Thomas Klestil

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Thomas Klestil (2001)

Thomas Klestil (* 4. November 1932 in Vienna , † 6. July 2004 ibid ) was an Austrian diplomat and politician ( ÖVP ). From 1992 to 2004 he was Federal President of the Republic of Austria .

Life

Thomas Klestil was born as the youngest of five children of a tram worker and a gardener in the Viennese working-class district of Erdberg . He visited with his school friend Joe Zawinul a class of GRG 3 Hagenmüllergasse in the third district in Vienna, graduated in Bundesrealgymnasium in the eleventh district of Vienna and then studied commercial science at the University of World Trade . During his studies he became a member of the Catholic student association KAV Bajuvaria Vienna and joined the ÖVP . In 1957, he completed his studies with a doctorate in commercial science. In the same year he married his first wife Edith-Maria Wielander (1932–2011), and there were three children from this marriage. Edith Klestil separated from her husband in January 1994; the marriage was divorced in September 1998. On December 23, 1998, Margot Löffler and Thomas Klestil married.

Career

He began his diplomatic career in 1957 in the Federal Chancellery, in the section that was responsible for Austria's external relations (a separate foreign ministry was only founded later). From 1959 to 1962 he was a member of the Austrian delegation to the OECD in Paris . In 1962 he was transferred to the Austrian embassy in Washington , where he was responsible for the economic agenda until 1966. In 1966 he became secretary to Federal Chancellor Josef Klaus and worked there with other young politicians from the ÖVP, including Alois Mock . From 1969 to 1974 he built the Consulate General there as Consul General in Los Angeles .

Under Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky , Klestil had the task of persuading UN organizations to settle in the then new Vienna UN City . He then became Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations in New York and then Ambassador to Washington, where he successfully established an extensive network of contacts including the government of Ronald Reagan . In 1989 he returned to Austria and became Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry under Alois Mock.

Federal Presidency

The first term of office (1992–1998)

In 1992 he ran for election to the Federal President at the suggestion of the then ÖVP party leader Erhard Busek . He won the second ballot against Rudolf Streicher (details here ) and was sworn in on July 8th as Kurt Waldheim's successor . His slogan “Power needs control” indicated that Klestil intended to intervene much more actively in day-to-day politics than his predecessors. Such a balance to the then grand coalition with its party book economy was desirable for many Austrians.

At the beginning of his term of office he tried to make these announcements come true with a publicity offensive, including the introduction of “open days” in his official residence, the Vienna Hofburg . In 1994 he wanted to sign Austria's accession treaty to the European Union and in future take part in the deliberations of the EU heads of government. This demand, supported by an expert opinion by a constitutional lawyer, was rejected by Chancellor Franz Vranitzky and his government , which also knew how to limit Klestil's rights of objection to the appointment of higher officials - for example school directors.

In 1994, his image was damaged, especially among the bourgeois-conservative part of his electorate, when Klestil, who had upheld traditional values ​​of the intact family during the election campaign (he had been married to Edith Klestil for decades), was represented in the tabloid media with a marital problem and it it became known that he had had a relationship with his campaign manager Margot Löffler for a long time.

The second term (1998-2004)

Klestil 2001 with Russian President Vladimir Putin

In 1998 he was re-elected in the first ballot; the SPÖ had refrained from nominating its own candidate and the ÖVP hid its discomfort with Klestil behind a non-partisan personal committee.

After the National Council election in 1999 , in which Jörg Haider's FPÖ had become the second strongest party behind the SPÖ, Klestil pushed for a continuation of the previous grand coalition of SPÖ and ÖVP. To this end, Klestil again commissioned Chancellor Klima to form a government. Klestil did this mainly because he considered FPÖ chairman Haider unworthy of government because of his repeated statements, which some observers classified as right-wing extremists. He also feared foreign policy difficulties. After the coalition talks between the SPÖ and the ÖVP had failed at the end of 1999 , Wolfgang Schüssel finally agreed a governing coalition with the FPÖ at the beginning of 2000 without an order from the Federal President - a novelty in Austrian history - and informed the Federal President of this.

Klestil was faced with the situation that a government that he did not want was ready and also had a parliamentary majority. As a result, his constitutionally possible refusal to appoint the government could have sparked a national crisis.

Klestil accepted the real political balance of power and promised the new government with Wolfgang Schüssel as Federal Chancellor on February 4, 2000.

Before that, however, he had the new coalition partners sign a preamble for the establishment of democratic and European values. He also turned down two FPÖ candidates for ministerial offices ( Thomas Prinzhorn and Hilmar Kabas , whose disappointment then led to the " hump-dump affair "). This, as well as Klestil's demonstratively icy face at the swearing-in ceremony, caused a sensation and led to the final personal break with Wolfgang Schüssel and large parts of the ÖVP. For his behavior during the formation of a government, Klestil was praised in the report of the three wise men on Austria, which was commissioned to evaluate the sanctions of the other EU member states against Austria:

“The Federal President has continuously acted as guarantor of the values ​​that are particularly emphasized in this declaration. He has rejected two ministerial candidates proposed by the FPÖ because they had made public xenophobic statements in the past. In a public speech on March 13, 2000 on the occasion of the international Theodor Herzl Symposium, the Federal President advocated “linguistic disarmament”. He emphasized that words can not only 'injure' but also 'kill'. "

Even after the premature end of the first coalition between the FPÖ and ÖVP and the ensuing National Council election in November 2002 , Klestil again clearly supported an ÖVP-SPÖ coalition - again without success.

