Bruno Kreisky

Born on 22 January 1911 in Austria into a middle-class Jewish family, Bruno Kreisky - outraged by the poverty and violence he experienced in interwar Austria - joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) at the age of sixteen. Under the authoritarian Schuschnigg regime, Kreisky was arrested in 1935 and spent a year and a half in prison, a time that shaped his position on political resistance. Under the National Socialist regime, Kreisky was imprisoned again in March 1938, this time by the Gestapo. He was able to flee and emigrate to Sweden, where he married Vera Fürth and his two children, Peter and Suzanne, were born. Despite Kreisky's efforts to return to Austria in 1946, he was assigned to the Austrian legation in Sweden as a diplomat and only returned to his homeland in 1951. He began his political career as an advisor to the then President Theodor Körner. After his appointment as State Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the Federal Chancellery (1953-1958), Kreisky took part in crucial negotiations that led to the Austrian State Treaty and the adoption of the Neutrality Act, ending a ten-year period during which Austria was administered by the four Allies.

Over the following thirty years and more, Kreisky significantly shaped Austrian politics; his concept of an „active neutrality policy“ defined the country's international relations. Under Kreisky, Austria achieved unprecedented global prestige, for which he was crucially responsible as Foreign Minister (1959-1966) and chairman of the Social Democratic Party, then in opposition, and finally as Federal Chancellor (1970 to 1983). In terms of economic and social policy, Austria attained a level of prosperity previously unknown during his long tenure. Kreisky used this development to implement reforms of the electoral law, the education system, and the judiciary. Kreisky sought to both broaden and deepen democracy in Austria and to strengthen dialogue at the international level.

Kreisky's analytical mind, his wide reading and intelligence, but also his deep-rooted humanism, his integrity and his tireless commitment to tolerance and social justice, his profound sense of responsibility, were equally valued by politicians in East and West, as well as by academics. This earned him the trust, respect, and even admiration of international leaders of his time such as Willy Brandt, Olof Palme, Indira Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle, Anwar al-Sadat, Henry Kissinger and François Mitterrand. His international connections and his position as Federal Chancellor of a neutral state enabled Kreisky to act as a mediator for peace, human rights and development initiatives on an international level.

In Memoriam Bruno Kreisky
„The meaning of life is the unfinished.“ Bruno Kreisky 21 January 1911 – 29 July 1990

Source: Politics and Passion. BRUNO KREISKY. A film by Helene Maimann, Dor Film/ORF 2011

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