Broke out like a fire on the roof of the Republic

The 67-year-old Ernst Kirchweger, a Viennese tram and previously KP resistance hunter, is beaten on the floor in the Hotel Sacher and later dies in the hospital. He becomes the first fatalities of political violence in the second republic. Ex-finance minister (1986-1995) Ferdinand Lacina was the immediate witness to the act of violence and tried to offer help.

The funeral of Kirchweger on 8 April became the most important meeting of the Democratic State. More than 25,000 people formed a funeral procession on the ring road. The pompous hearse was flanked by the death of death. At the front of the Republic marched from the ÖVP and Spö. Behind it other representatives of parties, institutions, church and culture. Only the FPö was not visibly represented.

What had happened that ten years after the State Convention, until then, there was the largest meeting against a flaming Nazism?

Violent collisions had dominated the photo in the center of Vienna since 23 April. From April 29 they resulted in real street fights. A completely overwhelmed and barely present police was never in the master of the situation.

Uni-professor was a glowing Hitler supporter
The sager of a history professor at the University of World Trade, Taras Borodajkewycz, was activated for the unrest. The former illegal Nazi was noticed by several anti-Semitic and Nazi sympathetic comments in lectures and publications. He described the “Austrian nation” as “flunterie”. He referred to the Creator of the Constitution, Hans Kelsen, as ‘the former Jew Kohn’. Both were incorrect.

The contemporary witness and former federal President Heinz Fischer about Borodajkewycz: “He was a glowing Hitler supporter and glorifies his rule.” In demonstrations, critics demanded the replacement of the professor, eternal and young warriors disturbed these rallies. This included calls such as “Hoch Auschwitz” and “Heil Borodajkewycz”, as well as physical violence, who escalated fatally.

The role of Heinz Fischer
Heinz Fischer played a central role in the run -up for the cause. As a lawyer who has always been interested in contemporary history, he published an extensive scientific documentation for the whole case decades ago.

The dispute started with an idea of ​​the Borodajkewycz lectures by the Young World Trade -student Lacina. He handed it over to the freshly baked SP parliamentary secretary Heinz Fischer in 1963. He published the quotes from the professor in two critical newspaper articles. Fischer did not mention his source of Lacina, because both disadvantages fear the future finance minister.

Borodajkewycz then complained Fischer and the “AZ”. Because Fischer continued to protect his source, he initially lost the process in the first instance. “4000 Schilling or 20 days of arrest” were immersed in the later federal president. In a resumption in 1965, after Lacina’s degree and now as a witness, Fischer should also win completely. The later employee of Cardinal Franz König and ÖVP secretary Alfred Stirnemann (1939-2000) also credibly confirmed the quotes of the professor in court.

However, the Borodajkewycz affair had publicly exploded between these two legal proceedings. The cabaret artist Duo Gerhard Bronner and Peter Wehle made the statements of the professor known to a wide television audience in a sketch in their legendary program “Zeitfeinstil” on March 23, 1965 on television. It now appeared in his own meeting, which was entitled as a “press conference”. The hall was overcrowded with straight students. Only a few journalists found room. Borodajkewycz felt very safe and toasted in this context with some of his positions. The audience Johlte and laughed at anti -semitic allusions. But the “Time in the Bild” made a longer contribution with original explanations in the evening. Now it started to burn publicly on the roof of the Republic.

Demos demanded fatalities
Demonstrations started with the demand for the replacement of Borodajkewycz. The interference with journeys followed closely. Until everything culminated in the violent death of Kirchwegers. The perpetrator was identified not in the least with the help of the eyewitnesses Lacina. The Neo -Nazi Gunther Kümel was known. As early as 1961, an arital bomb attack on the Alitalia office and a firearm attack on the parliament building went on to the Building Parliament. Despite his history with regard to Kirchweger, Kümel received a mild judgment: ten months for “an incorrect self -defense situation”. In Wikipedia, Kümel is managed as a former FPö officer. He quickly released and still publishes his ideas, especially in German countries.

The rectorate of the World Trade University of Applied Sciences postponed Borodajkewycz on a Saturday at 12:00, 14 May 1966, “Penalty”. That only meant a small deduction in his well -built pension. The VP Minister of Education did not want to suspend him in advance with reference to disciplinary law. Borodajkewycz died on January 3, 1984.

Prof. Paul Vécsei