Jörg Haider bioline
Haider was a long-time leader of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ). When he stepped down as party’s chairman in 2000, he remained its major figure until 2005. In April 2005 he founded a new party, the “Alliance for the Future of Austria” (BZÖ-Bündnis Zukunft Österreich)
Joerg Haider was born in 1950 in Bad Goisern, Upper Austria. His father Robert Haider worked as a shoemaker, his mother Dorothea Rupp was a teacher.
Both parents were active members of the Nazi Party. Robert Haider joined the ‘Hitler Jugend’ when he was fifteen. In 1933, after Nazi organisations were banned in Austria, he participated in several illegal actions. In 1934 he took part in the failed nazi putsch and was forced to flee to Bavaria, where he joined the nazi party.
After the Second World War, both Robert and Dorothea Haider were punished for their active commitment with Nazism. Robert Haider was arrested for a short period, his wife lost her job.
Though Jörg Haider later condemned the Nazi Dictatorship on several occasions, he insisted on defending war participants and even convicted war criminals.
Robert and Dorothea Haider managed to send their son Jörg to high school in Bad Ischl, where he joined the nationalist ‘burschenschaft’ Albia. There were several former nazis among Jörg Haider’s teachers. He graduated in 1968 with excellent results, and went to Vienna to study law. While many students at this time in Vienna were influenced by left movements, Jörg Haider joined ‘Silvania’, another nationalist ‘burschenschaft’.
In 1970, he was elected leader of the Freedom Party’s youth movement. This was the beginning of his astonishing political career.
Related entries
Heinz-Christian Strache and Nazi Salute
