Helmut Zilk (9 June 1927 – 24 October 2008) 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 journalist and politician in the

Austrian Social Democratic Party The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...

. He served as mayor of Vienna between 1984 and 1994.

Biography

Born in Vienna, Zilk was

Mayor of Vienna This is a list of mayors and governors of Vienna since 1282. Vienna is the capital city of Austria. Since 1920, it has also been an States of Austria, Austrian state, with its mayor doubling as the ''Landeshauptmann'' (governor or minister-pres ...

from 1984 to 1994. In December 1993 he was severely injured when he opened a

letter bomb A letter bomb is an explosive device sent via the postal service, and designed with the intention to injure or kill the recipient when opened. They have been used in terrorist attacks such as those of the Unabomber. Some countries have agenc ...

which had been sent to his home in

Innere Stadt The Innere Stadt (; ; "Inner City") is the 1st municipal Districts of Vienna, district of Vienna () located in the center of the Austrian capital. The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the I ...

Franz Fuchs Franz Fuchs (12 December 1949 – 26 February 2000) was an Austrian domestic terrorist who killed four people and injured 15, some seriously, using three improvised explosive devices and 24 mail bombs, which he sent in five waves between 1993 an ...

. Zilk died on 24 October 2008 of heart failure, after arriving home sick from a vacation in Portugal. He was married to Austrian musical star, Dagmar Koller.

Czechoslovak secret police collaborator

In October 1998, the newspaper ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

'' accused Helmut Zilk of having collaborated with Czechoslovak secret police (StB) during the 1960s. He denied the accusations. Based on this and also on information from the StB archives, Zilk was denied a planned Czech medal of honour. The affair was widely covered by Czech and Austrian media. In 1998 the Czech presidential office cleared Zilk and president

Havel The Havel () is a river in northeastern Germany, flowing through the States of Germany, states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. The long Havel is a right tributary of the Elbe. However, the direct distance from ...

apologized to him in person. In 2009, the StB documents on Zilk were made public. These documents record 58 meetings between Zilk and secret police agents during 1965–68. Zilk had provided information about the political situation in Austria and assessments of individual Austrian politicians; for this he was paid in money and goods such as Bohemian crystal glass. After the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia (August 1968) Ladislav Bittman, one of the agents in contact with Zilk, defected to the West and leaked information about him. Some Czech media (as well as the old StB documents) speculated that the continued political and journalistic career of Zilk, in spite of being uncovered, was due to some other agency (

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

is suggested) recruiting and supporting him.

References

External links

* , - , width="30%" align="center" , Preceded by:

Leopold Gratz Leopold Gratz CGIH (; 4 November 1929 – 2 March 2006) was an Austrian politician who served as mayor and governor of Vienna from 1973 to 1984 as a member of the Socialist Party. Life Born in Vienna, Gratz was a law graduate from the U ...

, width="40%" align="center" ,

1984–1994 , width="30%" align="center" , Succeeded by:

Michael Häupl Michael Häupl (born 14 September 1949) is an Austrian politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, he served as mayor and governor of Vienna from 7 November 1994 until 24 May 2018. Early life and education Häupl was born i ...

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Zilk, Helmut 1927 births 2008 deaths 20th-century mayors of places in Austria Austrian amputees Mayors of Vienna Austrian people of German Bohemian descent Austrian people of Czech descent People from Favoriten Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Theodor Körner Prize recipients Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery Recipients of the Order of the White Lion 20th-century Austrian journalists Kronen Zeitung people