1961: Borodajkewycz Scandal

Born in 1902, Taras Borodajkewycz studied history in Vienna, received his doctorate in 1932 and became an assistant to Heinrich Srbik. Although he came from a staunchly catholic background, he joined the illegal Nazi party as early as 1934 and, as a result, was expelled from the Organization of Austrian Fraternities (ÖCV). During the war, he taught history at the German university in Prague.

As a former member of the Nazi party classified as a “lesser offender”, he was able to continue his career in the Second Republic; in 1955, he received a professorship for economic history at the University of World Trade where he embellished his lectures with anti-Semitic and also neo-Nazi remarks. Ferdinand Lacina, the future minister of finance, attended his lectures in 1961. He noted down Borodajkewycz’s statements, and Heinz Fischer, the future President of Austria, published the text. Borodajkewycz filed a complaint against Fischer, who was ultimately convicted of libel. The situation escalated when the cabaret artist Gerhard Bronner picked up on his remarks, to which Borodajkewycz stood by in a press conference. On March 31, 1965, a major demonstration took place on the Ring, where the former resistance fighter Ernst Kirchweger was fatally injured in a clash with right-wing counter demonstrators. In 1971, Borodajkewycz retired with full pay.