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Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs (Austria)
Encyclopedia
The Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs ( or BMeiA or Außenministerium) is Austria
's foreign ministry and, therefore, responsible for its relations with foreign countries as well as international organisations, especially the European Union
. The ministry is being led by Michael Spindelegger
.
, is head of Austria's foreign ministry.
The history of international diplomacy is closely connected to Vienna. Diplomats were for the first time classified as such at the Congress of Vienna
in 1815. Furthermore, the United Nations
' conferences which led to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations
(1961) and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations
(1963) were both held in Austria's capital city.
The year 1720 is considered to be the origin of an independent Austrian diplomatic service, which was when Emperor Karl VI assigned the administration of foreign relations to a separate minister. After the break-up of the monarchy, foreign affairs were attended to by the Federal Chancellery. It was not before 1959 that a separate Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs ( or BMaA) was established.
With the new government under Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, the former BMaA was renamed to better reflect and express "the interconnection, networking, partnership and solidarity characterising Austria's international relations," as former Minister Plassnik put it. The old name had "rather conveyed the additional nuance of a demarcation."
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Foreign Ministers of the First Republic
Name
Term of Office
Party
Victor Adler
1918
SDAPÖ
Otto Bauer
1918–1919
SDAPÖ
Karl Renner
*
1919–1920
SDAPÖ
Michael Mayr
*
1920–1921
CS
Johann Schober
*
1921–1922
public official
Walter Breisky
*
1922
public official
Leopold Hennet
1922
public official
Alfred Grünberger
1922–1924
CS
Heinrich Mataja
1924–1926
CS
Rudolf Ramek
**
1926
CS
Ignaz Seipel
**
1926–1929
CS
Ernst Streeruwitz
**
1929
CS
Johann Schober**
1929–1930
public official
Ignaz Seipel
1930
CS
Johann Schober
1930–1932
public official
Karl Buresch
**
1932
CS
Engelbert Dollfuß**
1932–1934
CS/VF
Stephan Tauschitz
1934
Landbund
/VF
Egon Berger-Waldenegg
1934–1936
VF
Kurt Schuschnigg
**
1936
VF
Guido Schmidt
1936–1938
VF
Wilhelm Wolf
1938
NSDAP
*also State or Federal Chancellor
**as Federal Chancellor
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Foreign Ministers of the Second Republic
Name
Term of Office
Party
Karl Gruber
1945–1953
ÖVP
Leopold Figl
1953–1959
ÖVP
Bruno Kreisky
1959–1966
SPÖ
Lujo Toncic-Sorinj
1966–1968
ÖVP
Kurt Waldheim
1968–1970
no party affiliation
Rudolf Kirchschläger
1970–1974
no party affiliation
Erich Bielka
1974–1976
no party affiliation
Willibald Pahr
1976–1983
no party affiliation
Erwin Lanc
1983–1984
SPÖ
Leopold Gratz
1984–1986
SPÖ
Peter Jankowitsch
1986–1987
SPÖ
Alois Mock
1987–1995
ÖVP
Wolfgang Schüssel
1995–2000
ÖVP
Benita Ferrero-Waldner
2000–2004
ÖVP
Ursula Plassnik
2004–2008
ÖVP
Michael Spindelegger
2008-
ÖVP
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
's foreign ministry and, therefore, responsible for its relations with foreign countries as well as international organisations, especially the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. The ministry is being led by Michael Spindelegger
Michael Spindelegger
Michael Spindelegger is an Austrian lawyer and politician. He is the current Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister of Austria in the cabinet of Werner Faymann. Since 2011, Spindelegger is the current leader of the Austrian People's Party .- Early and personal life :Spindelegger was born in Mödling,...
.
The Minister and State Secretary
Since 2 December 2008, Michael Spindelegger, a member of the Austrian People's PartyAustrian People's Party
The Austrian People's Party is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Austria. A successor to the Christian Social Party of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is similar to the Christian Democratic Union of Germany in terms of ideology...
, is head of Austria's foreign ministry.
