Rudolf Kirchschläger

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Rudolf Kirchschläger
Rudolf Kirchschläger signature 1976.jpg

Rudolf Kirchschläger (born March 20, 1915 in Niederkappel ; † March 30, 2000 in Vienna ) was an Austrian judge , diplomat , foreign minister and Austrian Federal President from 1974 to 1986 .

Education and career

Kirchschläger became an orphan at the age of eleven (his father Johann Kirchschläger, * 1865; † 1926, formerly collegiate organist in Wilhering , later organist in Losenstein , Pottendorf , Leoben and Kronstorf , worked as a weighmaster in the paper mill in Obermühl an der Donau, from 1917 in the Papierfabrik Steyrermühl ), went from 1927 to 1939 first to the Promenade elementary school, then to the Promenade boys' main school in Steyr , which was later named after him, and finally graduated from the Horn Federal Advanced High School (Matura with distinction; very good in all subjects), where he the middle school association K.Ö.St.V. Waldmark Horn belonged to the MKV . He was drafted into the Wehrmacht in autumn 1939 and served as a soldier at the front in the early phase of World War II .

The way in which he studied law with a doctorate to become a Dr. iur. Completed in late 1939. After graduating from high school in 1935, Kirchschläger began studying in Vienna, which he could only finance with the help of a scholarship and various part-time jobs. Kirchschläger was a member of the Patriotic Front . After Austria was annexed to Germany , he refused to join the NSDAP . As a result, he had to drop out of university and became a bank employee. Nevertheless, he was given two months' leave from the front in late 1939 to prepare for the assessor exam. According to the Austrian study regulations, an exam was only possible until the end of 1939. According to his own statements, he only slept two hours a day during this time, ate light food and dipped his feet in vinegar water to stay awake.

Towards the end of the war and after two serious wounds, Kirchschläger was a captain teaching officer for tactics at the former war school (today again: Theresian Military Academy ) in Wiener Neustadt . As a commander on April 1, 1945 near Erlach, he led a Fahnenjunker unit deployed against the advancing Soviet troops , dispersed SS soldiers and members of the Hitler Youth and the Volkssturm. The magazine profile reported in its edition of 21 April 2005 that it within hours 200 cadets killed and soldiers and several hundred were wounded; he himself suffered a severe leg injury.

Kirchschläger married in 1940. He had two children with his wife Herma (* 1916; † 2009): daughter Christa (* 1944) and son Walter Kirchschläger (* 1947), founding rector of the University of Lucerne .

From 1947 to 1954 he was a judge at the Horn and Langenlois district courts and in Vienna . From 1954, as a legal expert in the Foreign Ministry, he was significantly involved in the preparatory work and the creation of the State Treaty and the Neutrality Act .

In 1956 he joined the higher foreign service and became head of the international law department in the Foreign Ministry . Under the ministers Bruno Kreisky and Lujo Tončić-Sorinj he was Deputy Secretary General in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1962 to 1968. From 1967 to 1970 he was head of the Austrian embassy in Prague . On the night of August 20-21, 1968, around half a million soldiers marched into Czechoslovakia, occupied all strategically important positions in the country and thus ended the “ Prague Spring ”. Federal President Franz Jonas , Defense Minister Georg Prader and Chancellor Josef Klaus were on vacation and could not be reached by phone. Foreign Minister Kurt Waldheim gave instructions that Czechoslovak citizens who sought protection in the building should not receive visas and should be "persuaded to leave the building". Kirchschläger ignored the instruction and issued around 50,000 visas to those willing to flee.

In 1970 he was appointed foreign minister of the SPÖ minority cabinet under Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky . He was also foreign minister in the second Kreisky cabinet (the SPÖ had an absolute majority of the seats in the National Council for the first time ). During the military coup in Chile on September 11, 1973 , he instructed the Austrian embassy in Santiago to grant refuge to Chilean refugees.

On June 23, 1974, he was elected Federal President .

Federal Presidency

Election 1974

Federal President Kirchschläger accompanied by high-ranking officers and the Salzburg Governor Wilfried Haslauer sen. (right) walking through an honorary company. Residenzplatz, Salzburg.

In 1974, after the death of Federal President Franz Jonas , the SPÖ initially increased the number of votes that the popular Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky should run for this office himself. Kreisky declined, however, because the Federal President's powers did not seem extensive enough to him. Since the SPÖ had always argued in earlier federal presidential elections with the argument of balancing power with the ÖVP (under the keyword “red president - black chancellor”), this time the SPÖ, which is now the chancellor itself, only received a non-SPÖ for electoral reasons -Party member in question. The non-party, practicing Catholic Kirchschläger was seen as an ideal candidate.

