Josef Dobretsberger

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Josef Dobretsberger (left), chairman of the Democratic Union of Austria, as a guest at the 7th party conference of the Eastern CDU in Weimar, 1954

Josef Dobretsberger (born February 28, 1903 in Linz , Austria-Hungary ; † May 13, 1970 in Graz ) was an Austrian lawyer , economist and politician .

Life

Dobretsberger was a student of Hans Kelsen , a member of the CV ( K.Ö.HV Carolina Graz ) and a left- wing Catholic . In 1929 and 1930 he was general secretary of the Reichsbauernbundes . At the age of 30 he was sponsored by the Minister of Education Emmerich Czermak , a university professor in Graz. As Minister of Social Affairs (from October 17, 1935) in the authoritarian corporate state , Dobretsberger, who was described as a lovable and cheerful personality, vainly advocated a policy of understanding with the Social Democrats, who were defeated in the February uprising in 1934, but was also hit by the Phoenix scandal over a luxurious one financed by the head of insurance, Wilhelm Berliner Apartment in the talk and had to vacate his ministerial post. 1937/38 Dobretsberger was rector of the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz. In March 1938 he resigned from this office, but stated in a letter to the Academic Senate that “ as a civil servant he had made this decision with the utmost loyalty to the new government. "

In 1938 Dobretsberger emigrated and worked as a professor in Istanbul and Cairo during the Second World War . In Istanbul he belonged to a group of Austrians around the Special Operations Executive who subversively fought against National Socialism.

After 1945 Dobretsberger worked again as a professor at the University of Graz (Rector 1946-47) and was also politically active again. Initially a member of the ÖVP , he left the party in protest after the Oberweiser Conference became known and continued his career in close proximity to the KPÖ . (According to Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky , this is why political opponents called him "Soviet Berger"). He was chairman and in the National Council elections in 1949 also the top candidate of the Democratic Union , which merged with the KPÖ and the Left Socialists in the National Council election in 1953 to form the “Austrian People's Opposition” alliance. The "popular opposition" won four seats, all of which went to KPÖ candidates.

In the Democratic Union, Dobretsberger criticized Austria's strong orientation towards the West and called for an increase in trade with the so-called Eastern Bloc countries and China. He tried to persuade the Federal Ministry of Trade and Reconstruction to participate in the World Economic Conference in Moscow in April 1952. The ministry declined, however, and so Dobretsberger independently organized a visit to the conference together with interested business representatives. Immediately after the conference in May 1952, he founded the Austrian Office for East-West Trade Association , of which he also became chairman. Members were representatives of companies that had an interest in trade with the East and several periodical publications were issued on this.

The office was the main field of activity for Dobretsberger until the end of his life. He died in May 1970 and was buried on May 29, 1970 in the Neustift cemetery .

Fonts

  • The law in the economy. , Vienna 1927
  • About the meaning and development of the New State. Vienna 1934
  • Money in the changing economy. Bern 1946
  • Catholic social policy at a crossroads. Graz 1947

literature

  • Peter Autengruber : Univ.-Prof. Dr Josef Dobretsberger. From Federal Minister for Social Administration to Chairman of the Democratic Union . In: Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance (Ed.): Yearbook 1996, Vienna 1996, pp. 172–203
  • Viktor Matejka : Stimulation is everything - The book No. 2 , Vienna 1991 ISBN 3-85409-075-7
  • Harry Slapnicka : Upper Austria. The political leadership 1918 to 1938 . Oberösterreichischer Landesverlag, Linz 1976, ISBN 3-85214-163-X , pp. 66–68
  • Michael Egger: The difficult road into Ataturk's land. JD's exile in Istanbul. In: "Zwischenwelt. Literature, Resistance, Exile". Zs. Der Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft , vol. 29, issue 3, October 2012 ISSN  1606-4321 pp. 49-53
  • Peter Rosner: Dobretsberger, Josef. In: Harald Hagemann , Claus-Dieter Krohn (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of the German-speaking economic emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Adler – Lehmann. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11284-X , pp. 125-128.
  • Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of the German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life . Munich: Saur, 1980, p. 133
  • Gertrude Enderle-Burcel : Josef Dobretsberger - a political cross-border commuter in East-West trade . In: Gertrude Enderle-Burcel, Dieter Stiefel , Alice Teichova (eds.): “Zarte Gang” - Austria and the European planned economy countries. Communications from the Austrian State Archives . Special volume 9th Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2006, ISBN 978-3-7065-4336-1 , p. 131-151 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The date of death is not without controversy: May 13 is widely stated, but the Cartell Association mentions May 23, 1970.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The new men. In:  Reichspost , October 18, 1935, p. 2 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / rpt.
  2. ^ Walter Höflechner : History of the Karl-Franzens-University Graz. From the beginning until 2005 . Leykam, Graz 2006, ISBN 3-7011-0058-6 , p. 184.
  3. ↑ Peter Pirker : Militant Exile. Anti-German resistance in Yugoslavia 1939/40. In: Zwischenwelt. Journal of the Theodor Kramer Society , vol. 27, # 4, February 2011, p. 43. In the note, the documents.
  4. ↑ quoted from: Hans Joachim Dahms in: Friedrich Stadler et al. (Ed), Displaced Reason, Vol. 2, p. 1018.
personal data
SURNAME Dobretsberger, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer, economist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Linz
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1970 or May 23, 1970
Place of death Graz