Bruno Kreisky | |
---|---|
Kreisky, photographed in 1983
|
|
17th Chancellor of Austria | |
In office 21 April 1970 – 24 May 1983 |
|
President |
Franz Jonas (1970–1974) Rudolf Kirchschläger (1974–1983) |
Deputy | Rudolf Häuser (1970–1976) Hannes Androsch (1976–1981) Fred Sinowatz (1981–1983) |
Preceded by | Josef Klaus |
Succeeded by | Fred Sinowatz |
Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
In office 16 July 1959 – 19 April 1966 |
|
Chancellor | Julius Raab |
Preceded by | Julius Raab |
Succeeded by | Lujo Tončić-Sorinj |
Personal details | |
Born |
Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
22 January 1911
Died | 29 July 1990 Vienna, Austria |
(aged 79)
Political party | Social Democratic Party |
Spouse(s) | Vera Fürth (m. 1942; 2 children) (died 1988) |
Alma mater | University of Vienna |
Bruno Kreisky (22 January 1911 – 29 July 1990) was an Austrian politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. He is considered perhaps Austria's most successful Socialist leader, and a figure who parlayed a small country's neutrality into a major moral and political role on the world stage. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest acting Chancellor after World War II.
Kreisky was born in Margareten, a district of Vienna, to a non-observant Jewish family. His parents were Max Kreisky (1876–1944) and Irene Felix Kreisky (1884–1969). His father worked as a textile manufacturer. Shocked by the level of poverty and violence in Austria during the 1920s, he joined the youth wing of the Socialist Party of Austria (SPÖ) in 1925 at age 15. In 1927, he joined the Young Socialist Workers against the wishes of his parents. In 1929, he began studying law at the University of Vienna at the advice of Otto Bauer, who urged him to study law rather than medicine, as he had originally planned. He remained politically active during this period. In 1931, he left the Jewish religious community, becoming agnostic. In 1934, when the Socialist Party was banned by the Dollfuss dictatorship, he became active in underground political work. He was arrested in January 1935 and convicted of high treason, but was released in June 1936. In March 1938 the Austrian state was incorporated into Germany through the Anschluss, and in September Kreisky escaped the Nazi persecution of Austrian Jews and the coming Holocaust by emigrating to Sweden, where he remained until 1945. In 1942, he married Vera Fürth.
He returned to Austria in May 1946, but he was soon back in , assigned to the Austrian legation. In 1951 he returned to Vienna, where Federal President Theodor Körner appointed him Assistant Chief of Staff and political adviser. In 1953 he was appointed Undersecretary in the Foreign Affairs Department of the Austrian Chancellery. In this position he took part in negotiating the 1955 Austrian State Treaty, which ended the four-power occupation of Austria and restored Austria's independence and neutrality.