Otto Probst

Postwar politics The end of the war marked a return to democracy, and he played a leading part in re-establishing the party in the Favoriten quarter (Vienna 10th district), becoming the longstanding chairman of the local party. He became known, half jokingly, as the "Emperor of Favoriten" (der "Kaiser von Favoriten"). "Between 1946 and 1970 Otto Probst served as National Secretary (Zentralsekretär) of the Social Democratic Party. During that period he was also, between 19 December 1945 and 24 June 1970, a member of parliament ("Abgeordneter zum Nationalrat"). That covered ten parliamentary sessions, between the fifth and the fourteenth.

Otto Probst (29 December 1911 – 22 December 1978) was an Austrian political activist. He survived World War II, despite spending most of it in the Buchenwald concentration camp, followed by two years in a punishment battalion sent to support the war effort on the Russian front. After 1945 he became a mainstream Social Democratic politician, eventually serving between 1970 and his death in 1978 as Third President of the National Council ("Nationalratspräsident").

Great Germany Following the largely peaceful invasion of Austria by Nazi Germany Probst was able to work, between 1938 and 1939, as a welder. Then in August 1939 he was caught up in a Gestapo wave of arrests targeting remaining Revolutionary Socialist activists, and transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp where he was kept till 1943. That year he was placed in an army punishment battalion sent to support the war effort on the Russian front.

Provenance and early years Otto Probst was born in the Favoriten district of Vienna. Urban Probst, his father, was a carter/courier originally from the Lavant Valley in eastern Carinthia. His mother, born Maria Szerenczi, was from Rechnitz on the Austria-Hungary frontier. He joined the Young Socialists, still aged only 15, in 1926 and remained a member till 1934. From 1930 he was also a member of the Social Democratic Party. Otto Probst attended the "Further education college for graphic arts" ("Fortbildungsschule für das graphische Gewerbe") between 1926 and 1930. Between 1932 and 1934 he worked in the Youth Protection Office of the Vienna "Chamber of Labour" ("Arbeitskammer"), where he was involved in the "Youth in Need" and the "Youth at work" initiatives. A period of unemployment followed.

Austrofascism Between 1934 and 1938 he was a member of the Austrian Revolutionary Socialists ("Revolutionäre Sozialisten Österreichs" / RS). Political activity on behalf of the (now banned) Socialist parties had been illegal since shortly before the short-lived insurrection in February 1934. Directly after the insurrection Probst found himself held for several days in political detention because he had been identified as a member of the national executive of the Young Socialists. Other leading roles in socialist organisations on a local level were also cited. There were further periods of political detention followed in 1935/36 and again, briefly, in 1937. In the long-remembered "Socialist [show] Trial" of 1936 he was one of the 30 people facing charges involving illegal political activism. but in the end he was set free for lack of evidence.

Ministerial office and the Fußach Affair Between 27 March 1963 and the end of the "Grand Coalition" government on 19 April 1966, Otto Probst served under Chancellors Gorbach and Klaus as "Minister for Transport and Electricity Supply" ("Bundesminister für Verkehr und Elektrizitätswirtschaft"). His three year incumbency goes mostly unremarked in sources and was evidently largely uneventful. The exception was the "Fußach affair". Fußach is a small town on the shores of the Bodensee ("Lake Constance"), a large lake bordered by three different countries. The eastern shore is in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, where historical memories remained powerful. Following the First World War a reconfigured (and much diminished) Austrian state emerged: there was a desire by many in Vorarlberg to join Switzerland. In a referendum held in Vorarlberg on 11 May 1919, over 80% of those voting supported a proposal for the state to join the Swiss Confederation. However this was blocked by the opposition of the Austrian government, with support from the victorious powers. The Austrian Chancellor in 1919 was Karl Renner, a man widely celebrated, at least in Vienna, as the "Father of the Republic". He was still active at the heart of national politics after the Second…Citește mai mult

Final decade On 20 October 1970 he became a President of the National Council ("Nationalratspräsident"). He held the office till December 1978. He died suddenly in his office at the parliament.