Karl Wrabetz

This article describes the Austrian lithographer and photographer. For the German physico-chemist and writer see Karl Wrabetz (Chemiker) .

Karl Wrabetz (born April 24, 1846 in Vienna ; † August 29, 1924 there ) was an Austrian lithographer and photographer , bank manager and person in the Austrian cooperative system and a member of the Reichsrat in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy .

From 1892 to 1919 he was a leading personality and association attorney at the General Association (today the Austrian Cooperative Association ).

Life and education

Wrabetz attended elementary and lower secondary school in Vienna's 2nd district and evening courses at the Vienna Commercial Academy . He learned lithography and worked as a freelance photographer from 1867. In 1893 he handed over the business to his eldest son in order to be able to devote himself entirely to his work as a lawyer for the General Association.

Functions in cooperatives and associations

• In 1872 he was elected board member and later director of the "Allgemeine Vorvorskasse" in Vienna and held this office until 1890. He reformed the statute , administration, bookkeeping and accounting , which made these areas exemplary for the Vienna advance payment associations.
• In 1872 he was present at the constituent meeting of the General Association, took part in the annual deliberations within the framework of the general association days and in the following 33 years emerged as an applicant as well as a speaker, discussant and reporter.
• In 1877 he was elected to the Select Committee of the General Association.
• In 1878 he was a co-founder and from 1886 until his election as a lawyer on the board of the cooperative club in Vienna, which he supported with lectures and lectures even after his departure.
• From 1886 to 1901 Wrabetz was involved in the implementation of the revisions voluntarily introduced in the advance association sub-associations of Lower Austria and Bohemia , carried out various reforms in the association and attended the sub-association days.
• In 1891, as a promoter of trade and the independent cooperative system, he played a key role in founding the “Wiener Gewerblichen Kredit-Institut”, in whose direction he joined.
• In 1892 he became a lawyer for the General Association and remained in this position until 1919.
• From 1892 he edited the organ of the association "The Cooperative" and from 1892 he was also the editor of the "Announcements on the annual general association days" and the "Annual statistical reports".
• Further publications in 1903 were the “Cooperative work calendar as a work tool for board members and supervisory boards of trade and business cooperatives” and the brochure “The Law of June 10, 1903, RGBl. 133, including the implementing regulation ”.
• Wrabetz also drafted model statutes for all types of trade and business cooperatives as well as sample accounts for advance payment, consumption, raw material and productive cooperatives.

Functions in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry

• In 1877 he became a member of the Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and during his seven years of activity held numerous lectures on commercial matters, for example on the "usury question" and the tax proposals at the time. He wrote extensive reports on the situation of the trade and business cooperatives in Lower Austria as part of the annual Chamber of Commerce reports.
• In 1880 he was delegated by the Chamber to the Board of Trustees of the Kaiser Franz Josef Foundation for the Support of Small Business in Vienna, where he was elected to the governing committee in 1881 and remained active as a curator in this foundation even after he left the Chamber Resigned from his position in 1897 for political reasons.

Functions in politics

• He ran in the elections for the House of Representatives of the Reichsrat in 1885 and was elected as a member of the Reichstag by the 9th district of Vienna on June 1, 1885, and held this mandate until the House of Representatives was dissolved in 1918.
• He was alternately a member of the commercial, tax, socio-political and economic as well as the tax committee. Numerous tax concessions granted to the trade and business cooperatives can be traced back to his activities in the permanent tax committee.
• Particularly noteworthy are his proposals to reform the bankruptcy code and to introduce compulsory revisions to trade and business cooperatives. He eventually got the revision law passed on June 10, 1903.

Functions in the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Commerce

• In 1895 he was appointed to the Trade Promotion Advisory Board, where he was involved on the one hand in the organizational work relating to the introduction of credit to cooperatives and on the other hand in ongoing work such as the approval of work aids, subsidies, loans, etc.
• In 1898 he was appointed to the Special Commission for Social Economy, Hygiene and Public Aid, which formed a section of the commission for the Paris World's Fair in 1900. There he wrote the “Report on the Employment and Economic Cooperatives in Austria”, which was published in the anthology “Social Administration in Austria” at the end of the 19th century. At the end of 1900 he resigned from the advisory board for trade promotion for health reasons.

Government contracts

• At the invitation of the government, Wrabetz was allowed to express himself as a cooperative expert at important inquiries, including a. 1897 on the occasion of the planned reform of the cooperative law, 1901 on the small business credit system, 1903 on the revision law and 1911 on the draft of a new cooperative law.

Awards

• Franz Joseph Order (1909)
• War Cross for Civil Merit (1917)
• Censor of the Austro-Hungarian Bank

swell

• Johann Brazda, Robert Schwdiwy, Tode Todev: Self-help or politicized economy, On the history of the Austrian cooperative association (Schulze-Delitzsch) 1872 to 1997 , Vienna 1997
• Peter Wrabetz: Karl Wrabetz - Cooperative Lawyer and Politician , Volume 6, Ziller-Schriften, Österreichischer Genossenschaftsverband (Schulze-Delitzsch), Vienna 2007, ISBN 9783902131126

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann Brazda, Robert Schwdiwy Death Todev: self-help or politicized economy, the history of the Austrian Federation of Cooperatives (Schulze-Delitzsch) 1872-1997 , Vienna 1997, p 354ff.