As a result, and because of his health problems, Klestil faded into the background in the Austrian public.

Summary

Domestically, Klestil soon found out that the constitutional options of the Austrian Federal President are significant, but that they cannot be implemented in the political practice of the Second Republic. Although he repeatedly tried his political leeway, he met resistance from the respective government, which did not want to share its own competencies. With the formation of the government in 2000, one of the last major competencies of the head of state was de facto eliminated. In view of this, there were discussions as to whether de jure should not also abolish the presidential powers, which are obviously ineffective in practice .

Klestil's foreign policy activities were much more successful with countless state visits . Three Klestil initiatives turned out to be forward-looking:

  • the institutionalized meetings with the heads of state of the countries bordering the former Eastern bloc . In this initiation of contacts with East Central Europe, Klestil was far ahead of the hesitant government and even more of the Austrian public.
  • Klestil set historical standards as early as 1994 with his state visit to Israel , where he was the first Austrian head of state to address Austria's co-responsibility for the Holocaust in a speech in the Knesset .
  • As a Catholic , he always advocated interreligious and intercultural dialogue .

In the end, Klestil suffered almost exclusively from his former political opponents on the left side of the political spectrum. On the right, the never-proven rumor persisted that Klestil did not prevent the reduction of political contacts between the other EU countries (“ sanctions ”) after the formation of the ÖVP-FPÖ government, but actually initiated or actively promoted it.

Thomas Klestil was the seventh Austrian Federal President since 1945 and the fifth to die before the end of his term of office. Had he lived two days longer, he would have become the second President of the Second Republic , after Rudolf Kirchschläger , to have held this office for two full terms. His successor in office was Heinz Fischer , who was able to complete two full terms of office from 2004 to 2016.

Illness and death

When Klestil's successor Heinz Fischer was sworn in, the flags in front of parliament were set to half-mast due to the state mourning.

From 1996 Klestil had health problems. During a state visit to Turkey , he contracted atypical pneumonia , which was part of an autoimmune disease that was incurable at the time . On September 23, 1996 it became known that Klestil had been treated for a week in the Vienna General Hospital (AKH). On October 4th, 1996 he took over the official business again, but stayed at the AKH until November 1st. On November 15, 1996, he was hospitalized again for a pulmonary embolism and was treated there for 10 days. The then Federal Chancellor Franz Vranitzky temporarily took over the official business. Klestil only returned to the Hofburg on January 28, 1997 .

For the time after the end of his term of office, Klestil and Margot Klestil-Löffler acquired a villa on Wenzgasse in Hietzing , part of Vienna's 13th district, historically known as the New World . His predecessor Karl Renner had prepared the rebuilding of Austria in 1945 on the same street .

On July 5, 2004, three days before leaving office, Klestil suffered cardiac arrest. He was transferred to the Vienna General Hospital in the Christophorus 9 emergency doctor's helicopter , where he died of multiple organ failure on July 6th . Since Klestil died in office, he was ordered to mourn the state .

The swearing-in of his successor Heinz Fischer , who was elected on April 25, 2004, took place on July 8, as planned. Until Fischer was sworn in, all of Klestil's official functions in accordance with Article 64 paragraph 1 B-VG were performed by the three Presidents of the National Council, Andreas Khol , Barbara Prammer and Thomas Prinzhorn as a college.

On July 10, 2004, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn celebrated a requiem for Thomas Klestil in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna , in which numerous domestic and foreign guests of honor took part, including the Russian President Vladimir Putin and Liechtenstein Prince Hans-Adam II. The United Kingdom was represented by the Princess Royal , the USA by the California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger . The armed forces provided an escort of honor. After the Requiem, Klestil was buried in the presidential crypt in Vienna's central cemetery.

Awards (excerpt)

Posthumous honors

The Klestil monument in Sieggraben
  • In 2006, Thomas-Klestil-Platz was named after the former Federal President in Vienna-Landstrasse in the Erdberg district where Klestil grew up .
  • In 2009, in the Burgenland municipality of Sieggraben on the Dr. Thomas Klestil-Platz , who was named after him during the lifetime of the Federal President, unveiled a monument to him in the form of a bronze bust.

See also

Web links

Commons : Thomas Klestil  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biography of Thomas Klestil on the website of the Austrian Cartel Association
  2. ^ "During his student days, Klestil joined the 'Austrian People's Party' (ÖVP)." Biography in Who's Who online
  3. ↑ Report of the Three Wise Men on Austria (PDF; 129 kB)
  4. ^ A b Maria Kern: 10 years Heinz Fischer. Start with a drama. Courier dated June 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  6. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  7. ↑ Unveiling of the Dr. Thomas Klestil bust in Sieggraben. In: Article on sieggraben.at. Retrieved October 4, 2015 .
  8. ↑ 700 years of Sieggraben - ceremony on May 17th, 2002 . In: Community portrait on sieggraben.at . Retrieved October 4, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Klestil, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Federal President
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 6, 2004
Place of death Vienna