Fritz Zweigelt

Friedrich (Fritz) Zweigelt (born 13 January 1888 in Hitzendorf near Graz, died 18 September 1964 in Graz) was an Austrian entomologist and phytologist. Zweigelt was one of the most influential and internationally renowned figures in Austrian vine growing between 1921 and 1945. He was Head of State Vine Cultivation during the period of the First Austrian Republic and also acted as Director of the School of Viticulture and Horticulture in Klosterneuburg near Vienna. The grape variety "Blauer Zweigelt" is named after him. Blauer Zweigelt is grown across an area of some 6,400 hectares in Austria, making it by far the most significant red wine grape cultivated in the country. Zweigelt's National Socialist sympathies and activities did not come to the attention of the public for some decades.

Further reading Daniel Deckers: Im Zeichen des Traubenadlers. Eine Geschichte des deutschen Weins. Mainz 2010 (2nd edition Frankfurt/M. 2018), ISBN 978-3805342483. Daniel Deckers: Friedrich Zweigelt im Spiegel zeitgenössischer Quellen. In: Willi Klinger, Karl Vocelka (editors): Wein in Österreich. Die Geschichte. Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-7106-0350-1, S. 213–225. Ernst Langthaler: Weinbau im Nationalsozialismus, in: Willi Klinger, Karl Vocelka (editors): Wein in Österreich. Die Geschichte. Vienna 2019, ISBN 978-3-7106-0350-1, S. 206–212.

External links Literature by and about Fritz Zweigelt in the German National Library catalogue Zweigelt-Biographie in: The Zweigelt Project „Zweigelt", beim internationalen Kunstsymposion WeinART in Poysdorf. In: erinnern.at, 25 October 2012 Professor Zweigelt – Züchter und Züchtiger – zur NS-Vergangenheit von Zweigelt, retrieved 9 October 2018

1888–1933 Friedrich Zweigelt was born in Hitzendorf near Graz in Styria on 13 January 1888. In 1912, he entered the services of the Imperial School of Viticulture and Horticulture in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, Austria's first and only state-owned vine cultivation station. After gaining a doctorate in entomology, he was appointed Head of this institute in 1921. Zweigelt's first crossings (undertaken from 1921) included a seedling given the cultivation number 71 (St. Laurent x Blaufränkisch). This particular hybrid proved highly promising from an early stage. In 1922, Zweigelt also successfully crossed Welschriesling with Orangetraube (creating a variety which was to be included in the Austrian Grape Variety Index for Qualitätsweine (Quality Wines) as "Goldburger" in 1978). This was followed by a Blauer Portugieser x Blaufränkisch crossing in 1923 (added to the Austrian Grape Variety Index for Qualitätsweine (Quality Wines) as "Blauburger" in 1978). Zweigelt had also been editing the journal Das Weinland since 1929. There was soon no other viticulture specialist in Austria who enjoyed better international connections and renown. From the late 1920s onwards, Zweigelt began to join forces with all leading experts from Europe's major wine growing countries to promote the production of quality wine and to try to…Citește mai mult

1933-1945 Zweigelt was a strong German nationalist who was deeply opposed to clericalism. He saw himself as a "borderer", and began to view Nazi Germany as a place of yearning after 1933. Zweigelt joined the Austrian NSDAP and remained loyal to the party, even during the period when it was banned. Following the annexation of Austria in March 1938, it seemed that Zweigelt's dream was about to become true. He would be able to lead "his" Klosterneuburg to new heights as a sister institute to the much larger State School of Viticulture, Fruit Growing and Horticulture in Geisenheim am Rhein. In his capacity as Head and subsequently (after 1943) Director of Klosterneuburg, Zweigelt did everything he possibly could to turn the institute into a "stronghold of National Socialism". However, he began to be caught between the different fronts. Adherents of the Austro-Fascist Dollfuß-Schuschnigg regime were keen to prevent his rise, and they were not alone in this aspiration. Zweigelt also found himself in the way of other rival colleagues who had only recently embraced the ideas of National Socialism. However, during the summer of 1938, he succeeded in forcing numerous undesirable teaching staff members to leave the school. These were…Citește mai mult

After 1945 After the collapse of the Third Reich, Zweigelt was held in a detention camp in Klosterneuburg. During this time of imprisonment, he portrayed himself as an idealist who had been led astray. Nevertheless, after various sessions of questioning and examinations of witnesses, criminal proceedings were instigated against Zweigelt at the end of 1945. He was summoned to stand trial at the Volksgericht in Vienna ("Volksgerichte" were special courts set up in Austria after the Second World War to deal with crimes committed under National Socialism). A pupil named Josef Bauer (born in 1920) had been arrested by the Gestapo for being a member of the "Austrian Freedom Movement", a group founded by Roman Scholz, an Augustinian canon regular at Klosterneuburg. Bauer had then been expelled from the institute, but this circumstance was not mentioned by anyone at the time. In 1948, Federal President Karl Renner (SPÖ) ordered that the criminal proceedings pending against Friedrich Zweigelt should be discontinued and that Zweigelt should be pardoned. He was thus deemed to have been a "lesser offender", but did not return to employment in the public sector because of his advanced age. Zweigelt spent his final years in Graz, where he…Citește mai mult

Zweigelt's long-standing staff members Paul Steingruber and Leopold Müller resurrected vine cultivation at Klosterneuburg after the war and went on to produce an outstanding St. Laurent x Blaufränkisch crossing. This was described as being "of a magnificent colour, with an excellent taste and smell, a splendid red wine variety." Zweigelt's pupil and admirer Lenz Moser propagated the plant material at his vine nursery and introduced self-rooted cuttings onto the sales market from 1960 onwards. The official designation "Zweigeltrebe Blau" appeared for the first time in 1972, when the new Grape Variety Index for Qualitätsweine (Quality Wines) was launched. The name of the variety was altered to "Blauer Zweigelt" in 1978. At the request of the School of Viticulture and Horticulture in Klosterneuburg, the synonym "Rotburger" was created at the same time. The aim here was to make it clear that the new cultivations of Blauburger, Goldburger and Rotburger/Blauer Zweigelt all shared a common origin. The "Institut ohne direkte Eigenschaften" (lit. "institute without direct characteristcs", an Austrian artist collective) made a proposal in 2018 to rename the grape variety to "Blauer Montag" (lit. "Blue Monday") – alluding to Zweigelt's national socialist past.