Oskar Helmer
Born16 November 1887
Oberwaltersdorf, Lower Austria
Died1963(1963-00-00) (aged 75–76)
Occupation(s)Printer, politician
Political partySocial Democratic Party of Austria
AwardsNansen Refugee Award

Oskar Helmer (1887-1963) was an Austrian printer and social-democrat party politician. He served as the Minister of the Interior from 1945.

He won the Nansen Refugee Award in 1959.

Early life and education

Helmer was born on 16 November 1887 in Oberwaltersdorf in Lower Austria.[1]

After he finished his school education, he studied printing in Wiener Neustadt, while also trying to sign apprentices up to the Austrian social-democratic youth movement.[1] His political activities put him in contact with the Social Democratic Party of Austria which he joined in 1903[2] and became the Wiener Neustadt constituency secretary.[1]

Career

After his education, Helmer worked as a newspaper printer.[3] He became the editor of Gleichheit and Wiener Volkstribüne in 1910.[4]

He became the youngest ever social-democrat politician to be elected to the Lower Austria state parliament on 15 May 1919.[1] After Vienna separated from Lower Austria he worked as the head of the social-democratic provincial government constituencies and the parliamentary faction.[1] In 1927 he was promoted to the provincial capital representative.[1]

Helmer was a member of and the deputy party chair of the Socialist Party.[5] He was arrested by Nazis in 1934, and from 1935 to 1945 worked in the insurance industry.[4]

In 1945, he became the Ministry of the Interior of Austria, he played a major role in the denazification process, including reforming the police force.[6][1]

In 1959, he became president of Austria's Länderbank.[4] He won the Nansen Refugee Award the same year.[7]

Selected publications

  • Ö. Kampf um die Freiheit, 1949[4]
  • 50 Jahre erlebte Geschichte, 1957[4]
  • Ausgew. Reden and Schriften, 1963[4]
  • Aufbruch gegen das Unrecht, 1964[4]

Death and legacy

Oskar-Helmer Hof

Helmer died in 1963.[8] The Oskar Helmer Hof, a social housing complex was named after him in 1970.[2][9]

A commemorative postage stamp honouring him was released on November 13, 1987.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "100th Birthday of Oskar Helmer". www.aeiou.at. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  2. 1 2 "Wiener Wohnen - Gemeindewohnungen". wiener-wohnen.at (in German). Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  3. ↑ Kitchen, M. (2015). The Coming of Austrian Fascism. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Helmer, Oskar". www.aeiou.at. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  5. ↑ Kreisky, B., Lewis, J., Rathkolb, O. (2000). The Struggle for a Democratic Austria: Bruno Kreisky on Peace and Social Justice. United Kingdom: Berghahn Books.
  6. ↑ Knight, R. (2017). Slavs in Post-Nazi Austria: Carinthian Slovenes and the Politics of Assimilation, 1945-1960. India: Bloomsbury Publishing. p45
  7. ↑ "Austrian Receives Refugee Medal". The New York Times. 14 October 1959. ProQuest 114886714.
  8. ↑ Memorial plaque, Oskar Helmer-Hof, Meriangasse 5, 1210 Wien
  9. ↑ "Oskar-Helmer-Hof". www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at (in German (formal address)). Retrieved 2022-09-04.
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