Elisabeth Gehrer (' Pokorny, born 11 May 1942) is an Austrian politician for the

Austrian People's Party The Austrian People's Party (german: Österreichische Volkspartei , ÖVP ) is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Austria. Since December 2021, the party has been led provisionally by Karl Nehammer. It is curr ...

(ÖVP). From May 1995 until January 2007, Gehrer was Federal Minister of Education, Science and Culture, at first in

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there ar ...

governments headed by

Franz Vranitzky Franz Vranitzky (; born 4 October 1937) is an Austrian politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), he was Chancellor of Austria from 1986 to 1997. Early life and career As the son of a foundryman, Vranitzky was born ...

and Viktor Klima (both

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

), and from 2000 onwards in

Wolfgang Schüssel Wolfgang Schüssel (; born 7 June 1945) is an Austrian People's Party politician. He was Chancellor of Austria for two consecutive terms from February 2000 to January 2007. While being recognised as a rare example of an active reformer in conte ...

's coalition government. From 1999 to 2007, she also served as vice party chairperson of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP).

Biography

The daughter of a self-employed businessman and a kindergarten teacher, she was brought up and educated in Innsbruck. She became a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

in 1961 and continued teaching in small country schools, until 1966. In 1964, she married Fritz Gehrer, moved to

Bregenz Bregenz (; gsw, label= Vorarlbergian, Breagaz ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Swit ...

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( , ; gsw, label= Vorarlbergisch, Vorarlbearg, , or ) is the westernmost state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the ...

and became a homemaker. The couple has three adult sons, one of whom, Stefan, is a journalist for the

ORF ORF or Orf may refer to: * Norfolk International Airport, IATA airport code ORF * Observer Research Foundation, an Indian research institute * One Race Films, a film production company founded by Vin Diesel * Open reading frame, a portion of t ...

. Gehrer started her political career in 1980 as a regional politician in Bregenz. She remained in Vorarlberg in various political positions until her appointment as Federal Minister in 1995. Gehrer announced her decision to step down in the wake of the

Austrian legislative election, 2006 Legislative elections were held in Austria on 1 October 2006 to elect the 23rd National Council, the lower house of Austria's bicameral parliament. The governing Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) suffered substantial losses and was unexpectedly over ...

, and was succeeded on 11 January 2007 by

Claudia Schmied Claudia Schmied (May 10, 1959) is an Austrian politician, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. She was born in Vienna and attended elementary school and secondary school there. Schmied went on to study business administration at ...

and

Johannes Hahn Johannes Hahn (born 2 December 1957) is an Austrian politician who has served as European Commissioner for Budget and Administration under Ursula von der Leyen since 1 December 2019. He previously served as European Commissioner for European N ...

. Gehrer was a Scout leader, National Commissioner for Rangers of

Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Österreichs Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Österreichs (PPÖ; ''Austrian Boy Scouts and Girl Guides'') is the largest Scouting and Guiding organization in Austria and the only one approved by World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and t ...

and teamed

Woodbadge Wood Badge is a Scouting leadership programme and the related award for adult leaders in the programmes of Scout associations throughout the world. Wood Badge courses aim to make Scouters better leaders by teaching advanced leadership skill ...

trainings (i.e.1976 in Wassergspreng).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gehrer, Elisabeth 1942 births Living people People associated with Scouting 20th-century Austrian women politicians 20th-century Austrian politicians 21st-century Austrian women politicians 21st-century Austrian politicians Government ministers of Austria Women government ministers of Austria

Biography

See also

References