Hannes Androsch

Johannes "Hannes" Androsch is an Austrian entrepreneur and consultant; a former Social Democrat top politician who served as an Austrian minister of finance from 1970 to 1981 and additionally as vice chancellor from 1976 to 1981; and a former banker who from 1981 to 1988 was the general director of the Creditanstalt-Bankverein (Austria’s leading bank at that time) and subsequently an advisor to the World Bank. From 1989 onward he built an industrial investment group, Androsch International Consulting (AIC), which is a major factor in Austria's internationally active corporate landscape. In addition, Androsch's foundation is an important sponsor of research and development activities in Austria, where he is regularly consulted on matters of political, economic and financial importance.

Androsch was born on 18 April 1938 in Vienna, where his parents, Hans and Lia, were tax advisors in the district Floridsdorf. The family lived through the end of World War II in Southern Bohemia, where they witnessed the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia in June 1945. His mother placed seven-year-old Hannes on the window sill and instructed him to watch the events closely so that he would never forget. Androsch concluded his high school education in Vienna in 1956. He proceeded to study business administration at the College of International Trade (today's Vienna University of Economics and Business), where he obtained his diploma in 1959, followed by a doctorate in 1969.

His political activities manifested early, and took him to the top position in the Vienna branch of the student organization of the Socialist party (1960–1961), and then to leadership of the national organization (1962–1963). Thereafter, at the age of only 25 years, he became secretary for economic issues in the club of the Socialist members of parliament, a position which he held until 1966.

1967 was a fateful year for Androsch: he was certified as a public accountant and tax advisor, allowing him to participate in the financial consulting enterprise which his parents had significantly expanded; and he became a member of parliament for the Socialist party where he earned himself a reputation as a shooting star. When Bruno Kreisky turned the tables on Austria's political scenery with the 1970 national election he made the 32-year-old Androsch Finance minister in his first minority cabinet on 21 April 1970. Androsch continued in this function when the Socialist single-party government consolidated its dominance through the absolute majorities won in the elections of 1971 and 1975. Although he had not been Kreisky's first choice for this position (Schachner-Blazizek and Felix Slavik had declined) the two men developed a working relationship that was, initially, very good. Androsch became a strong advocate of Keynesian economics, in a modification that became known as “Austro-Keynesianism.”

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