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Karl RennerOne of the leaders of the Austrian Social Democracy
Country:
 Austria |
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Biography of Karl Renner
Karl Renner (1870 - 1950) was one of the leaders of Austrian social democracy and the first chancellor of the Austrian Republic. He was born on December 14, 1870 in the German part of Moravia into a peasant family. Renner studied law in Vienna and supported himself by giving private lessons. He later became a government librarian.
Renner became a socialist, although he never adhered to orthodox Marxist views. In his works on the national question, he defended the idea of a multinational state in general and a multinational Austria in particular. He advocated for a democratic federation based on political and cultural equality for minorities.
In 1907, Renner was elected a member of the Reichsrat and later became the leader of the Social Democratic Party. However, after 1917, he was overshadowed by the more radical wing led by O. Bauer, who rejected Renner's doctrine of a multinational state. It was Renner who, in 1918, achieved a peaceful transition of the country to a republican form of government. In November 1918, he became the chancellor and head of the State Council in the interim government, and later in the coalition government (March 1919 - June 1920).
After the Social Democrats went into opposition, Renner remained in the shadow of his more powerful rival, Bauer, but he continued to lead the right wing of the party. In 1930, he was elected chairman by seniority of the National Council - the lower chamber of the last elected Austrian parliament, dissolved in 1933 by Chancellor E. Dollfuss.
In 1938, the Nazis did not persecute Renner because he supported the unification of Austria and Germany (Anschluss). In 1945, Soviet troops entered Austria, and Renner was entrusted with forming a temporary administration. The first National Council of the restored republic elected him as the president of Austria on November 25, 1945.
