View source for Julius Raab

{{Short description|Chancellor of Austria from 1953 to 1961}}
{{Infobox chancellor
| name                = Julius Raab
| image               = Julius-Raab-1961.jpg
| caption             = Raab in 1961
| office              = [[Chancellor of Austria]]
| term_start          = 2 April 1953
| term_end            = 11 April 1961
| president           = [[Theodor Körner (president)|Theodor Körner]]<br />[[Adolf Schärf]]
| 1blankname          = {{nowrap|Vice-Chancellor}}
| 1namedata           = Adolf Schärf<br />[[Bruno Pittermann]]
| predecessor         = [[Leopold Figl]]
| successor           = [[Alfons Gorbach]]
| office1             = President of the [[Austrian Economic Chamber|Federal Chamber of Commerce]]
| term_start1         = 26 May 1961
| term_end1           = 8 January 1964
| predecessor1        = Franz Dworak
| successor1          = Rudolf Sallinger
| term_start2         = 10 December 1946
| term_end2           = 18 April 1953
| predecessor2        = Office established
| successor2          = Franz Dworak
| office3             = Minister for Public Buildings, Economic Transition and Reconstruction
| term_start3         = 27 April 1945
| term_end3           = 20 December 1945
| chancellor3         = [[Karl Renner]]
| predecessor3        = Office established
| successor3          = Office abolished
| office4             = [[Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs|Minister of Commerce and Transport]]
| term_start4         = 16 February 1938
| term_end4           = 11 March 1938
| chancellor4         = [[Kurt Schuschnigg]]
| predecessor4        = Wilhelm Taucher
| successor4          = [[Hans Fischböck]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1891|11|29|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Sankt Pölten]], [[Lower Austria]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1964|1|8|1891|11|29|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Vienna]], [[Austria]]
| party               = [[Austrian People's Party|People's Party]] (1945–1964)
| otherparty          = [[Christian Social Party (Austria)|Christian Social Party]] (1927–1934) <br /> [[Fatherland Front (Austria)|Fatherland Front]] (1934–1938)
| alma_mater          = [[Vienna University of Technology]]
| profession          = [[Civil engineering|Civil engineer]]
}}
{{Conservatism in Austria}}
'''Julius Raab''' (29 November 1891 – 8 January 1964) was a conservative Austrian politician who served as Federal [[Chancellor of Austria]] from 1953 to 1961. Raab steered [[Allied-occupied Austria]] to independence, when he negotiated and signed the [[Austrian State Treaty]] in 1955. In internal politics Raab stood for a pragmatic "social partnership" and the "[[Grand coalition]]" of Austrian Conservatives and [[Social Democratic Party of Austria|Social Democrats]].

==Biography==
Raab was born into a middle-class Catholic family in [[Sankt Pölten]], [[Lower Austria]], the son of a master builder. He attended a Catholic high school and in 1911 enrolled at the [[Vienna University of Technology]] to study [[civil engineering]]. He was drafted into the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]] as a [[Pioneer (military)|pioneer]] officer before graduation and fought on the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Russian]] and [[Italian Campaign (World War I)|Italian]] fronts of [[World War I]]. After the defeat of [[Central Powers]] Raab returned to the university and engaged in politics. On 14 January 1923, Raab married Harmine Haumer.<ref>Wilsford, p. 377.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://austria-forum.org/af/Biographien/Raab%2C_Julius|title = Raab, Julius}}</ref>

The death of his father and the beginning of his political career in the [[First Austrian Republic]] compelled Raab to drop out of the university in 1925. From 1927 to 1934 he was a member of the [[National Council (Austria)|National Council]] parliament as a Lower Austrian deputy of the [[Christian Social Party (Austria)|Christian Social Party]]. Backed by Chancellor [[Ignaz Seipel]], he was also active in the ''[[Heimwehr]]'' paramilitary arm of right-wing political forces, and was appointed chief for Lower Austria in 1928. However, his attempts to bind the paramilitary forces to the Christian Social Party ultimately failed. In 1932 he joined the Catholic ''[[Ostmärkische Sturmscharen]]'' forces led by his party fellows [[Kurt Schuschnigg]] and [[Leopold Figl]]. In 1933 Raab joined the [[Fatherland's Front]], the newly established right-wing coalition led by Chancellor [[Engelbert Dollfuss]]. During the [[austrofascism|austrofascist]] period of 1934–1938 Raab progressed through the ranks of the [[Federal State of Austria|Corporate State]], and was appointed Minister of Commerce by Chancellor Schuschnigg just four weeks before the 1938 ''[[Anschluss]]'' to [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name="Wilsford, p. 378">Wilsford, p. 378.</ref>

Raab was ousted after the ''Anschluss'' but, unlike many other Austrian political leaders, escaped death or imprisonment through the help of the Lower Austrian Nazi ''Gauleiter'' [[Hugo Jury]], whom he knew personally. He was never involved in the [[Austrian resistance]] but kept in touch with the old Christian Democrat elite<ref name="Wilsford, p. 378"/> and supported his fellow Leopold Figl after his release from imprisonment.

