Peter Krauland

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Peter Krauland (born August 6, 1903 in Kraubath , municipality of Groß Sankt Florian , Styria , † September 8, 1985 in Vienna ) was an Austrian lawyer , politician and businessman.

Politicians in Styria

Krauland graduated from a commercial academy from 1917 to 1921 and studied law at the University of Vienna from 1926 to 1931 . From 1926 to 1951 he was a member of the Catholic student association KÖStV Austria Vienna . The young lawyer was also politically active. In the corporate state he was a member of the Styrian state government and state finance officer from 1934 to 1938 . In 1938 he was deposed as a representative of Austrofascism by the Nazi regime and temporarily imprisoned.

Federal Minister

From December 1945 to October 1949, Krauland was ÖVP Minister for Asset Protection and Economic Planning. The “Krauland Ministry” administered assets that had belonged to Austrian organizations and associations before 1938 and that had been confiscated during the Nazi regime. In 1948 the minister was almost arrested on the way back from western Austria to Vienna at the Enns Bridge , where the Russians checked those entering their occupation zone . His identification papers were temporarily declared false. In the course of the further official act, the Russians declared that it was not his papers, but those of his colleague Margarethe Ottilinger that were false. She was arrested and was only able to return to Austria from Siberia in 1955 under the State Treaty .

He was buried at the Hietzingen cemetery .

The Krauland scandal

As a minister, Krauland gradually diverted funds that flowed into the coffers of the two governing parties, as well as the ÖGB and the chambers. In particular, printing works, publishing houses and other politically interesting companies were divided according to the proportional system . Restitution claims by former Jewish owners, however, were mostly rejected.

As the historian Peter Böhmer in his book Who Could, seized to prove, Krauland's malversations were finally uncovered due to a restitution of the Guggenbacher paper mill , which was faced with a party donation of 700,000 Schillings to the ÖVP.

On January 30, 1951, the National Council's immunity committee approved the Vienna public prosecutor's extradition request against the former minister. In the event that he was charged in court, the ÖVP distanced itself as a precaution from Krauland on the same day. On July 29, 1951, the government official Wiener Zeitung reported on Krauland's departure from the ÖVP. However, he remained until the end of the National Council's legislative period in 1953 as a free (“wild”) member of parliament.

The trial against Krauland and the ministerial officials accused of him was carried out from January to July 1954. In the judgment of July 6, 1954, it was stated that Krauland had committed abuse of authority and damaged the state by more than a million schillings. In view of the 1950 amnesty law, the former minister had to be acquitted.

Suspected intelligence relationships

The minister, who is brilliant but presumptuous according to contemporary witness reports, was also said to have complex secret service relationships, including an involvement in the affair involving his colleague Margarethe Ottilinger .

Private sector

The Allgemeine Wirtschaftsbank , run by Krauland since 1958, had to file for bankruptcy in 1974 , and bankruptcy proceedings continued until 1979.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wiener Zeitung : Margarethe Ottilinger - An energetic fighter , June 24, 2006 (accessed November 27, 2013)
  2. ↑ Josef Kocensky (ed.): Documentation on Austrian contemporary history 1945–1955. Jugend und Volk, Vienna 1970, ISBN 3-7141-6513-4 , p. 21.
  3. ^ Grave site Peter Krauland , Vienna, Hietzinger Friedhof, Group 18, Row 6, No. 211.
  4. ↑ Unashamedly reaching into the tills. In: Die Presse daily , Vienna, October 6, 2007
  5. ^ The criminal case of Peter Krauland. In: Die Presse daily , Vienna, March 6, 2009.
  6. ^ The criminal case of Peter Krauland. In: Die Presse daily , Vienna, March 6, 2009.
  7. ↑ cf. Hofer & Toter 2007 election 2006: Chancellor, campaigns, capers. Analyzes of the 2006 National Council election, p. 108.
  8. ↑ Kocensky: Documentation , p. 147
  9. ↑ Federal Law Gazette No. 161/1950 : Amnesty Act
  10. ^ Margarethe Ottilinger - An energetic fighter Wiener Zeitung

literature

  • Peter Böhmer: Whoever could, took it. "Aryanized" goods and Nazi assets in the Krauland Ministry. (1945-1949). Böhlau, Vienna et al. 1999, ISBN 3-205-99053-6 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Krauland, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer, politician (ÖVP), member of the National Council
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Kraubath in western Styria
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1985
Place of death Vienna