Jörg Kandutsch (1920 – 1990)
Founding member of the FPÖ 1955/56
Member of the National Council from 1953 to 1964 (WdU and FPÖ)
President of the Austrian Court of Audit from 1964 to 1980
Chairman of the FPÖ Parliamentary Party in the National Council from 1964 to 1980
Jörg Kandutsch is considered one of the pioneers of the FPÖ. A native Styrian, he shaped the manner in which the FPÖ operated in the Austrian parliament during the first ten years of the party's existence. Yet the political career of the later President of the Austrian Court of Audit had already begun in the League of Independents (Verband der Unabhängigen, or VdU) for which he served among other things as a member of the National Council and of the Styrian provincial parliament.
Short biography
Jörg Kandutsch was born in Leoben, Upper Styria, on 14 January 1920, as the son of a railway worker. He attended high school in Graz, graduating in 1939. Thereafter, Kandutsch was a soldier in the Second World War. After the war, the native Styrian studied political science and received his doctorate from the University of Graz in 1958.
Jörg Kandutsch was already politically active whilst he was a student. From 1949, he worked as party secretary and held a social policy brief within the Styrian League of Independents (Verband der Unabhängigen, or VdU). From 1949 until 1953, Jörg Kandutsch was also a VdU member of the Styrian provincial parliament. Following the 1953 election, Jörg Kandutsch entered the National Council as the then youngest member of his parliamentary group. He had been elected on the ticket of the “Election Party of Independents” (Wahlpartei der Unabhängigen, or WdU), but that was merely an electoral vehicle for the VdU. He was appointed the VdU’s federal spokesperson on social policy. The 1956 election saw him again sworn in as a member of the National Council, this time for the newly-founded FPÖ, which had emerged from the VdU. Within the FPÖ National Council parliamentary party, Jörg Kandutsch served as spokesperson for the topics of social policy, European integration, as well as expenditure control. He also served as chairman of the parliamentary committee on the Austrian Court of Audit. From 1963 until 1964, Jörg Kandutsch also held the posts of chairman of the FPÖ parliamentary party in the National Council and chairman of the Styrian FPÖ.
In 1964, Jörg Kandutsch left the National Council and was appointed President of the Austrian Court of Audit. He held this position until 1980. Afterwards, he was active for two years in horizontal monitoring of the rebuilding of the Vienna General Hospital (AKH). Even after the end of his political career, Jörg Kandutsch remained actively involved in the FPÖ and was, among other things, chairman of the Freedom Party commission that was charged with scrutinising the professional suitability of applicants for political functions in the FPÖ. Jörg Kandutsch died in Vienna on 11 November 1990.
Main political positions
1955–1956 | Founding member of the FPÖ |
1956–1964 | Member of the National Council |
1956–1964 | Chairman of the National Council Committee on the Austrian Court of Audit |
1963–1964 | Chairman of the FPÖ Parliamentary Party in the National Council |
1963–1964 | Provincial Party Chairman, FPÖ Styria |
1964–1980 | President of the Austrian Court of Audit |
Weblinks
- Jörg Kandutsch on the web pages of the Austrian Court of Audit (Rechnungshof)
- Jörg Kandutsch on the web pages of the Austrian Parliament
- Jörg Kandutsch on the internet portal of the City of Vienna