Theodor Körner
Encyclopedia
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Theodor Körner, Edler von Siegringen (April 23, 1873 - January 4, 1957) served as the fifth President of Austria, between 1951 and 1957.

Life

As son of an officer of the Austro-Hungarian
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

 Army
Austro-Hungarian Army
The Austro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy from 1867 to 1918. It was composed of three parts: the joint army , the Austrian Landwehr , and the Hungarian Honvédség .In the wake of fighting between the...

, he was born in Újszőny
Komárom
Komárom is a city in Hungary on the right bank of the Danube in Komárom-Esztergom county.The city of Komárom was formerly a separate suburban village called...

, a small suburb of today Komárno (Slovakia) (but Újszőny is predecessor of Komárom
Komárom
Komárom is a city in Hungary on the right bank of the Danube in Komárom-Esztergom county.The city of Komárom was formerly a separate suburban village called...

 in today Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

). Family legend has it that he was related to the poet of the same name
Theodor Körner (author)
Karl Theodor Körner was a German poet and soldier. After some time in Vienna, where he wrote some light comedies and other works, he became a soldier and joined the German uprising against Napoleon...

, but these stories are not proven.

Körner attended the military school in Mährisch Weißkirchen (Hranice), the military academy, and became lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 in 1894. He served as an officer in Agram
Agram
Agram may refer to:Places*Agram, the historic Austrian German name for Zagreb, Croatia*Agram Township, Minnesota, United States*Agram mountains, a small range in north eastern Niger...

 (today Zagreb, Croatia) and was promoted to major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...

 in 1904, in which year he became a member of the Austrian chief of staff. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, 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 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...

 and become a member of parliament in 1924. He served as Chairman of the Federal Council of Austria
Federal Council of Austria
The Federal Council of Austria or Bundesrat is the second chamber of the Austrian parliament, representing the nine States of Austria on federal level. As part of a bicameral legislature alongside of the National Council of Austria , it can be compared with an upper house or a senate...

 between December 1933 and February 1934.

The civil war in Austria and the installation of the austro-fascist
Austrofascism
Austrofascism is a term which is frequently used by historians to describe the authoritarian rule installed in Austria with the May Constitution of 1934, which ceased with the forcible incorporation of the newly-founded Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938...

 dictatorship under Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...

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

, Körner was again imprisoned, this time by the Nazis.

After the war, in April 1945, Körner became Mayor of Vienna in the newly erected Second Republic. Körner was responsible for rebuilding and reconstructing 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...

, which was heavily destroyed due to the bombing during the war. After the death of Karl Renner
Karl Renner
Karl Renner was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and died in Vienna...

, 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 at Vienna, in office.

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, an Austrian award for science and art.

External links

Theodor Körner

Sources

  • Ilona Duczynska
    Ilona Duczyńska
    Ilona Duczynska , a Polish-Hungarian female revolutionist, translator, a wife of Karl Polanyi.- External links :*...

     (Hrsg. und kommentiert): Theodor Körner. Auf Vorposten. Ausgewählte Schriften 1928 - 1938. Europaverlag, Wien 1977, ISBN 3-203-50617-3
  • Thea Leitner
    Thea Leitner
    Thea Leitner is 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 das Land Wien" .She was the wife of German commentator and science popularizer Sebastian...

    : Körner aus der Nähe. Danubia Verlag, Wien 1951.
  • Gustav K. Bienek: Ein Leben für Österreich. Verlag für Jugend und Volk / Verlag Jungbrunnen 1953.
  • Eric C. Kollman: 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, ISBN 3-8000-3927-3
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