Julius Raab

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Julius Raab (1961)

Julius Raab (born November 29, 1891 in St. Pölten , Lower Austria ; † January 8, 1964 in Vienna ) was an Austrian politician, Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria (1953–1961) and was known as the "State Treaty Chancellor ".

Origin and education

Julius Raab grew up with two brothers, including Heinrich Raab , in the St. Pölten builder family Wohlmeyer. His uncle was Johann Wohlmeyer . After graduating from the secondary school in Seitenstetten , he studied civil engineering in Vienna at the Technical University and was a member of KaV Norica Vienna , then in the CV , now in the ÖCV . He was also a member of the AV Austria Innsbruck (ÖCV). Together with the high school student Leopold Figl , he founded the secondary school association K.Ö.MV Nibelungia St. Pölten.

First World War

During the First World War , the civil engineer and builder served as a pioneer officer . When it collapsed in 1918, he led his company from the Piavefront back home as a first lieutenant . He later said that although he had no authority, people went with him voluntarily out of trust, as a closed unit.

Interwar period

Ing.Julius Raab was a member of the Christian Social Party to the National Council from 1927 to 1934 . In September 1928, Ignaz Seipel sent him to the paramilitary Heimwehr for Lower Austria , and on October 3, 1928 he was involved in establishing a dividing line between the Heimwehr and the Schutzbund in Wiener Neustadt . On May 18, 1930, as leader of the Lower Austrian Home Guard, he took the Korneuburg oath , in which “Western democratic parliamentarism” and the party state were “rejected”; This was understood by democrats as a signal of Austrofascism . However, he left the Heimwehr in December 1930 when they wanted to run as an electoral party, the Heimatblock, in competition with the Christian Socialists. In 1931, Raab founded his own “Lower Austrian Home Guard”, which in May 1932 was absorbed by the Ostmärkische Sturmscharen . He then worked intensively as a lobbyist for the trade and advocated a merger of the chambers of commerce. (The corporate state passed a Chamber of Commerce law in 1937.) Mainly due to his confrontation with National Socialism , Raab gradually distanced himself from the anti-democratic system of the Heimwehr and protested, for example, against methods of spying on the regime.

According to the Christian social ideology, he was then a "proven anti-Semite". As a member of parliament, he insulted the socialist leader Otto Bauer in a parliamentary session in 1930 as “cheeky Saujud”.

In the last cabinet of Kurt Schuschnigg before the “Anschluss” , Raab was Minister of Commerce in February / March 1938. His appointment was seen as a signal for an autonomous Austria in connection with a planned rapprochement with the previously persecuted labor movement.

Second World War

During the Nazi regime , Raab was considered “unworthy of defense” and was banned from living in what was then the “ Reichsgau Niederdonau ”. He wondered in this time, with Clemens Holzmeister in Turkey , however, to emigrate, this idea rejected. The National Socialists classified Raab as politically unreliable, but, unlike some party friends, never arrested him. The family doctor and Gauleiter of Niederdonau, Hugo Jury , saved him from the concentration camp and further reprisals.

Raab founded a construction company in Vienna in which he brought numerous friends of opinion - people who had been released from prison or who did not want to "attract attention" any further. Leopold Figl also found refuge here for a while when he was not in a concentration camp.

Political career after the war

Julius Raab ( 50 Schilling commemorative coin, 1971)
Monument to Julius Raab on Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring

Raab was the founder of the Federal Chamber of Commerce , whose presidency he took over in 1947. In 1945 he was instrumental in founding the Austrian People's Party and the Austrian Economic Association and was the first president of the Austrian Economic Association. From 1945 to 1959 he was also the regional party leader of the ÖVP Lower Austria . His appointment to the first Austrian post-war government was rejected by the Allies in 1945 because of his work as a Lower Austrian Home Guard and because, unlike other high-ranking officials of the Fatherland Front, he was not in Nazi custody. This was interpreted for him as a "fascist past". He was elected chairman of the ÖVP parliamentary club in 1945 and held this office until 1953. In 1949 he took part in the Oberweiser Conference organized by Alfred Maleta , a contact between the People's Party and former National Socialists, in order to establish a "national wing" in the ÖVP . Like many other politicians in the ÖVP and SPÖ, Raab recruited former NSDAP members as employees, such as Reinhard Kamitz , who was later Finance Minister under Raab. From 1946 to 1953 and from 1961 to 1964 he was President of the Federal Chamber of Commerce. He took up his post as head of government on April 2, 1953 and remained Federal Chancellor in four governments until April 11, 1961, and at the same time Federal Chairman of the ÖVP (see Federal Government of Raab I to Federal Government of Raab IV ).

