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Alfons Gorbach

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Chancellor of Austria from 1961 to 1964
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Alfons Gorbach
Gorbach in 1965
Chancellor of Austria
In office
11 April 1961 – 2 April 1964
PresidentAdolf Schärf
Vice-ChancellorBruno Pittermann
Preceded byJulius Raab
Succeeded byJosef Klaus
Third President of the National Council
In office
8 June 1956 – 11 April 1961
Preceded byKarl Hartleb
Succeeded byAlfred Maleta
In office
19 December 1945 – 18 March 1953
Preceded bySepp Straffner (1933)
Succeeded byKarl Hartleb
Personal details
Born(1898-09-02)2 September 1898
Imst, Tyrol, Austria-Hungary
Died31 July 1972(1972-07-31) (aged 73)
Graz, Styria, Austria
Political partyPeople's Party

Alfons Gorbach (2 September 1898 – 31 July 1972) was an Austrian politician of the conservative People's Party (ÖVP). He served as Chancellor of Austria from 1961 to 1964.

Life

Born in Imst, Tyrol, Gorbach served in the Austro-Hungarian Army at the Italian Front in World War I, was severely wounded in the 1917 Battle of Caporetto and lost a leg. After the war he took up a political career in the First Austrian Republic. He joined the Christian Social Party and from 1929 to 1932 was a municipal councillor in Graz, Styria. In 1937 he was appointed a minister (Landesrat) in the Styrian state government, However, upon the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany in March 1938, Gorbach was dismissed and held as a political prisoner at Dachau concentration camp from 1938 to 1942, and again at Flossenburg from 1944 until the end of World War II.

After the war, Gorbach joined the newly established Austrian People's Party, and upon the 1945 legislative election became third president of the National Council parliament, an office he held until 1953 and again from 1956 to 1961. When a deceiving outcome in the 1959 election launched an internal party debate over aging ÖVP Chancellor Julius Raab, Gorbach, backed by the Styrian regional association, succeeded him as party chairman and on 11 April 1961 also as Austrian chancellor.

Chancellor Gorbach led his party into the 1962 election with an anti-Socialist campaign, only to continue the grand coalition with the SPÖ under Vice-Chancellor Bruno Pittermann afterwards. The People's Party achieved a slightly better result and became the strongest party five seats ahead of the Socialists, however, it failed to reach an absolute majority. After three years as chancellor, conciliatory Gorbach had to vacate his position in favour of the less pragmatic ÖVP "reformers" around his successor Josef Klaus. He returned to the National Council where he kept his mandate until 1970. In 1965 he unsuccessfully ran against Franz Jonas in the Austrian presidential election.

Gorbach remained honorary chairman of the Austrian People's Party. He died in Graz, Styria, aged 73.

References

  1. "Dr. Alfons Gorbach, Biografie | Parlament Österreich". www.parlament.gv.at (in German).
  2. "Präsidentinnen und Präsidenten seit 1920 | Parlament Österreich". www.parlament.gv.at.

External links

Political offices
Preceded byJulius Raab Chancellor of Austria
1961 – 1964 		Succeeded byJosef Klaus
Party political offices
Preceded byJulius Raab Chair of the Austrian People's Party
1960 – 1963 		Succeeded byJosef Klaus
Chancellors of Austria
First Republic
Coat of arms of Austria
Coat of arms of Austria
Second Republic
Italics indicate interim officeholders.
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