Karl Lakowitsch

Karl Lakowitsch (born February 5, 1897 in Vienna , † February 2, 1975 in Vienna) was an Austrian shoemaker and politician ( ÖVP ).

Lakowitsch was a member of the Viennese state parliament and a member of the municipal council , a member of the National Council and the Federal Council, as well as the executive city councilor and deputy governor of Vienna.

He held leading positions in the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, in the Austrian Chamber of Commerce and in the commercial cooperative system as chairman of the board and later President of the Association Committee of the Austrian Cooperative Association (ÖGV) and as a board member and later President of the Supervisory Board of the Austrian Central Cooperative (ÖVAG).

After his death, Karl Lakowitsch was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery in a grave of honor (Group 14C, No. 32).

education and profession

Karl Lakowitsch attended elementary school in Vienna and graduated from a secondary school in 1915 . He studied chemistry for a year at the Technical University of Vienna and completed an apprenticeship as a shoemaker between 1919 and 1922 . In 1929 he passed the master's examination as an orthopedic shoemaker and subsequently took over his parents' business, which was involved in the manufacture of orthopedic shoes and insoles.

Functions in the professional representation

He was active in commercial organizational life, headed the Viennese shoemaker guild between 1934 and 1938 and founded the productive cooperative of shoemakers in Vienna in 1934. In 1938 he was imprisoned for political reasons. In 1949 he was given the professional title of Commercial Councilor.

Political functions

Lakowitsch became involved in politics after the Second World War .

He was a member of the National Council between December 19, 1945 and March 18, 1953 and a member of the Federal Council between May 29, 1953 and September 28, 1953.

After Ernst Robetschek's withdrawal from the Viennese provincial government, Lakowitsch changed to his post on October 2, 1953, as the official city councilor for building authorities and other technical matters and held this office until April 24, 1964. He belonged to the state governments Jonas I , II and III . In addition, between December 10, 1954 and December 11, 1964, he was a member of the Vienna State Parliament and a member of the Vienna City Council. On December 15, 1959, he was elected Deputy Governor of Vienna and held this office until April 24, 1964. On this day, he also resigned from his position as city councilor.

Functions in the Chamber of Commerce

Lakowitsch was curator of the Economic Development Institute of the Federal Chamber of Commerce and between 1954 and 1970 President of the Chamber of Commerce for Vienna.

Functions in the commercial cooperative system in Austria

The first points of contact with the commercial cooperative system arose during his activity in the professional representation of his profession, where in 1926 he initiated the Central Association of Orthopedic Shoemakers in Austria and in 1934 founded the productive cooperative “Schuhmacher Lago Wien” in order to run the shoemaker's trade through a joint business with public contracts supply. At the time, he assumed personal liability for the start-up loan.

In 1948 and 1949 he managed the Metall-Lago, the Wagner- und Schmiede-Lago, the Sattler-Lago, the Upholsterer-Lago, the Schuhmacher-Lago and the Kürschner-Lago. From 1948 to 1953 he was the liquidator of all social services and from 1963 a member of the board of directors of the credit union for tradespeople.

After 1945, he was also instrumental in the renewed merger of the Austrian Cooperative Association, which was broken up by National Socialist rule into a Danube and Alpine Association, and was elected chairman of the board of the Austrian Cooperative Association in 1946. He held this position until 1961 and, after the restructuring of the association's bodies, he held a leading position in the commercial cooperative as president of the association committee until 1968. In 1969 he was elected honorary president of the ÖGV for life with a seat and vote in the association committee.

In 1946 he was first appointed public administrator of the then Österreichische Zentralgenossenschaftskasse (today ÖVAG), the top money organization of the Volksbanks , and was elected to the board of directors and later to the supervisory board as well as the president of the supervisory board.

Awards

• Awarded the professional title of Commercial Councilor
• Large gold medal with the star for services to the Republic of Austria
• Schulze-Delitzsch commemorative coin in gold of the German Cooperative Association (1958)
• Honorary Citizen of the City of Vienna (February 16, 1962)
• Grand Decoration of Honor in Gold from the Austrian Cooperative Association (1962)
• Honorary Senator of the University of Vienna (1966), the Vienna University of Technology and the University of World Trade

literature

• Magistrate of the City of Vienna (Ed.): The City Council of the City of Vienna, the Vienna State Parliament, the Vienna City Senate, the Vienna State Government 1945–1985 . Magistrate Directorate, Vienna 1986.
• Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna . Volume 3: Ha-La . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-218-00545-0
• The commercial cooperative, organ of the Austrian cooperative association, No. 5-7 / 1969, p. 506.
• Robert Schediwy : Karl Lakowitsch as a member of the cooperative (unpublished manuscript), Vienna 1997, p. 2.
• On the 100th birthday of President Kommerzialrat Karl Lakowitsch , in: Die Gewerbliche Genossenschaft, 3/97, Vienna 1997, p. 33f

Web links

• Karl Lakowitsch on the website of the Austrian Parliament