Otto Probst (29 December 1911 - 22 December 1978) 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 ...

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some t ...

. He survived the

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 ...

, despite spending most of it in the

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

, followed by two years in a punishment battalion sent to support the war effort on the Russian front. After

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which nuclear weapons have been used in combat. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. Januar ...

he became a mainstream

Social Democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

politician, eventually serving between 1970 and his death in 1978 as Third President of the National Council (''"Nationalratspräsident"'').

Biography

Provenance and early years

Otto Probst was born in the

Favoriten Favoriten (; Central Bavarian: ''Favoritn''), the 10th district of Vienna, Austria (german: 10. Bezirk, Favoriten), is located south of the central districts. It is south of Innere Stadt, Wieden and Margareten. Favoriten is a heavily populat ...

quarter of

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

. Urban Probst, his father, was a carter/courier originally from the

Lavant Valley Bezirk Wolfsberg is a district of the state of Carinthia in Austria. Municipalities Towns (''Städte'') are indicated in boldface; market towns (''Marktgemeinden'') in ''italics''; suburbs, hamlets and other subdivisions of a municipality are in ...

in eastern

Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...

. His mother, born Maria Szerenczi, was from

Rechnitz Rechnitz ( hr, Rohunac, hu, Rohonc, Rohoncz, Romani: ''Rochonca'') is a municipality in Burgenland in the Oberwart district in Austria. Geography The municipality is located in southern Burgenland, on the border with Hungary, near Bozsok and ...

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 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 ...

. 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 howTrial" 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.

Great Germany

Following the largely peaceful invasion of Austria by

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 ...

Probst was able to work, between 1938 and 1939, as a

welder In a broad sense, a welder is anyone, amateur or professional, who uses welding equipment, perhaps especially one who uses such equipment fairly often. In a narrower sense, a welder is a tradesperson who specializes in fusing materials together ...

. Then in August 1939 he was caught up in a

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

wave of arrests targeting remaining Revolutionary Socialist activists, and transferred to the

where he was kept till 1943. That year he was placed in an

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

punishment battalion sent to support the war effort on the Russian front.

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

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

. 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.

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 Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus * Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American baseba ...

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 Fußach is a municipality in the district of Bregenz in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label= Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area a ...

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 Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label=Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is ...

, where historical memories remained powerful. Following the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

a reconfigured (and much diminished) Austrian state emerged: there was a desire by many in Vorarlberg to join Switzerland.1982 edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', "History of Austria" 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 The Government of Austria (german: Bundesregierung der Republik Österreich) is the executive cabinet of the Republic of Austria. It consists of the chancellor, who is the head of government, the vice chancellor and the ministers. Appointme ...

, with support from the victorious powers. The

Austrian Chancellor The chancellor of the Republic of Austria () is the head of government of the Austria, Republic of Austria. The position corresponds to that of Prime minister, Prime Minister in several other parliamentary democracies. Current officeholder is ...

in 1919 was

Karl Renner Karl Renner (14 December 1870 – 31 December 1950) was an Austrian politician and jurist of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Republic" because he led the first government of German-A ...

, 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 World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, serving as

President of Austria The president of Austria (german: Bundespräsident der Republik Österreich) is the head of state of the Republic of Austria. Though theoretically entrusted with great power by the Constitution, in practice the president is largely a ceremonial ...

between 1945 and 1950. When Otto Probst, as Minister for Transport, was called upon to come up with a name for a new lake steamer for the

Bodensee Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Lake ...

in 1964, it evidently made sense to name the boat after Karl Renner. It quickly became apparent that the idea made no sense at all for people in

. No lake steamer had been named after any individual since the creation of the republic in 1919, and personality cults of all types had been discredited by Adolf Hitler. The Vorarlberg regional government passed a resolution that the boat should be named "Vorarlberg". The national government in Vienna was unpersuaded. On 24 November 1964 thousands of demonstrators - one source states there were 20,000 - awaited the arrival of Otto Probst's special train at Bregenz station. When the special train arrived without its special ministerial passenger, the crowd made their way eight kilometer (five miles) along the lake shore to the little town of

where the naming ceremony was to take place. As the minister approached by boat from

Bregenz Bregenz (; gsw, label= Vorarlbergian, Breagaz ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switze ...

in order to preside at the naming ceremony, information came through that the call in the "Vorarlberger Nachrichten" (the local newspaper) for people to demonstrate against him had met with a far larger and more determined response than the authorities had anticipated. Tomatoes were thrown and barricades were over-run as the authorities struggled to rescue the guest of honour from contact with the demonstrators. In the end the naming ceremony involving the minister had to be deferred, although an impromptu naming ceremony did take place when one of the demonstrators clambered up beside the new lake steamer and scrawled the name "Vorarlberg" on the bow. A woman then completed the ceremony by smashing a bottle against the ship. (The bottle contained not sparkling wine but lake water, however.) Probst refused to back down, and more arguments about the naming of the lake steamer continued for half a year. Mindful, perhaps, of a banner carried by one of the protestors calling for "More democracy less personality cult" (''"Mehr Demokratie weniger Personenkult"''), he offered as a compromise the proposal that the next new lakesteamer should be called "Austria". On 3 April 1965 30,000 demonstrators turned up in the centre of

demanding the minister's resignation. It was only on 14 July 1965 that the

Party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...

executive were seen to soften their position, recommending to the minister that he should give the new lake steamer the name "Vorarlberg". A low-key - almost secret - naming ceremony for the "Vorarlberg" finally took place on 30 July 1965: the minister attended the ceremony.

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.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Probst, Otto 1911 births 1978 deaths Buchenwald concentration camp survivors Members of the National Council (Austria) Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians Government ministers of Austria Recipients of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria Politicians from Vienna