Anton Hofer (June 1, 1927 in

Lichtenwörth Lichtenwörth (Central Bavarian: ''Lichtnwiad'') is a market town in Austria. It is situated by the rivers Leitha and Warme Fischa. The market town has a kindergarten school, an elementary school and a high school. It also has a music school. ...

, Austria – February 14, 2009 in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, Austria), was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n politician and trade unionist.

Life

Anton Hofer learned after his school time, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the profession of an aircraft constructor and pilot. After the war and Russian war captivity, he changed to the oil industries - a forerunner model of the OMV AG - as a design draughtsman and blast engineer. Within a few months, he became head of the plant security. In his spare time, he found a new interest:

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. A major attendance in the Austrian volleyball team underlines his ability in the 1950s. In 1955, he changed from the oil industries to politics and found his mission within the field of Austrian

social policy Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD a ...

. In this time he studied

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. In 1964 he was elected to the

Austrian Chamber of Labour The Chamber of Labour (German: ''Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte'', shortform ''Arbeiterkammer'' or ''AK''), is an organisation that represents the interests of 4 million Austrian employees and consumers. Membership is compulsory for all em ...

and did this job till the late 1980s. In 1970 he became head of the Gewerkschaftlichen Linksblock - a labour union within the

Austrian Trade Union Federation The Austrian Trade Union Federation or Austrian Federation of Trade Unions ( de: ''Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund'', abbreviated OeGB or ÖGB) is a labour union of employees. It is constituted as an association and is subdivided into seven ...

and was a member of the

Executive Board. Between 1970 and 1990, he was part of the council of the

World Federation of Trade Unions The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) is an international federation of trade union, trade unions established on October 3, 1945. Founded in the immediate aftermath of World War Two, the organization built on the pre-war legacy of the Int ...

. In 1990 he retired, and left politics.

References

* ''Matzner Förderpost'', Gewerkschaftlicher Linksblock, Gänserndorf (later Vienna from 1958 to 1990). * ''Die Arbeit'', Leopold Horak (Vienna from 1968 to 1976). * ''Wehrt Euch gegen den Lohnsteuerraub'', GLOBUS Verlag, Vienna 1972. * ''Betriebsterror – konkret'', Gewerkschaftlicher Linksblock, Vienna 1977. * ''Gegen Sozialstopp und Sozialabbau'', GLOBUS Verlag, Vienna 1978. * ''Stationen meines Lebens'', Vienna 2003.

External links

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hofer, Anton 1927 births 2009 deaths Austrian politicians Austrian trade union leaders