Martin Purtscher

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Martin Purtscher (1983)
Martin Purtscher (2015)
Martin Purtscher (center) as President of the State Parliament at the inauguration of Governor Herbert Keßler on November 6, 1979

Martin Purtscher (born November 12, 1928 in Thuringia ) is an Austrian manager and politician ( ÖVP ). From 1987 to 1997 he was Governor of Vorarlberg and prior to that he was President of the Vorarlberg State Parliament from 1974 .

Live and act

education and profession

Martin Purtscher, who comes from a humble background, was born on November 12, 1928 as the son of farmer Martin Purtscher and his wife Barbara in the Walgaugemeinde Thuringia. After attending elementary school in his home community, he first attended the commercial school in Feldkirch from 1942 to 1944, before he was drafted into military service in Italy from 1944 to the end of the war in May 1945. After returning to Vorarlberg, Purtscher attended the commercial academy in Bregenz-Mehrerau , where he graduated from high school in 1948 . In the same year he became an accountant at Lorünser-Leichtmetallwerke in Schlins . In addition, he operated as a working student a Law studies at the University of Innsbruck , which he 1953 with the promotion to Doctor of Law graduated.

In 1954, at the age of 25, Martin Purtscher first became an authorized signatory and then commercial director of Lorünser-Leichtmetallwerke. In 1965 he changed employer to Suchard-Schokoladen-GmbH in Bludenz, where he became managing director a year later. In 1984 Purtscher was finally appointed head of the Jacobs Suchard Group Austria, and he was also CEO of Jacobs-Kaffee Wien. He held these positions until he was elected governor in 1987. When he left the company in 1987, Jacobs-Suchard achieved a turnover of 3.2 billion schillings with 1,100 employees and a market share of 75% in the Austrian chocolate market.

Political career

Purtscher, who has been a member of the Economic Association of the Austrian People's Party since 1950 , was first elected to a political office in 1955 when he was elected to the municipal council and council of Thuringia. In the regional elections in Vorarlberg in 1964 , he was elected to the Vorarlberg state parliament for the first time as a member of the Bludenz electoral district . Martin Purtscher was a member of the Vorarlberg state parliament from 1964 to 1997 and its president from 1974 until he moved to the state government . In the state parliament session on July 9, 1987, he replaced Herbert Keßler as governor of Vorarlberg at his request. He took over the departments of economic, transport and energy policy, foreign relations and European policy, science, general presidential affairs, personnel matters, tourism as well as water and trade law.

Within the party, Martin Purtscher was local chairman of the ÖVP Thuringia from 1959 to 1969, from 1959 to 1997 a member of the district party leadership in the Bludenz district , from 1964 to 1997 a member of the state party leadership, from 1964 to 1969 a member of the state party council and finally from 1974 to 1997 a member of the state party presidency of the ÖVP Vorarlberg . Unlike his predecessors and successors as governors, Purtscher left the office of state party chairman to his deputy and later successor, Herbert Sausgruber, during his term of office .

Political activity

In his inaugural address as governor on July 9, 1987, Martin Purtscher laid out his political priorities for the following ten-year term of office. In particular, it was about Europe, the Vorarlberger Illwerke and the establishment of the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences .

At the European political level in particular, Purtscher stood out from the start as an advocate of joining the European Community . In 1987 he was the first incumbent governor to criticize the foreign policy line of the then federal government and, together with the governor of Salzburg, Wilfried Haslauer senior, reached a resolution by the governor's conference calling for membership of the European Community. Martin Purtscher was then appointed by party leader Alois Mock as chairman of the European Commission of the ÖVP, which presented the People's Party's Europe Manifesto in April 1988. He was also appointed negotiator for the countries in the accession negotiations, as which he also took part in the final negotiations in 1993. Purtscher himself described the conclusion of the EU accession treaty as “the most touching political experience” of his life. His campaign for the approval of the population in the referendum on joining the EU in 1994 was also crowned with success: in Vorarlberg, two thirds of the eligible voters voted in favor of joining the EU.

Immediately after taking office as governor, Martin Purtscher also began to vigorously pursue his second major goal. He wanted to secure 75% of the shares in Vorarlberger Illwerke for the state of Vorarlberg in order to prevent decisions about the expansion and the future of electricity generation without the consent of the state government. After seven years of negotiations, Purtscher finally succeeded in asserting the right of reversion to acquire the federal shares in the VIW for the state.

The third major political goal of Martin Purtscher as governor was to put Vorarlberg on its own in the tertiary education sector. Until then, Vorarlberg did not have its own university or higher education institution. That is why the Vorarlberg State of Vorarlberg founded the “Technikum Vorarlberg” in 1989, which was subsequently further developed at the Dornbirn location to become today's Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences .

In addition, Martin Purtscher appointed Elisabeth Gehrer, the first woman to join the Vorarlberg state government in 1990, who later became a member of the federal government as Minister for Education, Science and Culture . During his tenure, the Vorarlberger Verkehrsverbund was founded , which resulted in a significant expansion of public transport and a simplification of the tariff structure. The opening of the Jewish Museum in Hohenems also fell during his term of office .

Private life

Martin Purtscher has been with Gretl, born on September 9, 1954. Hübner, married and has three grown daughters (Sabine, Vera and Carola) and six grandchildren. He lives in the Vorarlberg municipality of Thuringia.

Awards and honors

Martin Purtscher participates in government
State government Purtscher I
1987–1989: Governor
State government Purtscher II
1989–1994: Governor
State government Purtscher III
1994–1997: Governor

Works

literature

  • Karl Heinz Lauda (ed.): Martin Purtscher: a political life for Vorarlberg and Europe , [Bregenz]: Karl Heinz Lauda 2018, ISBN 978-3-9504686-0-1

Web links

Commons : Martin Purtscher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Thomas Feurstein: A glowing European. In: Vorarlberg . November 2018, accessed November 9, 2018 .
  2. ↑ A convinced European (PDF file; 70 kB) . Interview by Gabi Böheim with Martin Purtscher, published in Vorarlberg Magazin 114/2005.
  3. ↑ Results of previous referendums . Published on the website of the Electoral Affairs Department of the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
  4. ^ Chronicle of the FH Vorarlberg - short version on the website of the FH Vorarlberg.
  5. ↑ Ulrich Nachbaur : Vorarlberger Landesregierungen since 1945 ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vorarlberg.at 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. (PDF file; 154 kB) . Published by the Vorarlberger Landesarchiv for the anniversary year 2005.
  6. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF file; 6.59 MB)
  7. ^ WKÖ: Golden badge of honor for LH a. D. Ratzenböck and Purtscher. In: APA-OTS . January 10, 2018, accessed January 11, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Purtscher, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician and governor of Vorarlberg
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Thuringia (Vorarlberg)