Karl Buresch (12 October 1878 – 16 September 1936) was a lawyer, Christian-Social

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

and

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

during the First Republic.

Life

Buresch was born the son of a merchant in

Groß-Enzersdorf Groß-Enzersdorf is a town and municipality in the district of Gänserndorf in the Austrian state of Lower Austria, directly to the east of Vienna and north of the river Danube. Apart from the town itself, it also comprises seven subordinated munic ...

Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...

, where he attended primary school (''

Volksschule The German term ''Volksschule'' generally refers to compulsory education, denoting an educational institution every person (i.e. the people, ''Volk'') is required to attend. In Germany and Switzerland it is equivalent to a combined primary ('' ...

''). After finishing secondary school in

Döbling Döbling () is the 19th District in the city of Vienna, Austria (german: 19. Bezirk, Döbling, Doebling). It is located on the north end from the central districts, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing. Döbling has some heavily populate ...

, he studied law at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

, receiving his degree in 1901. Buresch worked for a firm of solicitors in his home town, became a Christian Social member of the Groß-Enzersdorf council in 1909 and in 1916 the town's mayor, a position he held until 1919. In 1919 he was an elected member of the Austrian Constitutional Assembly (in German ''Mitglied der Konstituierenden Nationalversammlung''). During the 1920s and early 1930s he was a delegate to the National Council parliament (1920-1934), '' Landeshauptmann'' governor of Lower Austria (1922-1931 and again 1932-1933), and a chairman of the Christian-Social group. GabineteBuresch1932

Upon the collapse of the biggest Austrian bank

Creditanstalt The Creditanstalt (sometimes Credit-Anstalt, abbreviated as CA), full original name k. k. priv. Österreichische Credit-Anstalt für Handel und Gewerbe (), was a major Austrian bank, founded in 1855 in Vienna. From its founding until 1931, th ...

in May 1931, difficulties created by the Great Depression and the instability of the national currency, the First Republic found itself in political turmoil. On 20 June 1931 Buresch was appointed

and finally managed to form a cabinet of Christian Social and

German nationalist German nationalism () is an ideological notion that promotes the unity of Germans and German-speakers into one unified nation state. German nationalism also emphasizes and takes pride in the patriotism and national identity of Germans as one nat ...

politicians, after unsuccessful attempts by his predecessors

Otto Ender Otto Ender (24 December 1875 – 25 June 1960) was an Austrian political figure. He served as the chancellor of Austria between 1930 and 1931. Early life and education Ender, the first son of Herman and Victoria Ender, was born in Altach, Vorar ...

and

Ignaz Seipel Ignaz Seipel (19 July 1876 – 2 August 1932) was an Austrian prelate, Catholic theologian and politician of the Christian Social Party. He was its chairman from 1921 to 1930 and served as Austria's federal chancellor twice, from 1922 to 1924 ...

to cope with the crisis. As the commercial crisis continued and domestic policies deteriorated after a failed ''

Heimwehr The Heimwehr (, ) or Heimatschutz (, ) was a nationalist, initially paramilitary group operating in Austria during the 1920s and 1930s that was similar in methods, organization, and ideology to the Freikorps in Germany. It was opposed to parliam ...

'' putsch led by

Walter Pfrimer Walter Pfrimer (22 December 1881 – 31 May 1968) was an Austrian politician and leader of the Heimwehr in Styria. He was the leader of a failed putsch in 1931. Early years The son of a wine merchant, Pfrimer studied law at the University of Gr ...

, Buresch lost his German nationalist allies and went on to govern with a minority cabinet from January 1932. During his mandate, which lasted to 20 May 1932, a number of austerity measures were introduced. His government was succeeded by a cabinet formed by

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 ...

. Buresch again assumed the office of Lower Austrian governor, before on 16 May 1933 he joined the Dollfuß cabinet as

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

. On 17 October 1935 he was succeeded by Ludwig Draxler. Until his sudden death in 1936, Buresch served as governor of the ''

Österreichische Postsparkasse Österreichische Postsparkasse (P.S.K.) was a postal savings bank in Austria. It was owned by the Austrian Post Office and thus by the government. It merged on 1 October 2005 with the BAWAG to form BAWAG P.S.K. History During the Austro ...

'' (postal savings bank) in

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

References

Wiener Zeitung Online Dossiers

External link

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buresch, Karl 1878 births 1936 deaths People from Gänserndorf District Austrian people of Czech descent Austrian Roman Catholics Christian Social Party (Austria) politicians Chancellors of Austria Finance Ministers of Austria Foreign ministers of Austria Members of the Constituent National Assembly (Austria) Members of the National Council (Austria) Governors of Lower Austria (after 1918) 20th-century Chancellors of Austria