In his chancellorship a remarkable economic boom in Austria, which is also the name of the Treasury falls Reinhard Kamitz connected (Raab-Kamitz course) . The currency was stabilized and almost full employment was achieved. In 1960 Austria also joined EFTA . Raab led coalition governments with the SPÖ , this grand coalition remained the standard form of government until 1966. In 1957 he suffered a minor stroke from which he never fully recovered, which he himself refused to admit.

Raab was a politician of the “cozy” but patriarchal type. Conscious of his power, he sat in the coffee house near the Chancellery, smoking Virginians, and caricaturists in Austrian newspapers liked to portray him with a cigar. He was recalled in 1961 because he no longer seemed dynamic enough to the ÖVP.

Raab is particularly remembered as head of the federal government, which in 1955 achieved the State Treaty and thus the withdrawal of the occupation troops. Raab was head of the government delegation that led the final negotiations in Moscow in April 1955 at the invitation of the Soviet Union . Other delegation members were Adolf Schärf (in the first two Raab governments until May 22, 1957 Vice Chancellor, then Federal President), Foreign Minister Leopold Figl - who signed for Austria on May 15, 1955 - and State Secretary Bruno Kreisky . The State Treaty ended the Allied occupation of Austria and gave the country back its full sovereignty.

Grave of Julius Raab in the Vienna Central Cemetery

Despite an illness, Raab stood out of a sense of duty for the ÖVP for the federal presidential election, in which he was defeated by the incumbent Adolf Schärf on April 28, 1963. Schärf, Federal President since 1957, was re-elected with 55.4% of the vote. Julius Raab died eight months later. He rests in a grave of honor in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 14 C, number 21 A).

Honors (excerpt)

literature

  • Michael Gehler:  Raab, Julius. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 51-53 ( digitized version ).
  • Hannes Schönner: Julius Raab - builder of free Austria. In: Ulrich E. cellsberg (ed.): Conservative profiles. Ideas and practice in politics between FM Radetzky, Karl Kraus and Alois Mock. Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz-Stuttgart 2003 ISBN 3-7020-1007-6 , pp. 379-394.

Web links

Commons : Julius Raab  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Thomas Chorherr : Great Austrians. 100 portraits of famous Austrians. Ueberreuter, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-8000-3212-0 , pp. 240-243.
  2. ↑ Josef Prinz: Political rule in Lower Austria. In: Stefan Eminger (Ed.): Lower Austria in the 20th century. Landesarchiv Niederösterreich, Böhlau, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-78197-4 , pp. 41–72, here: pp. 50f.
  3. ^ Felix Czeike : Historisches Lexikon Wien , Volume 4, Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-218-00546-9 , p. 619.
  4. ↑ a b c d Vienna's street names since 1860 as “Political Places of Remembrance” (PDF; 4.4 MB), p. 173ff, final research project report, Vienna, July 2013
  5. ↑ Robert Kriechbaumer , Manfried Rauchsteiner : The favor of the moment. Recent research on the state treaty and neutrality. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-205-77323-3 , p. 538.
  6. ↑ Ernst Hanisch (Ed.): Austrian History 1890–1990. The long shadow of the state. Austrian social history in the 20th century. Ueberreuter, Vienna 2005, p. 105.
  7. ↑ Peter Csendes : Vienna: From 1790 to the present , Böhlau, Vienna 2006, ISBN 9783205992684 , p. 501
  8. ↑ Klemens Kaps: Builder of Fascism. (...) years of apprenticeship as an Austrian State Treaty Chancellor. In: Monthly magazine Datum , No. 9/2005 ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2015 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 / www.date.at
  9. ↑ Birgit Mosser-Schuöcker: Leopold Figl: The faith in Austria . Amalthea Signum, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-902998-65-1 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  10. ^ A b Helmut Wohnout: The bourgeois ruling party and secular arm of the Catholic Church. The Christian Socials in Austria 1918–1934. In: Michael Gehler, Wolfram Kaiser, Helmut Wohnout (eds.): Christian Democracy in Europe in the 20th Century. Christian democracy in 20th century Europe. Böhlau, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-205-99360-8 , pp. 181–207, here: p. 207.
  11. ↑ https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz104007.html
  12. ↑ Lower Austria honors leading men . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 24, 1960, p. 4 , middle ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
personal data
SURNAME Raab, Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (ÖVP), member of the National Council, Federal Chancellor
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Pölten , Lower Austria
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1964
Place of death Vienna