Michael Graff

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Michael Graff's tomb in the Ottakringer Friedhof

Michael Hugo Peter Graff (born October 2, 1937 in Vienna ; † July 29, 2008 there ) was an Austrian lawyer and politician ( ÖVP ).

Life

After graduating from the Schottengymnasium Vienna in 1955, Graff studied law at the University of Vienna and since then has been a member of the Catholic student association KÖStV Austria Vienna in the ÖCV . Since he was a half-orphan of the war, he worked with Lois Weinberger while studying at the ÖAAB .

In 1959 he was suo anno Dr. iur. PhD . From 1960 to 1963 he completed legal practice and military service and became a trainee lawyer. Later an official of the Financial Procuratorate , he was secretary to the Federal Chancellor Josef Klaus from 1964 to 1966 . Here he was actively involved in the university policy reform of the Minister of Education Theodor Piffl-Perčević .

From 1966 to 1967 Graff was a diplomat at the OECD in Paris, where he also got to know and appreciate Alois Mock . From 1969 he was a lawyer in Vienna, in 1975 he founded his own law firm. In 1970 he was a candidate for the Austrian Constitutional Court , but this failed due to the reservations of the SPÖ .

politics

From 1982 to November 1987 Graff was ÖVP general secretary (see below for resignation) and judicial spokesman for the ÖVP under the federal party leader Alois Mock .

From 1983 to 1994 and 1995 to 1996 he was a member of the National Council , and from 1987 to 1994 chairman of the Justice Committee. In these roles he had a lasting influence on judicial policy. Among other things, he initiated a reform of pre-trial detention and the introduction of fundamental rights complaints at the Supreme Court . He successfully supported Simon Wiesenthal's demand to weaken the penalties of the Prohibition Act , which resulted in an increase in the number of convictions for re-activation .

In 1987 he criticized George Tabori's staging of Franz Schmidt's The Book with Seven Seals at the Salzburg Festival in the Salzburg University Church, which caused a theatrical scandal through supposedly obscene representations in the sacred space and suggested that the Festival should offer Tabori “a beautiful lavatory, so that he could be artistically active there within an appropriate framework.

Resignation as General Secretary

In his role as ÖVP General Secretary, Graff was one of the key figures behind Kurt Waldheim's candidacy for election as Federal President in 1986 . The time before and after the election until at least 1988 went down in history as the Waldheim affair . According to a decision by the federal government, after the election for appointment by the Foreign Ministry under Alois Mock, the so-called "Waldheim Historians Commission" was active to deal with Waldheim's role in World War II . While Mock and Graff only saw the mandate of the appointed commission in the fact that “the experts [...] only had to concentrate on Waldheim's personal guilt” ( AZ , November 17, 1987), the members of the commission also saw their mandate on the question of possible moral guilt and complicity of Waldheim.

In the course of researching the Waldheim affair in Vienna, the French journalist Michèle George from the news magazine L'Express had a two-hour conversation with the ÖVP General Secretary Graff. This interview appeared in the weekly edition of Monday, November 16, 1987, which was already available at the Viennese newspaper kiosks on the previous Friday evening . Graff is quoted in it (from the facsimile in the AZ) with:

"Tant qu'il n'est pas prouvé qu'il a de ses propres mains étranglé six juifs, pas de problemème."

"As long as it is not proven that he [= Waldheim] strangled six Jews himself, there is no problem."

- Michèle George, L'Express , in : Arbeiter-Zeitung , article by Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhof

The Austria press agency sent out a summary on Monday, November 16, in the morning, but without the relevant quote. On the same day in the afternoon, the then deputy AZ editor-in-chief Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhof confronted Graff with the quote, which stated with regard to the mandate of the "Waldheim Historians Commission" intended by Mock and himself:

“'Well, that's a drastic phrase that was uttered in a two-hour conversation.' He - Graff - wanted to express that it was only a question of whether Waldheim 'was at fault personally'. "

According to a report in the radio - Evening Journal on Monday evening and the article in the Arbeiter-Zeitung in its Tuesday edition, November 17 were, according to the Council of Ministers this morning Chancellor Franz Vranitzky questioned and Foreign Minister Alois Mock to Graff's remarks, with mock no reason for saw a resignation.

Graff apologized for his remarks on Tuesday evening in a television interview with Die Zeit im Bild , but saw no reason to resign until then. Mock stood behind his general secretary and wanted to hold him to the last. However, as domestic political pressure increased from all parties and from several sides, Graff resigned as General Secretary on the morning of November 18. Waldheim only reacted to the statements (25 minutes) after Graff's resignation and had the presidential office report with a press release (quoted from AZ): “Federal President Waldheim is 'deeply affected by the unqualified statements' and [he] condemns them. In all words and actions, human dignity must remain the top priority ... "

According to politics

In the following years, Michael Graff repeatedly criticized the ÖVP party chairman Wolfgang Schüssel . Among other things, he commented on the so-called " breakfast affair " about Schüssel:

"A convicted liar at the top is probably not an advertisement for a Christian party."

After the National Council election in 2006 , which the ÖVP lost , he was the first to call for Schüssel's resignation.

Michael Graff died after a long illness on July 29, 2008 at the age of 71. However, at the family's request, his death was not announced until after his funeral on August 5, 2008. His grave is in the Ottakringer Friedhof in Vienna.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Dr. iur. Michael Hugo Peter Graff.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Grave: Ottakringer Friedhof, Group 4A, Row 5, No. 21. In: Graves database of the Vienna cemeteries.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.friedhoefewien.at  
  2. ^ CV - Michael Graff. In: www.oecv.at . Austrian Cartel Association, December 9, 2017, accessed on November 3, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Dr. Michael Graff. Founding partner of GNBZ Rechtsanwälte GmbH. ( Memento of the original from May 5, 2009 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. Law firm website. Retrieved November 30, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gnbz.at
  4. ↑ Abg. z. NR aD Dr. Michael Graff, AW, passed away. Obituary of the Austrian Cartel Association , August 20, 2008. Accessed November 30, 2010.
  5. ↑ a b c "As long as he has not strangled six Jews ..." Drastic from ÖVP General Secretary Graff on the Waldheim case . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 17, 1987, p. 4 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  6. ↑ a b Storm of indignation over Graff: Does he have to go now? Vranitzky: Tolerable level exceeded - Mock: no reason for resignation . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 18, 1987, p. 3 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Resignation chronicle: "... the doorbell rang" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 19, 1987, p. 3 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  8. ↑ VP-General stumbled upon an interview about Kurt Waldheim's war past. Graff stepped back - Mock wanted to hold him to the last . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna November 19, 1987, p. 2 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  9. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Graff, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Graff, Michael Hugo Peter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer and politician (ÖVP), member of the National Council
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 29, 2008
Place of death Vienna