Competencies
The BMeiA is responsible for a variety of matters concerning Austria’s foreign policy and relations, including internationally representing Austria opposite other states as well as international organisations, granting support for Austrians staying or living abroad, foreign aid, and so on.History
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
in 1815. Furthermore, the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
' conferences which led to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 is an international treaty that defines a framework for diplomatic relations between independent countries. It specifies the privileges of a diplomatic mission that enable diplomats to perform their function without fear of coercion or...
(1961) and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations
Vienna Convention on Consular Relations
The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 is an international treaty that defines a framework for consular relations between independent countries...
(1963) were both held in Austria's capital city.
The year 1720 is considered to be the origin of an independent Austrian diplomatic service, which was when Emperor Karl VI assigned the administration of foreign relations to a separate minister. After the break-up of the monarchy, foreign affairs were attended to by the Federal Chancellery. It was not before 1959 that a separate Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs ( or BMaA) was established.
With the new government under Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, the former BMaA was renamed to better reflect and express "the interconnection, networking, partnership and solidarity characterising Austria's international relations," as former Minister Plassnik put it. The old name had "rather conveyed the additional nuance of a demarcation."
First Republic, 1918 to 1938
{Victor Adler
----Victor Adler was an Austrian Social Democratic leader.Born in Prague, Adler received a university degree in Vienna in 1881. He founded the Socialist movement in Austria and created the Marxist journals Gleicheit in 1886 and Arbeiter-Zeitung in 1889...
Otto Bauer
Otto Bauer was an Austrian Social Democrat who is considered one of the leading thinkers of the left socialist Austro-Marxist tendency...
Karl Renner
Karl Renner was an Austrian politician. He was born in Untertannowitz in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and died in Vienna...
*
Michael Mayr
Michael Mayr was Chancellor of Austria in the First Austrian Republic, from November 1920 to June 1921. He was a member of the Christian Social Party, and by profession a historian.-Life:...
*
Johann Schober
Johann Schober was an Austrian police officer who served three times as Chancellor of Austria .-Early career:...
*
Walter Breisky
Walter Breisky was an Austrian Beamter and politician.A member of the Christian Social Party, he served as Vice-Chancellor of Austria and Minister of the Interior from 1920 to 1922...
*
Rudolf Ramek
Rudolf Ramek was an Austrian politician.Ramek was born in Teschen in Austrian Silesia . A member of the Christian Social Party, he served as Chancellor of Austria from 20 November 1924 to 20 October 1926. He died in Vienna, and buried at Salzburg Municipal Cemetery....
**
Ignaz Seipel
Ignaz Seipel was an Austrian prelate and politician who served as Chancellor during the 1920s.-Career:Seipel studied theology at the University of Vienna and was ordained a Catholic priest in 1899...
**
Ernst Streeruwitz
Ernst Streeruwitz, originally Ernst Ritter Streer von Streeruwitz was an Austrian political figure. He served as the Chancellor of Austria in 1929....
**
Karl Buresch
Karl Buresch was a lawyer, Christian-Social politician and chancellor of Austria during the First Republic.- Education :...
**
Fatherland's Front (Austria)
The Vaterländische Front was a right-wing, austrofascist Austrian political party. It was founded in 1933 by Engelbert Dollfuss to collect all "loyal Austrians" under one banner...
Stephan Tauschitz
Stephan Tauschitz was an Austrian politician and farmer.Tauschitz was born in Hörtendorf, which was a village, but was later included into Klagenfurt. After high school in Klagenfurt, he studied at Vienna University of Technology, where he graduated in 1922...
Landbund
The Landbund was an Austrian political party during the period of the First Republic .-History:The Landbund was founded in 1919 as Deutsche Bauernpartei and represented liberal and protestant farmers in Styria, Carinthia and Upper Austria...
/VF
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann Schuschnigg was Chancellor of the First Austrian Republic, following the assassination of his predecessor, Dr. Engelbert Dollfuss, in July 1934, until Germany’s invasion of Austria, , in March 1938...
