KREISKY, BRUNO

KREISKY, BRUNO (1911–1990), Austrian statesman and the first Jew to become chancellor of Austria. Born in Vienna, Kreisky was the son of a rich textile manufacturer. He joined the Socialist Workers Youth Association at the age of 15 and became head of its education department. After the Fascist seizure of power in 1934, Kreisky was active in the clandestine Socialist Party and was arrested in 1935. He spent nearly two years in prison and after the Nazi Anschluss in 1938, immigrated to Sweden. Kreisky returned to Austria in 1946 and joined the diplomatic service. He was personal assistant to the Socialist president of Austria, Theodor Koerner, and in 1953 became undersecretary for foreign affairs in the coalition government of the People's Party and Socialist Party. He participated in the negotiations with the Soviet Union which led to the Austrian Treaty of 1955 and from 1959 to 1966 was foreign minister of Austria. Following the Socialist defeat in the 1966 elections, Kreisky was made leader of the Socialist Party. He succeeded in creating a new image for the party by the formulation of new economic, social, and cultural policies and with the Socialist victory in the general election of 1970 – with a relative majority – he became chancellor of Austria. In 1971 – after early elections – the Socialist Party achieved an absolute majority. In 1975 and 1979 these victories were repeated. After the next elections in 1983, when the party failed to get a majority, Kreisky resigned as chancellor and as head of the Socialist Party. Contrary to frequent assertions Kreisky never denied his Jewish origin. But he came from an assimilated background and left the Jewish community in his youth. He never committed himself (until the 1980s) to the unsatisfactory restitution of Austria's Jews. In 1970 simon wiesenthal informed the German magazine Der Spiegel that Kreisky's government included no fewer than four former members of the Nazi Party. Kreisky defended his cabinet members and reacted furiously against Wiesenthal. The secretary of the Socialist Party Leopold Gratz called Wiesenthal's work private policing which operated outside the law and asked whether Austria needed this organization. But in 1975 the conflict between Kreisky and Wiesenthal became much more bitter. In that year, Wiesenthal discovered that Friedrich Peter, the head of the Freedom Party, Kreisky's intended coalition partner, had been a member of an SS brigade, whose explicit duty was the killing of civilians. Peter declared that he was never personally involved in atrocities and Kreisky said he believed him. Accordingly, he attacked Wiesenthal for his "mafia-like" methods, hinted that he was a collaborator of the Gestapo, and said that he wanted to stop Wiesenthal's work in Austria. The end of the affair was a compromise. Because of Kreisky's parliamentary immunity Wiesenthal withdrew his legal action; the Socialist Party's threat of a parliamentary inquiry committee was withdrawn. Kreisky said in Parliament that he never accused Wiesenthal of collaboration with the Nazis. Later, after Krei sky was no longer legally immune as a parliamentarian, Wiesenthal took legal action against Kreisky, who in 1989 was required to pay a fine of 270,000 ATS. During this trial Kreisky hinted at alleged intelligence reports from Communist countries at Wiesenthal, which were never revealed, and he tried in vain to get the former Nazi and later federal German politician Theodor Oberländer to appear as a court witness. Kreisky's vicious attacks on Wiesenthal caused antisemitic comments in the Austrian press. During the 1970s Austria became the most important transit point for 270,000 Jews from Russia. In 1973 two Arab terrorists took three Russian Jewish hostages on a train in Austria. They demanded the closing of the transit camp in the castle of Schoenau. Kreisky negotiated with the terrorists, who released the hostages, and closed the castle. Israel's Prime Minister golda meir flew to Austria and asked Kreisky in vain to change his decision. With the help of the Red Cross other transit camps were opened and the emigration process through Austria continued. In her memoirs Golda Meir conceded that   Kreisky's decision "was not altogether unreasonable" and that Schoenau "had become far too well known." Chancellor Kreisky consistently adopted a pro-Arab and anti-Israel position. However, he arranged two meetings in 1978 between shimon peres , Israel Labor Party leader, and President sadat , under the auspices of the Socialist International, of which he then was a vice president as well as chairman of its permanent fact-finding mission for the Middle East. The first took place in Salzburg in February and the second in Vienna in July, which led to a statement to the effect that there was a "negotiating potential" between Israel and Egypt. In September 1978, in an interview which he gave to the Dutch daily Trouv, Kreisky made an unprecedented vitriolic attack upon Israel and menahem begin , referring to him in the most abusive terms, calling him a small political peddler. It roused a storm of protest, and caused the resignations of Leopold Gottesmann, honorary consul general of Austria in Israel, Elimelech Rimalt, co-chairman of the Israel-Austria friendship league, and Otto Probst, a veteran member of the Socialist Party and co-chairman of the Israel-Austria friendship league. A few days later Kreisky stated that he was "prepared to apologize," but he did not do so. After the signing of the Camp David agreement, however, in congratulating all three leaders for their efforts, he formally apologized to Begin, still maintaining, however, that there would be no peace without a solution of the Palestinian problem and without an agreement with Syria. In July 1979 Kreisky officially received yasser arafat in Vienna, and in November, during what was ostensibly a private visit to the United States in connection with the U.S. tour of the Vienna Opera, he appealed to the United States to recognize the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Arabs and made a similar plea in his address to the General Assembly of the United Nations, proposing that as a first step toward peace, Israel should likewise accept the PLO. Kreisky's complex personality and his efforts to advance the Middle East peace process were recognized by his Israeli friends. Shimon Peres wrote in his memoirs: "Judged by his political pronouncements, he was Israel's most implacable adversary among European leaders. And yet, when judged by actions rather than words, he was one of our staunchest friends." -BIBLIOGRAPHY: E. Adunka, Die vierte Gemeinde (2000), 384–451; M. van Amerongen, Kreisky und seine unbewältigte Gegenwart (1977); G. Bischof and A. Pelinka (eds.), The Kreisky Era in Austria (1993); I. Etzersdorfer, Kreiskys große Liebe (1987); E. Horvath, Aera oder Episode: Das Phaenomen Bruno Kreisky (1989); J. Kunz (ed.), Die Aera Kreisky (1975); P. Lendvai and K. Ritschel, Kreisky (1972); W. Perger and W. Petritsch, Bruno Kreisky: Gegen die Zeit (1995); W. Petritsch, Bruno Kreisky (2000); A. Pittler, Bruno Kreisky (1996); V. Reimann, Bruno Kreisky (1972); F.R. Reiter (ed.), Wer war Bruno Kreisky? (2000); P. Secher, Bruno Kreisky. Chancellor of Austria (1993). (Evelyn Adunka (2nd ed.)