Josef Otto Slezak

Josef Otto Slezak (born May 22, 1922 , † December 28, 2002 in Vienna ) was an Austrian publisher and author who devoted himself particularly to the railway industry.

Slezak, who initially worked as a teacher, built up a family-run, small but highly specialized publishing house in his later years, which also gained a high reputation among railway enthusiasts outside of Austria.

On the occasion of the discontinuation of the Salzkammergut local railway in 1957, Slezak published a commemorative publication as the first work, which also dealt very critically with the political circumstances of this line closure, which was still largely unusual in Austrian railway literature at that time. Slezak consistently maintained his “green” attitude towards transport issues in his further work as a publisher and as author and co-author of numerous works on the subject of rail transport.

Slezak was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery . The Slezak publishing house was continued by his two daughters until 2016.

Works

• Wide track and long stretches. A journey through the railway system of the Soviet Union. VEB Verlag for Transport Transpress , 1963.
• The locomotives of the Republic of Austria . Slezak Publishing House, 1970.
• A passenger sees red - environmental destroyer on the way . Slezak publishing house, 1988, ISBN 3-85416-078-X
• Krobot, Slezak, Sternhart: Narrow-gauge through Austria . 4th edition, Slezak Verlag, 1991, ISBN 3-85416-095-X
• From Salzburg to Bad Ischl, history of the Salzkammergut local railway . 2nd edition, Slezak Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-85416-170-0

literature

• Alfred Gottwaldt: Vienna - and to the left of it. In memory of Josef Otto Slezak, publisher and founder of the "International Archive for Locomotive History" . In: Eisenbahngeschichte , 5 (2007), No. 21, pp. 58–59.