**
Guido Schmidt
Guido Schmidt was an Austrian diplomat and politician....
*also State or Federal Chancellor
**as Federal Chancellor
Second Republic, since 1945
{Karl Gruber
Karl Gruber was an Austrian politician and diplomat. During World War II, he was working for a German firm in Berlin. After the war, in 1945 he became Landeshauptmann of Tyrol for a short time...
OVP
OVP is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to:*The Office of the Vice President of the United States*The Office of the Vice President of the Philippines*OVP , a light sub-machine gun developed in Italy...
Leopold Figl
Leopold Figl was an Austrian politician of the Austrian People's Party and the first Federal Chancellor after World War II...
Bruno Kreisky
Bruno Kreisky was an Austrian politician who served as Foreign Minister from 1959 to 1966 and as Chancellor from 1970 to 1983. Aged 72 at the end of his chancellorship, he was the oldest acting Chancellor after World War II....
SPO
- Technology :SPO: Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Cloud Computing, Office 365. See Microsoft Online Services-Economics:* Secondary Public Offering, an equity capital market instrument...
Lujo Toncic-Sorinj
Lujo Tončić-Sorinj was an Austrian diplomat and politician of the Austrian People's Party ....
Kurt Waldheim
Kurt Josef Waldheim was an Austrian diplomat and politician. Waldheim was the fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1972 to 1981, and the ninth President of Austria, from 1986 to 1992...
Rudolf Kirchschläger
Rudolf Kirchschläger was an Austrian diplomat, politician, judge and, from 1974 to 1986, the eighth President of Austria.-Education and early life:...
Erich Bielka
Erich Bielka was an Austrian diplomat and member of the Austrian government. During his career, he served as Austrian ambassador in Bern, Cairo, Ankara and Paris and as Foreign Minister from 1974 to 1976....
Willibald Pahr
Willibald P. Pahr is an Austrian politician and diplomat. From 1976 to 1983, he was Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, from 1983 to 1986 he served as ambassador to Germany...
Erwin Lanc
Erwin Lanc is a former Austrian bank employee and politician .Born in Vienna, Lanc worked at the Ministry of Social Affairs from 1949 to 1955. In 1959, he joined the Vienna bank Zentralsparkasse und Kommerzialbank. In 1966, he became chairman of the SPÖ in the Margareten district of Vienna...
Leopold Gratz
----Leopold Gratz was an Austrian politician.Born in Vienna, Gratz was a law graduate and a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party . From 1963 to 1966 he was a member of the Bundesrat, from 1970 to 1971 Federal Minister of Education and the Arts...
Peter Jankowitsch
Peter Jankowitsch is a former Austrian diplomat and politician.He was born in Vienna, Austria. A law graduate, he is a member of the Austrian Social Democratic Party . From 1983 to 1986, 1987 to 1990 and 1992 to 1993 he was a member of the Nationalrat, from 1986 to 1987 Federal Minister of Foreign...
Alois Mock
Alois Mock is a politician and member of the Austrian People's Party . He was Vice Chancellor of Austria from 1987 to 1989. As foreign minister he helped take Austria into the European Union....
Wolfgang Schüssel
Wolfgang Schüssel is an Austrian People's Party politician. He was Chancellor of Austria for two consecutive terms from February 2000 to January 2007...
Benita Ferrero-Waldner
Dr. Benita Ferrero-Waldner is an Austrian diplomat and politician, and a member of the conservative Austrian People's Party . Ferrero-Waldner served as the Foreign Minister of Austria 2000–2004 and was the candidate of the Austrian People's Party in the Austrian presidential election, 2004, which...
Ursula Plassnik
Ursula Plassnik is an Austrian diplomat and politician. She was Foreign Minister of Austria between October 2004 and December 2008.-Early life and career:...
Michael Spindelegger
Michael Spindelegger is an Austrian lawyer and politician. He is the current Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister of Austria in the cabinet of Werner Faymann. Since 2011, Spindelegger is the current leader of the Austrian People's Party .- Early and personal life :Spindelegger was born in Mödling,...