Josef "Beppo" Afritsch (13 March 1901 – 25 August 1964) was an Austrian

horticulturalist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

who became a politician (

SPÖ 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 ...

). Between 1959 and 1963 he served as the country's

Interior minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

. In 1964, just a few weeks before his sudden death, a rose was named after him, "Minister Afritsch".

Life

Provenance and early years

Josef Afritsch was born at the start of the twentieth century in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

, at that time the sixth largest city in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

. His father was the journalist and pioneering campaigner for

child welfare Child protection is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the protection of children in and out of the home. One of the ways to e ...

, Anton Afritsch (1873-1924). His brother, (1906-1967), later came to prominence as a stage and movie actor. Afritsch underwent a conventional schooling, followed by three years at Horticultural Academy in

Eisgrub Lednice (; german: Eisgrub) is a municipality and village in Břeclav District in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 2,100 inhabitants. It is known as part of Lednice–Valtice Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritag ...

South Moravia The South Moravian Region ( cs, Jihomoravský kraj; , ; sk, Juhomoravský kraj) is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia (an exception is Jobova Lhota which trad ...

. In 1923 or 1926 he joined the city of Vienna's Parks and Gardens service, which he helped to rebuild in the chaotic aftermath of

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. Here he organised the city's official Plant Protection Service (''"Pflanzenschutzdienst "'')

Politics

In parallel with his work for the Parks Department he worked as an official of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

. After the bloody streets fights of February 1934, until 1938 Afritsch was an active participant in the welfare activities of the "Society of Friends". Tasks included the distribution of donations received from Great Britain and the United States to working class Viennese families who had fallen into penury through loss of family income caused by the death, injury or detention of the family wage earner. In 1938, a few months after the incorporation of Austria into

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, it was Josef Afritsch who applied trades union funds to obtain a ticket on

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

's inaugural scheduled flight from

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

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

for

Bruno Kreisky Bruno Kreisky (; 22 January 1911 – 29 July 1990) was an Austrian social democratic politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest Ch ...

, the future Federal Chancellor, who both as a

activist and as a Jew had repeatedly fallen foul of the pro-Nazi government since

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

. From Berlin Kreisky was able to fly on to Denmark and then to Sweden where he spent the next eight years in political exile. In 1942 he was relieved of his public service duties and arrested. Ten months in prison (''"Kerker"'') ensued, followed by two years in a penitentiary (''"Zuchthaus"'').

After the war

Between 1945 and 1959 Afritsch was a member of the Vienna City Council and a member of the Vienna Regional Legislature (''Landtag''). In 1946 he was formally elected to the City Office for General Administrative Matters, an office to which he had been appointed the previous year under the conditions of

military occupation Military occupation, also known as belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the effective military control by a ruling power over a territory that is outside of that power's sovereign territory.Eyāl Benveniśtî. The international law ...

. He continued in this position for a long time, acquiring a deep knowledge of various aspects of city administration, and taking care of the

naturalisation Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

of tens of thousands of ethnic Germans displaced by the

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...

that was a feature of the postwar settlement. In 1951 he was appointed Director of the City Parks and Gardens, but he was immediately sent on leave in order that he might continue his existing administrative responsibilities for the city authorities. In July 1959 he was appointed Austria's

in the

Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are t ...

government led by Chancellor Raab (

ÖVP The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is currentl ...

), in 1961 retaining the position, under Chancellor Gorbach (

), till 1963. Between 14 December 1962 and 25 August 1965 he sat as a member of the Austrian parliament (''"Nationalrat"''). His final government post was as the Government Commissioner for the

Vienna International The International Working Union of Socialist Parties (IWUSP; also known as the 2½ International or the Vienna International; german: Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialistischer Parteien, IASP) was a political international for the co-opera ...

Garden festival A garden festival is a festival and exposition held to celebrate the arts of gardening, garden design, landscaping and landscape architecture. There are local garden festivals, regional garden festivals, national garden festivals and internat ...

which was held in the

Danube Park Danube Park or Dunavski Park ( sr, Дунавски парк) is an urban park in the downtown of Novi Sad, the capital of the Vojvodina Province, Serbia. Formed in 1895, it is protected as the natural monument and is one of the symbols of the city ...

(as it has been called since that time) between 16 April and 11 October 1964. It was during the festival, on 9 July, that the "Minister Afritsch" rose, named in his honour, was presented. Josef Afritsch died suddenly, just a few weeks later, on 25 August.

Awards and honours

* 1957 Republic of Austria Decoration of Honour in Gold * 1960

Bavarian Order of Merit The Bavarian Order of Merit (german: Bayerischer Verdienstorden) is the Order of Merit of the Free State of Bavaria. It is awarded by the Minister-President of Bavaria as a "recognition of outstanding contributions to the Free State of Bavaria ...

Bayer. Staatskanzlei, R. Peter, correspondence 21 March 2007 * 1962 Republic of Austria Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold with Sash

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afritsch, Josef 1901 births 1964 deaths Politicians from Graz People from the Duchy of Styria Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians Interior ministers of Austria Members of the National Council (Austria) Recipients of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria