Theodor Piffl-Perčević

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From left to right: Piffl-Perčević, Katalin Bregant , Josef Krainer and companions, around 1965
Memorial plaque at the Villa Isenburg in Merano

Theodor Piffl-Perčević (born September 17, 1911 in Meran , Austria-Hungary , † December 22, 1994 in Graz ) was an Austrian lawyer and politician ( ÖVP ).

Life

His family is related to the Archbishop of Vienna 1913–1932, Cardinal Friedrich Gustav Piffl .

Theodor Piffl-Perčević attended the college in Kalksburg , then studied law and history at the University of Graz (doctorate in 1937). From 1945 he worked for the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry of Styria, based in Graz, and in 1950 he became deputy chamber director.

From 1960 to 1969 he was a member of the National Council . From April 2, 1964 to June 2, 1969 he was also Minister of Education , until 1966 in the grand coalition federal government of Klaus I and then in the monochrome federal government of Klaus II . As Minister of Education, he resigned because he could not push through the 13th grade. During his tenure as minister, the affair of the National Socialist historian Taras Borodajkewycz took place , against whose compulsory retirement (with full pay) he resisted for a long time.

His son Peter Piffl-Perčević also followed him into politics and has been an ÖVP councilor in Graz since November 2000.

Conflict with Thomas Bernhard

On March 4, 1968, Thomas Bernhard received the advancement award (referred to by Bernhard as the Small State Prize ) as part of the State Prize for Literature 1967 ( his brother had, as he wrote, nominated his novel Frost on the last day of the submission deadline) without his intervention ( Elias Canetti received this in 1967 ). He no longer considered himself one of the young literary writers who, according to him, otherwise received this award, but, as he later wrote, accepted it because his grandfather had received the same award thirty years earlier, for 1937.

In his address, Bernhard said, in the presence of Piffl-Perčević, among other things: The state is a structure that is constantly destined to fail, the people one that is continuously condemned to infamy and mental weakness. The minister interpreted this as an "insult to Austria" and left the event in great excitement. The award of the Anton Wildgans Prize of the Federation of Industrialists, which was planned to be given to the poet in the presence of the Minister, was then canceled, and the prize was informally sent or transferred to Bernhard. Thomas Bernhard processed this event in the story of Wittgenstein's nephew and in the 5th chapter of My Prices .

Awards (excerpt)

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  1. ↑ Erhard Busek : Lebensbilder , Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-218-00931-7 , p. 94
  2. ↑ a b Thomas Bernhard: My prices . With an editorial note from Raimund Fellinger. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 3-518-42055-0 , p. 66 f. and p. 121 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Piffl-Perčević, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian lawyer and politician (ÖVP), member of the National Council and Minister of Education (1964–1969)
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Meran
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1994
Place of death Graz