Haselgruber himself had been sentenced to eight months' arrest in 1959 for negligent krida . He then started trading junk again, but had business and family problems. In November 1967 he committed suicide using coal gas.

The "Haselgruber case" temporarily became a priority issue in Austrian domestic politics, especially in June and July 1958 (in view of the settlement proceedings that failed in August), and it also played a role in the National Council elections of 1959. He also made a decisive contribution to the overthrow of the regional party chairman of the Vienna ÖVP Fritz Polcar on June 6, 1958 .

cabaret

The three rascals recorded the Don Haselgruber song , the single ( Harmona 3D No. 36439) is entitled In der Bodega von Langenlois and is a parody of the calypso in the arena of Guayaquil .

literature

  • Uwe Kitzinger: The Austrian Election of 1959 , in Political Studies, June 1961, pp. 119 ff.
  • Fritz Mathis: Big Business in Austria , Oldenbourg, Munich 1987, p. 249.
  • The big ring business . In: Der Spiegel . No. 17 , 1951 ( online ).
  • Hans Weiss, Krista Federspiel: Who? , Vienna 1988, 69 f.
  • Hasi in the pit . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1958 ( online ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Haselgruber's bankruptcy - final . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna August 30, 1958, p. 1 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  2. ↑ Haselgruber's last resort. After doing business with Hitler, the Russians and the ÖVP, the scrap king failed . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 10, 1967, p. 3 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
personal data
SURNAME Haselgruber, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: February 4, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Linz
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1967
Place of death Vienna