Helmut Zilk (9 June 1927,

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

– 24 October 2008, Vienna) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n journalist and politician in the

Austrian Social Democratic Party The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

. He served as mayor of Vienna between 1984 and 1994.

Biography

Born in Vienna, Zilk was

Mayor of Vienna This is a list of mayors and governors of Vienna since 1282. Vienna is the capital city of Austria. Since 1920, it has also been an Austrian state, with its mayor also doubling as the '' Landeshauptmann'' (governor or minister-president) of th ...

from 1984 to 1994. In December 1993 he was severely injured when he opened a

letter bomb A letter bomb, also called parcel bomb, mail bomb, package bomb, note bomb, message bomb, gift bomb, present bomb, delivery bomb, surprise bomb, postal bomb, or post bomb, is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed with t ...

which had been sent to his home in

Innere Stadt The Innere Stadt (; Central Bavarian: ''Innare Stod'') is the 1st municipal Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna () located in the center of the Austrian capital. The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expa ...

Franz Fuchs Franz Fuchs (12 December 1949 – 26 February 2000) was an Austrian domestic terrorist who killed four people and injured 15, some seriously, using three improvised explosive devices and 24 mail bombs, which he sent in five waves between 1993 an ...

. Zilk died on 24 October 2008 of heart failure, after arriving home sick from a vacation in Portugal. He was married to Austrian musical star,

Dagmar Koller Dagmar Koller (born 26 August 1939) is an Austrian actress and singer. Born in Klagenfurt, she is recognized as the leading German language musical star of her time. She married Austrian journalist and politician, Helmut Zilk, in 1978, and beca ...

Czechoslovak secret police collaborator

In October 1998, the newspaper ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

'' accused Helmut Zilk of having collaborated with Czechoslovak secret police (StB) during the 1960s. He denied the accusations. Based on this and also on information from the StB archives, Zilk was denied a planned Czech medal of honour. The affair was widely covered by Czech and Austrian media. In 1998 the Czech presidential office cleared Zilk and president

Havel The Havel () is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe and long. However, the direct distance from its source to its mo ...

apologized to him in person. In 2009, the StB documents on Zilk were made public. These documents record 58 meetings between Zilk and secret police agents during 1965–68. Zilk had provided information about the political situation in Austria and assessments of individual Austrian politicians; for this he was paid in money and goods such as Bohemian crystal glass. After the

Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

(August 1968)

Ladislav Bittman Lawrence Martin-Bittman (14 February 1931 – 18 September 2018), formerly known as Ladislav Bittman, was an American artist, author, and retired professor of disinformation at Boston University. He was best known for his 1983 book, '' The KGB an ...

, one of the agents in contact with Zilk, defected to the West and leaked information about him. Some Czech media (as well as the old StB documents) speculated that the continued political and journalistic career of Zilk, in spite of being uncovered, was due to some other agency (

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

is suggested) recruiting and supporting him.

References

External links

* , - , width="30%" align="center" , Preceded by:

Leopold Gratz Leopold Gratz CGIH (4 November 1929, Vienna – 2 March 2006, Vienna) was an Austrian politician. Born in Vienna, Gratz was a law graduate from Vienna University and a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). From 1963 to 1966 ...

, width="40%" align="center" ,

1984–1994 , width="30%" align="center" , Succeeded by:

Michael Häupl Michael Häupl (born 14 September 1949) is an Austrian politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, he served as mayor and governor of Vienna from 7 November 1994 until 24 May 2018. Early life and education Häupl was born in ...

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Zilk, Helmut 1927 births 2008 deaths Austrian amputees Mayors of Vienna Austrian people of German Bohemian descent People from Favoriten Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Theodor Körner Prize recipients Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery Recipients of the Order of the White Lion 20th-century Austrian journalists