Josef Fröhlich (politician)

Josef Fröhlich (1970)

Josef Fröhlich (born December 6, 1925 in Vienna ) was an innkeeper, ÖVP member of the Vienna Landtag and local council and representative of the gastronomy and tourism sectors in the Austrian Chamber of Commerce .

Life

Fröhlich passed his Matura at a Vienna commercial academy and served in the German armed forces from 1943 to 1945. After his return he passed the waiter's assistant examination in 1948 and in 1950 took over the Gasthaus Zum Annaberg ( 7th , Breite Gasse 16) from his parents and expanded it into a modern restaurant. According to Fröhlich, "all the greats of the theater of the time" frequented there (the Volkstheater was in the immediate vicinity). He became Vienna's first "theater host", where the author Hans Weigel celebrated his first regulars' table for years. The PEN also had its regulars' table in "Annaberg".

In 1952 he built up the catering youth organization and merged it into the federal association he founded, which he chaired for 16 years as chairman. He was also a proponent of the Austrian Hospitality Association (BÖG), which, under his presidency, founded the Austrian Hospitality Board of Trustees with the ÖAMTC and brought out Austria's first gastronomic guide. From 1952 he was a functionary of the official interest group of the economy, the Vienna Chamber of Commerce (then known as the Chamber of Commerce ), and later also the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (at that time called Federal Chamber for short , abbreviation for Federal Chamber of Commerce in Austria).

In 1963, Fröhlich set up his second restaurant a few steps further in the revitalized Spittelberg -iedermeier house at Burggasse 13 and named it after a farce by the Viennese playwright Johann Nestroy " On the ground floor and first floor ". (The Biedermeier café restaurant is actually on the ground floor and is located on the first floor and still exists today.) In addition, he continued his education and, for example, completed the university course for tourism from 1953 to 1955.

From 1964 to 1971 he worked for the Vienna ÖVP municipal council and member of the state parliament and in the municipal council committee for culture, public education, school administration and sport. In this function, he initiated above all the beginning of the preservation of the old town, the revitalization of listed objects and was a leader in the development and expansion of tourism, such as B. the season-extending activities involved.

He resigned as a politician when he married the Social Democratic Vice Mayor of Vienna Gertrude Sandner in 1971 .

From 1965 to 1985 he acted as the highest interest representative of the Austrian catering establishments (head of the professional association ). In 1970 he was elected the highest representative of the Viennese tourism industry ( chairman of the tourism section ) and in this function also had to protect the interests of the hotel industry, travel agencies and tourist guides.

From 1985 to 1990 Josef Fröhlich (Austria as a whole) was chairman of the Federal Tourism Department, from 1990 to 1995 one of the vice-presidents of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce. As a result, he was active on several supervisory boards, including the (state) operating company for Schönbrunn Palace (where he is still the honorary chairman) and for the administration of the Vienna UNO-City .

From 1965 to 1991 Fröhlich was a representative of the economy in organs of the Austrian Tourism Advertising (now Austria Advertising ). He did not only devote himself to foreign advertising in tourism, but also played a leading role in advertising for Austrian guests. The Chamber of Commerce has been carrying out Austrian national advertising campaigns since 1964. The individual promotions are dealt with in a committee, which the aforementioned chaired until 1990.

In 1958 he was sent for the first time as permanent representative of Austria to the International Ho-Re-Ca, the world organization of the hotel and hospitality industry. How much his work in this organization was valued was shown by his appointment to the General Board in 1965, his election as President in 1975 and Honorary President in 1980.

The encounter with Friedrich Jahn led to the establishment of a hotel in the Vienna Woods chain, the Tourotel Vienna in Oberlaa . The connection between the Wienerwald Group and the representatives of the City of Vienna was a joyful one. During the negotiations, the legal basis for the Vienna Tourotel in Oberlaa was created, the basic purchase was made possible, another Wienerwald restaurant was fixed there, the planning was transferred to the prominent architectural office Requat & Reinthaller and the spatial connection with the Oberlaa thermal baths was achieved. He was significantly involved in the construction of the Vienna hotel.

In December 1973, Fröhlich took over the management of all tour hotels built so far in Switzerland, Germany, Linz and Vienna. With immediate effect, he installed a supra-regional sales office and the monitoring of the entire functional process of all tour hotels. Subsequently, he received the sole power of attorney of the group "Wienerwald Austria" and initiated the construction of further Wienerwald restaurants as well as Wienerwald service stations on the Austrian motorways. After the change of ownership, he organized the sale of the Austrian tour hotels and continued to work in an advisory capacity after retiring in 1992. In his capacity as President of the Skål Club of Vienna and the National Committee of Austria, from 1975 onwards he promoted the amical meetings of leading tourism managers and entrepreneurs in the field of official advertising agencies and modes of transport. It was thanks to his initiative that the International Skål Congress was held in Vienna in 1988 with several thousand participants.

Gertrude Fröhlich-Sandner died in 2008. In her final years she had lived separately from Josef Fröhlich.

Honors

• Gold Medal of Merit of the Republic of Austria (2001)
• Cross of Honor of the Federal State of Styria
• Tyrolean Eagle Order in gold
• Great Silver Medal of Honor for Services to the State of Vienna (2001)

Web links

• CV written by Fröhlich on the Club Carriere website
• Alleged sayings by Fröhlich on a quotation website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Website of the restaurant ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2014 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.  
2. ↑ Press release from June 20, 2001 on the honor