Hans Sima (June 4, 1918 – October 7, 2006) 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 politician 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 ...

(SPÖ), serving as governor (''

Landeshauptmann Landeshauptmann (if male) or Landeshauptfrau (if female) (, "state captain", plural ''Landeshauptleute'') is the chairman of a state government and the supreme official of an Austrian state and the Italian autonomous provinces of South Tyrol an ...

'') of

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 ...

from 1965 to 1974. Sima was born in Saifnitz,

Austro-Hungarian Empire 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 ...

(today

Camporosso Camporosso ( lij, Campurussu) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Imperia in the Italian region Liguria, located about southwest of Genoa and about west of Imperia. Camporosso borders the following municipalities: Dolceacqua, ...

, Val Canale (german: Kanaltal),

Tarvisio Tarvisio (German and fur, Tarvis, sl, Trbiž) is a comune in the northeastern part of the autonomous Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy. Geography The town is in the Canal Valley (''Val Canale'') between the Carnic Alps and Karawanks range ...

Province of Udine The province of Udine ( it, provincia di Udine, fur, provincie di Udin, sl, videmska pokrajina, Resian dialect, Resian: , german: Provinz Weiden) was a Provinces of Italy, province in the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia of Italy, borderi ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

). He attended elementary school,

Hauptschule A ''Hauptschule'' (, "general school") is a secondary school in Germany, starting after four years of elementary schooling (''Grundschule''), which offers Lower Secondary Education (Level 2) according to the International Standard Classification ...

, and, from 1933 to 1937, a commercial vocational school. During his schooling, he suffered 6 months' political imprisonment in 1935, under

Austrofascism The Fatherland Front ( de-AT, Vaterländische Front, ''VF'') was the right-wing conservative, nationalist and corporatist ruling political organisation of the Federal State of Austria. It claimed to be a nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack ...

. He entered the civil service of the Carinthian provincial government in 1938. He became Secretary of the Carinthian SPÖ in 1945, after the end of

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 ...

allowed the SPÖ to resume a role in politics, and held the position until 1956. In 1949, he was elected to the Landtag of Carinthia, in which he'd serve until 1974. He became a member of the Carinthian government in 1956, deputy governor of Carinthia in 1963, and governor (''Landeshauptmann'') in 1965. He was forced out as governor in 1974 in favor of

Leopold Wagner Leopold Wagner (1927, Klagenfurt – 26 September 2008) was an Austrian politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), serving as governor (''Landeshauptmann'') of Carinthia from 1974 to 1988. Wagner was governor of Carinthia for three consecut ...

, amidst a controversy over bilingual German/Slovene place-name signs, in which Sima was accused of being too accommodating toward the

Carinthian Slovenes Carinthian Slovenes or Carinthian Slovenians ( sl, Koroški Slovenci; german: Kärntner Slowenen) are the indigenous minority of Slovene ethnicity, living within borders of the Austrian state of Carinthia, neighboring Slovenia. Their status of t ...

. Sima died in 2006, in

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sima, Hans 1928 births 2006 deaths People from Tarvisio Governors of Carinthia (state) Social Democratic Party of Austria politicians