Alfred "Fred" Sinowatz was born in Neufeld an der Leitha

Neufeld an der Leitha

Neufeld an der Leitha is a town in the district of Eisenstadt-Umgebung in Burgenland in Austria, upon the river Leitha, which forms here the border with Lower Austria.-Nearby places:- Natives :...

, Burgenland

Burgenland

Burgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...

, Austria. He was an 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 of the Social Democratic Party of Austria

Social Democratic Party of Austria

The Social Democratic Party of Austria is one of the oldest political parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the two major parties in Austria, and has ties to trade unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour. The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social-democratic parties that have preserved...

 (Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ), and was Chancellor of Austria

Chancellor of Austria

The Federal Chancellor is the head of government in Austria. Its deputy is the Vice-Chancellor. Before 1918, the equivalent office was the Minister-President of Austria. The Federal Chancellor is considered to be the most powerful political position in Austrian politics.-Appointment:The...

 from 1983 to 1986.

Career until 1983

Sinowatz, educated as a historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, was Minister of Education and Art in the Austrian government from 1971 to 1983. In 1981, when Bruno Kreisky

Bruno Kreisky

Bruno Kreisky was an Austrian politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest acting Chancellor after World War II....

's chosen successor "Crown Prince" Hannes Androsch

Hannes Androsch

Johannes Androsch is an Austrian entrepreneur and consultant; a former Social Democrat top politician who served as an Austrian Minister of Finance from 1970 to 1981 and additionally as Vice Chancellor from 1976–1981; and a former banker who from 1981-1988 was the General Director of the...

 was removed from his position, Sinowatz also became Vice Chancellor

Vice Chancellor of Austria

In Austrian politics, the Vice-Chancellor is a member of the federal government acting as a deputy to the Federal Chancellor.Art. 69 of the Constitution of Austria states:...

.

Sinowatz's chancellorship

After the SPÖ had lost its absolute majority in 1983 and Kreisky had resigned as chancellor, Sinowatz reluctantly took up the position of head of the Austrian government. He joined a coalition, initiated by Kreisky, with the Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) which was then run by liberals

Liberalism in Austria

This article gives an overview of liberalism in Austria. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme...

.

In autumn 1983, he also succeeded Kreisky as chairman of the SPÖ.

In late 1984, came the severe internal crisis of the "Occupation of the Hainburg

Hainburg an der Donau

Hainburg an der Donau is a town in the Bruck an der Leitha district, Lower Austria, Austria.-Geography:The city Hainburg is located next to the Danube river and Bratislava in Slovakia and 50 km east of Vienna. It is part of the Industrial Quarter Industrieviertel in Lower Austria.45.87% of the...

 Floodplain" by thousands of people protesting against the building of a power station

Power station

A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....

 there. Sinowatz managed to calm both sides by announcing a "Christmas peace" on December 22, 1984, following considerable pressure from the public.

In spite of this, his period of office is not considered to have been successful. It started with the Wine Scandal, then a scandal concerning the construction of the new General Hospital of Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, and in particular, the crisis of the increasing debts of nationalized industry, above all the Voest-Alpine AG, an industrial concern based in Linz

Linz

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

.

Since Sinowatz's manner was not very typical of that of politicians, he often earned pitiful smiles, for example, when he said, "Ich weiß, das klingt alles sehr kompliziert" ("I know, this all sounds complicated"), usually rendered as "Es ist alles sehr kompliziert" ("Everything is very complicated").

Close to the end of his period in office, he also came under pressure after defense minister Friedhelm Frischenschlager of his coalition partner, the Freedom Party, officially went to meet Walter Reder

Walter Reder

SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Reder was a German Waffen-SS officer who served with the 3.SS-Panzer-Division Totenkopf and the 16.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Reichsführer-SS. He was a Knight's Cross and German Cross in Gold winner...

, a war criminal who had been imprisoned in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 since World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, upon Reder's return to Austria.

Waldheim Affair

Before the 1986 Austrian Presidential

President of Austria

The President of Austria is the federal head of state of Austria. Though theoretically entrusted with great power by the constitution, in practice the President acts, for the most part, merely as a ceremonial figurehead...

 Elections

Elections in Austria

This article provides information on elections and election results in Austria.On a federal level, there are two main elections: for head of state every six years, and for the...

, during a meeting of the steering committee of the Burgenland SPÖ, according to a later rendering by Ottilie Matysek, Sinowatz insinuated that one would have to point out to the Austrians that 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...

's candidate, Kurt Waldheim

Kurt Waldheim

Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992...

, had a "brown" (i.e. Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

) past. By an indiscretion, this remark was passed on to the weekly magazine profil

Profil (magazine)

profil is an Austrian news magazine. It was founded in 1970 by Oscar Bronner, who also founded the magazine Trend and the daily newspaper Der Standard....

, which started to investigate the matter. This triggered the Waldheim debate.

During the presidential campaign, Sinowatz strongly opposed Waldheim. When Waldheim gave assurances that he had not been a member of the Sturmabteilung

Sturmabteilung

The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...

Equestrian Corps, but had only joined its members in riding occasionally, Sinowatz countered: "I find that Kurt Waldheim never was a member of the SA, but only his horse."

After Waldheim's election, Sinowatz resigned and passed on his post as chancellor to finance minister Franz Vranitzky

Franz Vranitzky

Franz Vranitzky is an Austrian politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria , he was Chancellor of Austria from 1986 to 1997.-Early life and career:...

, who also succeeded him as chairman of the SPÖ in 1988; at the same time, Sinowatz also resigned as a member of the National Council of Austria

National Council of Austria

The National Council is one of the two houses of the Austrian parliament. According to the constitution, the National Council and the complementary Federal Council are peers...

.

Sinowatz sued Ottilie Matysek (who had by then left the SPÖ) for libel because of her statement concerning Waldheim's past. Even though all top representatives of the Burgenland SPÖ (including governor

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

 Johann Sipötz) gave testimony in his favor when he denied the accuracy of Matysek's depiction of the events, the court gave more weight to the authenticity of some hand-written notes and dismissed the suit. This also led to Sipötz's resignation.

Later life

In later life, Sinowatz lived in Burgenland.

Sinowatz died on 11 August 2008. He was 79 years of age. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living former Austrian chancellor.

Note

• This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia, as of 21 January 2005.

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