The fact that Kirchschläger won the election against the mayor of Innsbruck , Alois Lugger, who was supported by the ÖVP, with 51.7% was not only due to the widely recognized personality of the foreign minister, but also to the disagreement of the ÖVP: Lugger himself was in the ÖVP only installed after a last-minute internal party coup against the former general secretary Hermann Withalm , who had already been nominated as a candidate by the party leadership .

Election 1980

Due to his popularity, his re-election in 1980 turned out to be a triumph: Kirchschläger was chosen as a joint candidate by the SPÖ and ÖVP with the record result of 79.9% of the valid votes cast (voter turnout: 91.6%, of which valid votes: 92.7%) - and thus more than two thirds of all eligible voters (exactly: 67.8%) - re-elected against the diplomat Willfried Gredler supported by the FPÖ and the right-wing extremist Norbert Burger .

Exercise of office

Kirchschläger was, mainly because of his modest demeanor and closeness to the people, the Austrian Federal President with previously unaffected authority. His saying about "draining the swamps and acidic meadows" (made at the opening of the Wels trade fair in August 1980 on the occasion of the current AKH scandal ) became a popular phrase . Before the popularization of nature conservation, this image was viewed positively.

Awards and honors (extract)

Dedicated space in Vienna-Dornbach

Appreciation

Memorial plaque on Rudolf Kirchschläger's house

On the occasion of his 65th birthday in 1980, the Austrian Post issued a special postage stamp.

In 2008 the Rudolf-Kirchschläger-Platz in Vienna-Neuwaldegg was named after him . On his summer villa in Rosenburg am Kamp , a plaque commemorates the honorary citizen of the community of Rosenburg-Mold .

Fonts

  • Peace begins in one's own home. Thoughts on Austria . Molden, 1980. ISBN 3-217-01070-1 .
  • Ethics and foreign policy , in: Hans Köchler (Ed.), Philosophy and Politics. Documentation of an interdisciplinary seminar. Innsbruck: Working Group for Science and Politics, 1973, pp. 69–74.
  • Life and reading, thoughts of an Austrian pensioner . Kremayr & Scheriau publishing house, Vienna 1986.
  • Always facing the people. Speeches by Federal President Dr. Rudolf Kirchschläger from the last 25 years . Verlag Österreich, Vienna 2000. ISBN 3-7046-1495-5 .
  • My school days at the Horner Advanced School . In: Erich Rabl, Anton Pontesegger: Memories of Horn . Horn (Museumsverein in Horn) 2001, pp. 147–154. ISBN 3-902168-00-5 .

literature

  • Borys Jaminskyj (author), Karl Schleinzer (editor), Bruno Kreisky (editor), Hannes Androsch (editor), Rudolf Sallinger (editor), Friedrich Peter (editor), Anton Benya (editor): The way to the Hofburg - Dr. Rudolf Kirchschläger . Astor, Vienna (1975). ISBN 3-900277-00-1
  • Alois Mock , Herbert Schambeck (Ed.): Responsibility in our time. Festschrift for Rudolf Kirchschläger . Austrian State Printing Office, 1990.
  • Erich Rabl: Rudolf Kirchschläger (1915–2000), lawyer, diplomat, Foreign Minister and Federal President . In: Harald Hitz, Franz Pötscher, Erich Rabl, Thomas Winkelbauer (eds.): Waldviertler Biographien , Vol. 3, Horn (Waldviertler Heimatbund) 2010, pp. 399–428. ISBN 3-900708-26-6
  • Marco Schenz: Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger. Böhlau, Vienna et al. 1984.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ School chronicle - NMS-Promenade. In: www.nms-promenade.at. Retrieved April 14, 2016 .
  2. ^ New Middle School / New Music Middle School Promenade - schule.at. In: www.schule.at. Retrieved April 14, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Schenz, Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger, p. 31f.
  4. ↑ a b www.wienerzeitung.at
  5. ↑ profil.at June 28, 2008 (based on Prager Frühling. The international crisis year 1968 , Böhlau 2008, ISBN 978-3-412-20207-1 )
  6. ↑ Le onorificenze della Repubblica Italiana. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Jean Schoos : The medals and decorations of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the former Duchy of Nassau in the past and present. Publishing house of Sankt-Paulus Druckerei AG. Luxembourg 1990. ISBN 2-87963-048-7 . P. 344.
  8. ↑ Suomen Valkoisen Ruusun ritarikunnan suurristin ketjuineen ulkomaalaiset saajat. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  9. ↑ AAS 82 (1990), No. 12, p. 1463.
  10. ↑ FG Forrest, as www.fg.cz, 2015: Seznam vyznamenaných. Retrieved August 27, 2019 (Czech).
  11. ↑ AAS 93 (2001), issue 8, p. 563.
  12. ↑ Entry on Rudolf Kirchschläger in the Austria Forum  (as postage stamp representation)

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Kirchschläger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kirchschläger, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian diplomat, politician, Austrian Federal President
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Niederkappel , Upper Austria
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 2000
Place of death Vienna