In April 1945, Raab was made a member of [[Karl Renner]]'s provisional government, formed in the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] zone of occupation in Austria. Raab co-founded the conservative [[Austrian People's Party]] (ÖVP), which denounced the dark legacy of the 1930s,<ref name=S168/> and assumed leadership of ÖVP parliamentary group after the [[1945 Austrian legislative election|legislative elections held in November 1945]]. However, he represented the austrofascist forces of the past that were unacceptable to the Soviets,<ref>Wollinetz, p. 94.</ref> and for a while was "relegated to the back seat".<ref name=S168>Shell, p. 168.</ref> From 1947, he expanded his influence through presidency in the [[Austrian Federal Economic Chamber]], the institution tasked with managing social partnership of the government, the political parties, the entrepreneurs and the employees' trade unions. He clearly favored a [[free market]] and minimal government regulation of the economy.<ref name="Wilsford, p. 378"/> On the other hand, Raab also held talks with former Austrian Nazi officials like [[Wilhelm Höttl]] and [[Taras Borodajkewycz]] on their support for ÖVP politics.

[[File:Molotov, Raab April 1955.jpg|thumb|left|Chancellor Raab (right) meets [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] in Moscow in&nbsp;April&nbsp;1955]]

Raab succeeded Leopold Figl as ÖVP party chairman in 1951 and as Federal Chancellor in 1953. Despite clearly Western attitudes, Raab established excellent relations with post-[[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] Soviet Union. In February 1955 [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] proposed resuming the talks on Austrian independence. On 12 April 1955 Raab, Foreign Minister Leopold Figl and State Secretary [[Bruno Kreisky]] arrived in Moscow for the negotiations that paved the way to the [[Austrian State Treaty]] concluded in Vienna on 15 May.<ref name="Wilsford, p. 378"/> Austria [[Declaration of Neutrality|declared neutrality]], as did all individual ''[[States of Austria|Bundesländer]]''. The success of 1955 marked the peak of ÖVP influence, accompanied by a strong economic revival (''[[Wirtschaftswunder]]'') and [[full employment]]. The party won 46% of the popular vote in the [[1956 Austrian legislative election|1956 elections]], Raab retained his seat as Federal Chancellor. Despite criticism within the party, Raab strongly favored a tight coalition with the Social Democratic Party under [[Adolf Schärf]]. In 1957 he and trade union chief [[Johann Böhm (Austrian politician)|Johann Bohm]] co-founded the Joint Commission on Wages and Prices, the [[social partnership]] institution that became a cornerstone of Austrian [[corporatism]].<ref name="Wilsford, p. 379">Wilsford, p. 379.</ref>

In 1957 Raab suffered a light [[stroke]]. By the end of the 1950s, his own career and his party's influence declined. In 1961 he passed ÖVP leadership to [[Alfons Gorbach]], who also succeeded him as Federal Chancellor on 11 April. On 28 April 1963 Raab competed in the [[President of Austria|presidential]] elections but lost to incumbent Adolf Schärf. His health rapidly deteriorated, and he died, aged 72, in [[Vienna]] on 8 January 1964.<ref name="Wilsford, p. 379"/>
{{clear-left}}

==See also==
*[[List of members of the Austrian Parliament who died in office]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{refbegin|2}}
* Shell, Kurt Leo (1962). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=b6bobvI1yAkC The transformation of Austrian socialism]''. SUNY Press. {{ISBN|0-87395-005-4}}.
* Wilsford, David (1995). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=B8iJNlWcdIUC Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary]''. Greenwood Publishing Group. {{ISBN|0-313-28623-X}}.
* Wollinetz, Steven (1988). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=zpgOAAAAQAAJ Parties and party systems in liberal democracies]''. [[Taylor & Francis]]. {{ISBN|0-415-01276-7}}.
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{Commons category}}
{{Refbegin|2}}
* Brusatti, Alois (1986). ''Julius Raab: Eine Biographie in Einzeldarstellungen''. R. Trauner. {{ISBN|3-85320-366-3}}.
* Raab, Julius (1964). ''Selbstportät einer Politikers''. Europa Verlag.
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commonscat}}
* [http://www.mediathek.at/trefferliste/searchword/czoxMToiSnVsaXVzIFJhYWIiOw==/ Archive entries with and about Julius Raab] in the online archive of the [[Österreichische Mediathek]]
* {{DNB-Portal|118743309}}
* {{Austriaforum|AEIOU/Raab,_Julius}}
* {{Nömuseum|p|555}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150923212843/http://www.datum.at/artikel/baumeister-des-faschismus/ www.datum.at/] Klemens Kaps: ''„Baumeister des Faschismus“'', critical article in the paper, ''Datum''. (2005/09)
* [http://www.jrs.at/ www.jrs.at] Julius-Raab-Stiftung for Research and Education


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|-
| border="1" cellpadding="10" width="30%" align="center" | Preceded by:<br />'''[[Leopold Figl]]'''
| width="40%" align="center" | '''[[Chancellors of Austria|Chancellor of Austria]]'''<br />1953–1961
| width="30%" align="center" | Succeeded by:<br />'''[[Alfons Gorbach]]'''
|-
{{S-end}}
{{AustrianChancellors}}
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{{Presidents of Austria}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Raab, Julius}}
[[Category:1891 births]]
[[Category:1964 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century chancellors of Austria]]
[[Category:Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Austrian Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Austrian People's Party politicians]]
[[Category:People from Sankt Pölten]]
[[Category:Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery]]
[[Category:Candidates for President of Austria]]
[[Category:Grand Crosses 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Heimwehr personnel]]