Adolf Schärf
| Adolf Schärf | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 6th President of Austria | |
| In office 22 May 1957 – 28 February 1965 | |
| Chancellor | Julius Raab Alfons Gorbach Josef Klaus |
| Preceded by | Theodor Körner |
| Succeeded by | Franz Jonas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 20 April 1890 Nikolsburg, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 28 February 1965 (aged 74) Vienna, Austria |
| Nationality | Austrian |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party of Austria |
| Spouse(s) | Hilda Schärf (1886–1956) |
| Religion | lapsed Catholic[1] |
Adolf Schärf (20 April 1890 – 28 February 1965) was, from 1957 to his death, the sixth President of Austria. Born into a poor working-class family, he put himself through law school working part-time and with a scholarship granted for academic excellence. He received a doctorate in law from the University of Vienna in 1914 and volunteered for service in the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces in the same year. At the end of the Great War, he was discharged as a Second Lieutenant. He entered politics and found employment as the secretary of the social democratic president of the Nationalrat during the years of the first republic (1918–1934) and served on the Bundesrat 1933–1934. After the fall of the Republic in 1934 and twice during the Nazi occupation, he served time as a political prisoner. Unemployed after the dissolution of the Socialist Party, he passed the Austrian Bar exam in 1934 and worked as an associate with a law firm. However, in 1938, he aryanized the office of Arnold Eisler, a Jewish lawyer who had to leave Austria. He took over the law firm and it was never restituted. Later on, he also helped in the aryanization process of buildings in Vienna.
After World War II, he became the chairman of the refounded Social Democratic Party of Austria and a member of the new Nationalrat. In 1955, he also took part in the Moscow negotiations for the Austrian State Treaty. He became Vice Chancellor in 1956, before being elected president in 1957 and 1963.
Suggestive abuse of biographical similarities
- The neo-Nazi song "Adolf's Ehrentag" by Frank Rennicke attempts to bypass German anti-Nazi glorification laws by pretending to be about Adolf Schärf instead of Adolf Hitler; at the end of the song similarities are listed: both are born on 20 April, both have been imprisoned and both were leaders of Austria.
- The same approach is visible in a poem by Wolf Martin,[2] a columnist from the Kronen Zeitung,[3] published in 1994 on the occasion of Adolf "Schärf"'s birthday which caused an uproar at the time.
Sources
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adolf Schärf. |
- ↑ Gehler, Michael (2005) "Schärf, Adolf", p. 527 in Neue Deutsche Biographie 22
- ↑ Dienstag, der 22. April 2008, 17:03 Uhr von Pontifex Maximus. pontisblog.eu. 22 April 2008
- ↑ Borgers, Nathalie (2005) Kronen Zeitung – Tag für Tag ein Boulevardstück. ARTE
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Prohibited 1934–1945 | SPÖ Party Chairman 1945–1957 |
Succeeded by: Bruno Pittermann |
| Austria part of Nazi Germany 1938–1945 |
Vice Chancellor of Austria 1945–1957 | |
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