Körner, Theodor

(1873–1957)

   A Socialist politician who was Vienna’s first mayor (1945–1957) after World War II, Körner had a background in military affairs. He was chief of staff for the Habsburg monarchy’s Isonzo Army, which fought in Italy during World War I. Following that conflict, he served in the Office of Military Affairs in the First Austrian Republic, from which he was pensioned as a general in 1924 because of his critical position toward the regime. Formally joining the Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SDAP) in 1924, he was a member of the Central Directory of the Republican Guard, the paramilitary arm of the party. Though Körner advised against armed SDAP resistance to the government of Engelbert Dollfuss in February 1934, he was arrested both by that regime and by the Austrian Nazis, in 1944.

   Körner was among those who first began discussing the government of a new Austria in 1944. Following his years as mayor of Vienna, he was president of the Second Austrian Republic from 1951 to 1957. Though he played a generally conciliatory role in his country’s politics, he opposed the participation of the Nazi-tainted League of Independents into the governing coalition in 1953.

   See also Political Parties; Socialist Party of Austria.