Adreas Maurer was a Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n politician and farmers' advocate, from the Austrian People's Party

Austrian People's Party

The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...

.

Early life

Maurer was born in Trautmannsdorf an der Leitha

Trautmannsdorf an der Leitha

Trautmannsdorf an der Leitha is a town in the district of Bruck an der Leitha in Lower Austria in Austria....

 in Lower Austria

Lower Austria

Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...

, and was raised on his parents' farm. From 1925 to 1933 he attended school in Trautmannsdorf, and afterwards attended agricultural technical school in Bruck an der Leitha

Bruck an der Leitha

Bruck an der Leitha is a city located in Lower Austria, Austria at the border to the Burgenland, which is marked by the Leitha river....

.

He was a soldier in the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 from 1940 to 1945, and married Hermine Berger in 1944.

Political career

From 1946, Maurer was politically active as a farmers' representative, and then entered local politics, serving on the Trautmannsdorf city council from 1951 to 1956. In 1959 he was elected to the Landtag of Lower Austria, where he served until 1964. From 1964 to 1966 he was an official (Landesrat) in the provincial government of Lower Austria, as well as President of the Austrian Farmers' Federation. From 1970 to 1989 he was chairman of the Lower Austrian Farmers' Federation.

From November 24, 1966 through January 22, 1981, Maurer was the Landeshauptmann

Landeshauptmann

Landeshauptmann is a former German gubernatorial title equivalent to that of a governor of a province or a state....

(Governor) of Lower Austria. During this lengthy term, he oversaw development of the state's road system, as well as a general process of modernization. His government enacted compulsory education

Compulsory education

Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all persons.-Antiquity to Medieval Era:Although Plato's The Republic is credited with having popularized the concept of compulsory education in Western intellectual thought, every parent in Judea since Moses's Covenant with...

, a regional planning law, a nature protection law, and a new state constitution.