Wolfgang Petritsch

An eminently readable, sympathetic but somewhat superficial biography of Austria's most prominent post-WWII politician. Thanks to Bruno Kreisky's devoted thirty years career in public service, Austria managed to restore its reputation and economy much faster than expected, and also punch diplomatically far above its weight in international affairs. The secret of Kreisky's success was his capability to build bridges, to contain multitudes. A highly educated and cultured man, like many other Jews before him, he fought for and led a class not his own, using his privileged position to better the plight of others and paying the price in imprisonment by the conservative clerical Austrofascists. Within the proletarian party SPÖ, he was both an insider and an outsider, a Socialist who nevertheless tried everything to propel his country towards capitalistic success, an non-religious Jew who worked together with victims and perpetrators of fascism.

His quest for dialog brought him into contact with shadier characters. He built up Austria's Arab and Libya connection, and more importantly, politically sheltered many former Nazis turned Austrian politicians from prosecution and public shunning. Compared to Germany, Austria de-nazification was much too soft and ended much too soon. Kreisky both advanced Austria's path to modernity, allowing cultural experiments, and failed to move public opinion towards acknowledging Austria's guilt in WWII. Typically Austrian, his goals were "limited in scope", little step by little step as he acknowledges in his memoirs. Given his position as Austria's "Sun King" during the 1970s, a bolder move might have prevented the rise of Jörg Haider (or at least made his flirtation with fascistic ideas more difficult).

What is largely missing from Wolfgang Petritsch's account are Kreisky's troubles with his own party. SPÖ apparatschik Petritsch was unwilling to discuss Kreisky's failure in modernizing the SPÖ who split into a dinosaur union and a neo-liberal careerist wing of "Nadelstreifensozis". It is a big tragedy that after the reign of the sun king, Austria fell into the caretaker governments of his heirs - in position but not in spirit. In contrast to Kreisky's big ideas of the Socialist International, It was the conservative ÖVP which pushed for Austria's adhesion to the European Union. Perhaps the recent economic troubles will lead to a rediscovery of Austro-Keynesianism.… (more)