Franz Muhri

Franz Muhri (1924–2001) was a politician who headed the Communist Party of Austria between 1965 and 1990.

Franz Muhri
Leader of the Communist Party of Austria
In office
1965–1990
Preceded byJohann Koplenig
Personal details
Born21 October 1924
Steyregg, Upper Austria
Died7 September 2001(2001-09-07) (aged 76)
Vienna, Austria
Children1

Early life and education

Muhri was born in Steyregg, Upper Austria, on 21 October 1924.[1] He completed his primary school education worked in various jobs.[2] He attended evening courses on typing and bookkeeping.[2] He joined the resistance movement after Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany in March 1938.[2]

Career and activities
Grave of Franz Muhri in Vienna

Muhri worked as a construction worker in Graz until 1942 when he was drafted into the army, but he escaped from the city and went underground in western Styria until the end of World War II.[2] He joined the Communist Party in 1945 when it was reestablished.[2] He served as the district secretary of the party in Mödling in the 1950s.[3]

Muhri was elected as the chairman of the party in 1965 succeeding Johann Koplenig in the post.[1][4] One of the most significant incidents during Muhri's tenure was the expulsion of progressive party members, including Franz Marek and Ernst Fischer, in late 1960s.[5] Muhri participated some congresses of the Soviet Communist Party, including the 27th Congress held in 1986.[6] He led the party until 1990.[4] He retired from politics the same year.[1]

Views

Muhri was part of the moderate group within the Communist Party when he was elected as party leader in 1965.[7] However, he began to collaborate with the conservative group within the party from the 21st Party Congress in May 1970.[5] He argued in his speech at the European Communist Parties Conference held in East Berlin in June 1976 that the Soviet Union was the most powerful socialist state and a major drive for peace.[8]

The Communist Party under the leadership of Muhri did not endorse the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968.[9] He himself stated that the invasion was harmful to the entire communist movement.[10] However, the party adopted a much more hard line approach from 1970.[5] It supported the reforms declared by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.[6]

Personal life, work and death

Muhri had a daughter.[1] He was the author of the book entitled Kein Ende der Geschichte (German: No end of history) which was published in 1995.[11]

Muhri died of cancer in Vienna on 7 September 2001 at the age of 76.[1]

References
  1. "Franz Muhri 1924-2001". Der Standard (in German). Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  2. "Franz Muhri". Munzinger-Archiv (in German). citing Internationales Biographisches Archiv 48/2001 dated 19 November 2001
  3. Warren Williams (2007). "Flashpoint Austria: The Communist-Inspired Strikes of 1950". Journal of Cold War Studies. 9 (3): 128. doi:10.1162/jcws.2007.9.3.115.
  4. Efkan Canşen (2020). "Türkiye'deki Avusturyalılar'ın Nasyonal Sosyalizm Karşıtı Örgütlenmeleri". Trakya Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi (in Turkish): 533. doi:10.26468/trakyasobed.513841.
  5. Roy Neal Tannahill (1976). The Communist Parties of Western Europe: A Comparative Study (PhD thesis). Rice University. pp. 78, 286. ISBN 9781083379108. ProQuest 288210222.
  6. Maximilian Graf (2019). "The Austrian Communists and Perestroika". In Francesco Di Palma (ed.). Perestroika and the Party: National and Transnational Perspectives on European Communist Parties in the Era of Soviet Reform. New York: Berghahn Books. p. 278. ISBN 978-1-78920-021-8.
  7. Charles J. McClain (1977). "From Ideology to Utopia: Ernst Fischer in Retrospect". Journal of Contemporary History. 12 (3): 579. doi:10.1177/002200947701200308.
  8. James P. McGregor (1978). "The 1976 European communist parties conference". Studies in Comparative Communism. 11 (4): 349. doi:10.1016/0039-3592(78)90001-7.
  9. Maximilian Graf (2014). "The Rise and Fall of "Austro-Eurocommunism". On the "Crisis" within the KPÖ and the Significance of East German Influence in the 1960s". Journal of European Integration History. 20 (2): 214. doi:10.5771/0947-9511-2014-2-203.
  10. Herbert Lackner (11 May 2023). "Nach dem letzten Gefecht: Die irre Geschichte der KPÖ". Profil (in German). Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  11. Karlo Ruzicic-Kessler (2019). "A Forgotten Protagonist of European Communism: Franz Marek and the Transnational Communist Debate". Qualestoria. 47 (1): 73. hdl:10863/12113.
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