Dr. Heinrich Zechmann (1898 - 1979)
Co-founder of the FPÖ 1955/56
Federal organization officer 1956-1962
Member of the National Council 1956-1962
Dr. Heinrich Zechmann was a co-founder of the FPÖ and the first federal organization officer of the Freedom Party.
Short biography
Heinrich Zechmann was born on May 24, 1898 in Pichl-Preunegg in Styria. His mother died early and as an orphan Heinrich Zechmann was raised by a farmer's family. He completed elementary school and then the k.u.k. Naval School. Zechmann became a trained locksmith and ship's engine operator. He then served on several ships of the k.u.k. Navy as a machinist and engine sergeant and was taken prisoner of war. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and the navy after World War I, he began working for the Austrian Federal Railways as a locksmith, while continuing his education privately and finally earning a doctorate in law in 1931, becoming a civil servant and department head.
He then moved to the Federal Railways Directorate in Linz as a legal officer, where he was to remain until 1942. He then moved to Villach as president of the Reichsbahndirektion, where he was able to maintain rail traffic despite the war.
After World War II, he was dismissed from the railroad in 1945 and imprisoned for two years, after which he was unemployed, able to earn a little by teaching English and Spanish, then as a telephone operator, construction laborer, and finally as a clerk for a dredging company.
In the 1950s, he was instrumental in the founding of the FPÖ, and also became the FPÖ's federal party chairman deputy and federal organization officer from the party's founding. He subsequently entered the National Council for the FPÖ, where he played a major role in shaping Free Democratic politics until 1962.
Dr. Heinrich Zechmann died in Feldkirchen in Carinthia on July 25, 1979.
Essential political functions
| 1956-1962 Deputy Federal Party Chairman of the FPÖ 1956-1962 Federal Organization Officer of the FPÖ 1956-1962 Member of the National Council | |