1975: The Kreisky-Peter-Wiesenthal Affair

Four days after the 1975 general election, Simon Wiesenthal informed the public that Friedrich Peter, chairman of the FPÖ (Austrian Freedom Party), had been affiliated to an SS unit that had committed serious war crimes behind the Eastern Front. Wiesenthal had already informed then Federal President Rudolf Kirchschläger prior to the election of this in order to prevent Peter from becoming vice-chancellor in the event that a small coalition was formed. In 1970, Peter had enabled the minority government of Bruno Kreisky, who, in return, obtained a life-saving electoral reform for the FPÖ. In the context of the formation of this government, Wiesenthal addressed the fact that Kreisky’s first government had a high proportion of former Nazis, such as Otto Rösch, Erwin Frühbauer, Josef Moser, Hans Öllinger and Oskar Weihs. Consequently, Leopold Gratz, the central secretary of the SPÖ (Social Democratic Party of Austria) attacked the Wiesenthal Documentation Centre as a “private vigilante organisation”. Kreisky immediately backed Peter and his claims of innocence, and accused Wiesenthal who had survived the Holocaust as a concentration camp prisoner, of collaboration with the Nazis on the basis of antisemitic, Polish intelligence forgeries. The controversy between Kreisky and Wiesenthal took the place of a public debate on Austria’s complicity in National Socialism. Wisenthal sued Kreisky, who subsequently had to retract his allegation. In loyalty to Kreisky and without legal basis, Heinz Fischer demanded an inquiry on Wiesenthal, who had to defend himself once again in the 1980s against Kreisky’s accusation of collaboration. In the end, this reaction, attributable to party-political reasoning, further delayed a thorough working through of Austria’s complicity in National Socialism. The Austrian journalist Peter Michael Lingens, who had criticised Kreisky’s tactic against Wiesenthal as immoral and opportunistic, was convicted in Austria. The European Court of Justice overturned this ruling in 1986 and awarded Lingens full compensation.