Theodor Körner, Edler von Siegringen (; 23 April 1873 – 4 January 1957) was an Austrian

military officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...

and statesman of the

Social Democratic Party of Austria 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

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 ...

from 1951 to 1957 and as

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 1945 to 1951.

Early life

As son of an officer of the

Austro-Hungarian Army The Austro-Hungarian Army (, literally "Ground Forces of the Austro-Hungarians"; , literally "Imperial and Royal Army") was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint arm ...

, he was born in Újszőny,

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

(today part of

Komárom Komárom (Hungarian: ; german: Komorn; la, Brigetio, later ; sk, Komárno) is a city in Hungary on the south bank of the Danube in Komárom-Esztergom County. Komárno, Slovakia, is on the northern bank. Komárom was formerly a separate villag ...

, Hungary), as the second child of an Artillery Captain, later promoted to

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

Theodor Karl Körner,

Edler Edler () was until 1919 the lowest rank of nobility in Austria-Hungary and Germany, just beneath a ''Ritter'' (hereditary knight), but above untitled nobles, who used only the nobiliary particle ''von'' before their surname. It was mostly given to ...

von Siegringen (1828-1917) and his wife, Karoline Fousek (1849–1929). He had one older sister, Rosa Antonia (b. 1872) and one younger brother Richrad (1874-1915), who later became

Lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

in the

Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces The Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces (german: Bewaffnete Macht or ''Wehrmacht'') or Imperial and Royal Armed Forces were the military forces of Austria-Hungary. It comprised two main branches: The Army (''Landstreitkräfte'') and the Navy ...

during

World War I 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 ...

. He was great nephew of poet Theodor Körner and was distantly related to

Bertha von Suttner Bertha Sophie Felicitas Freifrau von Suttner (; ; 9 June 184321 June 1914) was an Austrian-Bohemian pacifist and novelist. In 1905, she became the second female Nobel laureate (after Marie Curie in 1903), the first woman to be awarded the Nobel ...

, through her mother, Sophie Wilhelmine von Körner (1815-1884), who was also related to the poet.

Biography

In 1883–1888, Körner lived in Chrastava, where his father was born, and attended the elementary school there. From 1888, he attended the

military school A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...

in Hranice, graduated at the head of his class as a

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and de ...

from the

Imperial and Royal Technical Military Academy The Imperial and Royal Technical Military Academy (German: ''k.u.k. Technische Militärakademie'') was a military training facility founded in 1717 for certain officer groups of the Habsburg monarchy. The location of the academy changed several ...

, and became

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

in 1894. He served as an officer in Agram (today

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

, Croatia) and was promoted to

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

in 1904, in which year he became a member of the Austrian staff. During

, he was an active commander on the Italian front. He resigned from his military career in 1924 as a General. Always interested in politics, he joined the

social democrats 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 so ...

and became a member of parliament in 1924. He served as Chairman of the

Federal Council of Austria The Federal Council (german: Bundesrat, ) is the upper house of the Austrian Parliament, representing the nine States of Austria at the federal level. As part of a bicameral legislature alongside of the National Council, it can be compared wit ...

between December 1933 and February 1934. Körner was a member of the ''Technischer Ausschuss'' (Technical Committee) of the

Republikanischer Schutzbund The Republikanischer Schutzbund (, ''Republican Protection League'') was an Austrian paramilitary organization established in 1923 by the Social Democratic Party (SDAPÖ) to secure power in the face of rising political radicalization after World ...

and, alongside

Alexander Eifler Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants li ...

, considered one of its two leading military strategists. As opposed to Eifler, who favored a more streamlined and classic military organization for the Social-Democratic paramilitary, Körner proposed a strategic outline utilizing

guerilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tac ...

and mass action in the case of a civil war. Eifler was eventually able to assert his strategic views in his struggle with Körner, in the course of which Körner left the technical committee in 1930. The civil war in Austria and the installation of the

austro-fascist The Federal State of Austria ( de-AT, Bundesstaat Österreich; colloquially known as the , "Corporate State") was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the clerical fascist Fa ...

dictatorship under

Engelbert Dollfuss Engelbert Dollfuß (alternatively: ''Dolfuss'', ; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian clerical fascist politician who served as Chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he a ...

ended Körner's career as a politician. He was arrested, like other members of his party, by the authoritarian government that banned all opposition parties and put their representatives into prison. During

World War II 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 ...

, Körner was again imprisoned, this time by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. After the war, in April 1945, Körner became

in the newly erected Second Republic. Körner was responsible for rebuilding and reconstructing

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

, which was heavily destroyed due to the bombing during the war. After the death of

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 ...

, his party nominated Körner as candidate for the presidency, and Körner won the elections with slightly more than 51 percent of the votes. He therefore became the first President of Austria directly elected by the people. Körner died in Vienna, in office, the second consecutive President to do so. Körner had a profound knowledge of military sciences and wrote about military theory. In Vienna, there is a street named after him, as is the

Theodor Körner Prize The Theodor Körner Prize ( German: ''Theodor-Körner-Preis'') is a set of annual Austrian awards bestowed by the Theodor Körner Fund in recognition of cultural and/or scientific advances. The prize is awarded at the University of Vienna. The pri ...

, an Austrian award for science and art. A motor vessel, the MS Theodor Körner was built in 1965 and currently operates on the Danube River as a "Bike & Boat" cruise ship, accommodating 135 passengers plus crew.

Awards

* Honorary Doctorate at the

Vienna University of Technology TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

(1945) * Honorary citizen of Vienna city (1948) * Grand Cross special class of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

(1956)

GER Bundesverdienstkreuz 9 Sond des Grosskreuzes

References

Sources

Ilona Duczynska ''Ilona'' is a Hungarian female given name, the traditional name of the Queen of the Fairies in Magyar folklore. Its etymology is uncertain. A common theory is that Ilona is cognate with the Greek given name ''Helen''. Diminutive forms include ...

: (Hrsg. und kommentiert): ''Theodor Körner. Auf Vorposten. Ausgewählte Schriften 1928 - 1938''. Europaverlag, Wien, 1977, *

Thea Leitner Thea Leitner (June 2, 1921 in Vienna – August 2016) was an Austrian author and journalist. She has written numerous books for young people and was decorated, in May, 2003 for service to Vienna with the "Silbernes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um d ...

: ''Körner aus der Nähe''. Danubia Verlag, Wien, 1951. *

Eric C. Kollman The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse languag ...

: ''Militär und Politik''. VERL.DF.GESCH.U.POL., Wien, 1973. * Thea Leitner: ''Hühnerstall und Nobelball. 1938–1955. Leben in Krieg und Frieden''. Ueberreuter, Wien, 2004,

Österreichische Mediathek The Österreichische Mediathek ("Austrian Mediathek") is the Austrian archive for sound recordings and videos on cultural and contemporary history. It was founded in 1960 as Österreichische Phonothek (Austrian Phonothek) by the Ministry of Educat ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Korner, Theodor 1873 births 1957 deaths Mayors of Vienna Edlers of Austria Presidents of Austria Presidents of the Austrian Federal Council Members of the Federal Council (Austria) Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians Hungarian-German people Austrian people of Hungarian descent Hungarian people of Czech descent Austrian people of German Bohemian descent People from Komárom Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery Grand Crosses Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

Early life

Biography

Awards

References

Sources

External links