Rudolf Schuster
Rudolf Schuster (born January 4, 1934 in Košice , Czechoslovakia ) is a Slovak politician of Carpathian German origin. He was mayor of the city of Košice (1983–1986 and 1994–1999) and from 1999 to 2004 the second president of Slovakia .
family
Schuster was the son of the Carpathian-German forest worker Alois Schuster and also descends from Hungarian ancestors on his mother's side. He had a brother who became a carpenter. Schuster married Irena Schusterová, nee Trojáková (1937–2008) in 1961. He has two children, Peter and Ingrid.
Working life
Rudolf Schuster acquired the subject-specific Abitur at the mechanical engineering school in Košice (Kaschau) and then began studying at the Technical University in Bratislava , where he received his diploma in civil engineering in 1959. 1960–1962 he worked in the hydrology and hydraulics department of the Slovak Academy of Sciences . From 1963 to 1974 he was a consultant and later technical assistant to the director of the East Slovak Steelworks in Košice (VSŽ). In 1984 he graduated as CSc in the field of environmental protection.
Political career
In 1964 he became a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia . Schuster was deputy mayor 1975–1983 and lord mayor 1983–1986 of his native town Košice .
1986–1989 he was the chairman of the National Committee of the Eastern Slovakia District . In the course of the political change known as the Velvet Revolution in November 1989, he joined the opposition and was chairman of the Slovak National Council (President of Parliament) for a few months during the transition period .
From 1990 to 1992 he was the ambassador of Czechoslovakia to Canada . After the division of the country on January 1, 1993, Schuster initially worked in the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1994 he was again Lord Mayor of Košice.
In 1998 he was the founder and chairman of the moderate-left party of civil understanding ( SOP - Strana občianskeho porozumenia ) and was elected president on May 29, 1999 as a candidate of the united opposition. He took office on June 15, 1999 as the successor to Michal Kováč . In the election of April 3, 2004, he ran again, but received only 7.4 percent of the vote in the first ballot. Ivan Gašparovič became the new President of Slovakia on June 15, 2004 .
Honors
In 1999 the Bergische Universität Wuppertal (Germany) awarded him an honorary doctorate in the field of civil engineering. In 2003 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa (Canada).
In 2011 Schuster was awarded the European Charlemagne Prize of the Sudeten Germans .
Hobbies
As a child he grew up on the farm in Medzev (Metzenseifen) near Košice and became enthusiastic about photography and cinematography at an early age . His father and his cousins were also amateur filmmakers and went on an expedition through the Brazilian jungle in 1927/28 . The pictures from the trip to Brazil form the origin of a museum together with his collection of photo and film technology from the 19th and 20th centuries , which he donated to the state. In the courtyard buildings there is an ethnographic collection of evidence from medieval German settlers . He also works as a writer and travel book author . In 1991 and 2001 he was in Brazil himself and made documentaries about it for television .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Camillo Kupke: What does Rudolf Schuster actually do? in Märkische Oderzeitung 13./14. October 2012, Journal p. 3.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schuster, Rudolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Slovak politician, President of Slovakia (1999-2004) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 4, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Košice , Czechoslovak Republic |