Viktor Muellner

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Viktor Müllner (born July 10, 1902 in Vienna ; † July 10, 1988 there ) was an Austrian politician ( ÖVP ).

Life

After the elementary and community school, Viktor Müllner graduated from the teacher training institute with specialist training in mathematics and physics . Then he was a secondary school teacher in Vienna and was politically active in the Christian workforce. In 1927 he went to St. Pölten , where he worked in the city administration. In the city he was also from 1934 to 1938 Vice Mayor. During the time of the corporate state he was a functionary of the Fatherland Front . After the Anschluss, this also led to his short-term arrest and internment in the Mauthausen concentration camp . There he met one of his former political opponents, the socialist Franz Olah , with whom he remained connected throughout his life. At the end of the war he was a member of the resistance group O5 .

After the Second World War he built up the Lower Austrian AAB and became a member of the National Council , which he remained until 1953. In 1954 he became a member of the state parliament in Lower Austria . He was in the Federal Council from 1953 to 1954. As early as 1949 he was also the finance officer of the Lower Austrian provincial government.

In 1955 there was a conflict between the federal government and the state as to who would be entitled to the Lower Austrian natural gas reserves previously controlled by the withdrawing Soviets. Müllner prevailed by creating facts. He founded the Niogas company and had the power station in Amstetten occupied in order to bring the power supply into the control of the country. The Newag was later created from it. During this time he also implemented the construction of the Kamptal power plants, such as the Ottenstein power plant .

In 1960 he was Governor -Stellvertreter under Johann Steinböck and Leopold Figl .

In 1962 he also became General Director of EVN's predecessor Newag-Niogas , which was 100% state owned. During this time he not only built the headquarters of the Newag-Niogas in Maria Enzersdorf , but also the entire southern part of the city, which was unique at the time, as a separate district of Maria Enzersdorf.

During these years, Müllner had developed into one of the grandees of the ÖVP. However, the latter had considerable difficulty filling the party coffers, while the socialists financed themselves mainly through the nationalized industry they controlled and the trade union federation . At that time, there was no state funding for parties. So he began covertly redirecting funds from the country and from his “empire”, the electricity and gas company , to finance the ÖAAB and the ÖVP. In doing so, he invested the country's assets in the small Conti bank in his possession , at unfavorably low interest rates. He let the difference to the market interest rate flow into the party's coffers.

Tomb at the Hinterbrühl cemetery

On the basis of a report by the Court of Auditors , Müllner was then charged with serious corruption. As a result of this so-called Müllner scandal , he had to resign from all functions in 1966 and on December 15, 1966, the public prosecutor arrested him. At the following trial he was finally sentenced in July 1968 to four years imprisonment for embezzling state funds in favor of the ÖVP but also in favor of his family. He gave the ÖVP a total of 46 million schillings . He was expelled from the ÖVP. Incidentally, the judge in the process was the same one who sentenced Franz Olah , who had also fallen out of favor in his party, a year later .

After deducting 4 months of pre-trial detention, Müllner was finally released as incapacitated due to serious illness. His private fortune was seized and he became completely destitute. In the end, however, he was granted a pension for his previous teaching post.

Viktor Müllner died in Vienna in 1988 on his 86th birthday. He is buried at the cemetery in Hinterbrühl , where he lived for a long time.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Dippelreiter: Lower Austria: Land in the Heart, Land on the Border , 2000, Böhlau Verlag , p. 31.
  2. ↑ Die Presse: Donation Affair: The Rise and Fall of Viktor Müllner (February 6, 2010)
  3. ↑ Die Presse: Unashamed Reaching into the Coffers (October 27, 2007)
  4. ↑ Honorary citizen of the market town of Maria Enzersdorf , accessed on February 5, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Müllner, Viktor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (ÖVP), member of the state parliament, member of the National Council, member of the Federal Council
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1988
Place of death Vienna