Werner Pfeifenberger

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Werner Pfeifenberger (born October 23, 1941 in Salzburg ; † May 13, 2000 near Salzburg) was an Austrian political scientist and university professor. From 1972 to 1999 he was professor of political science at the Münster University of Applied Sciences and from 1999 to 2000 at the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences .

Pfeifenberger scandal

Pfeifenberger published an article " Internationalism against nationalism - an infinite mortal hostility?" In the yearbook for political renewal 1995 of the FPÖ .

The Viennese journalist Karl Pfeifer described Pfeifenberger's contribution in February 1995 as a “Nazidiction”. Pfeifenberger tried to prevent Pfeifer's statement in court. This failed - in several judgments before Austrian courts between 1997 and 1999, Pfeifer's statements were classified as legally admissible.

Pfeiffenberger was criticized for years by the student body, his events boycotted and his removal from university service demanded. The federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia tried to dismiss Pfeifenberger in 1999, but failed in a labor court case.

This led to Pfeifenberger being transferred to the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences . There he was only allowed to research, not to teach. There were immediate protests against him in Bielefeld as well. In the meantime, criminal proceedings were pending against him because of the statements in the yearbook because of National Socialist re- engagement. Before the trial began on June 26, 2000, Pfeifenberger fell to his death in the Alps .

A suicide as a result of the campaign was then denied by some of those involved, such as the left-wing magazine Jungle World . Pfeifer sued the right-wing magazine Zur Zeit because it had linked Pfeifenberger's death to the campaign and Pfeifer's work. In the first instance, Pfeifer was right. In the second instance, however, the Vienna Higher Regional Court decided in two judgments of November 27, 2001 and August 1, 2002 that Pfeifenberger's death had been suicide with sufficient certainty and that the assessment was admissible that Pfeifer and the campaign were responsible for it.

On November 15, 2007, Pfeifer was finally granted justice by the European Court of Human Rights . The judges sentenced Austria to pay € 5,000 in damages. The Court of Human Rights reprimanded the Austrian judiciary, which in previous trials had allowed the right-wing newspaper Zur Zeit to continue to claim that Pfeifer had started a "human hunt" against Pfeifenberger and thus drove him to suicide. In support of this, the Strasbourg judges stated that there was no evidence of a causal connection between Pfeifer's critical article and the political scientist's suicide.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.e-politik.de/alt.e-politik.de/beitragdruck4980.html?Beitrag_ID=677
  2. ↑ INSTITUTION: cowardice at the Prof . In: Der Spiegel . tape 44 , October 26, 1998 ( spiegel.de [accessed May 27, 2018]).
  3. ↑ INSTITUTION: cowardice at the Prof . In: Der Spiegel . No. 44 , 1998 ( online - 26 October 1998 ).
  4. ↑ To the present day martyr legend. In: derStandard.at. December 14, 2001, accessed December 18, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Pfeifenberger, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian political scientist
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Salzburg
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 2000
Place of death near Salzburg