Kreisky, Bruno

▪ chancellor of Austria

born Jan. 22, 1911, Vienna, Austria

died July 29, 1990, Vienna

      leader of the Social Democratic Party of Austria and chancellor of Austria (1970–83).

      Kreisky joined the Social Democratic Party in 1926; he was active in the party until it was outlawed in 1934. In 1935 he was arrested for political reasons and imprisoned for 18 months. He was imprisoned again in 1938, shortly after graduating as doctor of law from the University of Vienna. Persecuted by the Gestapo because of his political beliefs and Jewish birth, he fled to Sweden, where he engaged in journalism and business during World War II. From 1946 to 1950 he served at the Austrian legation in Stockholm and then returned to Vienna to serve at the foreign ministry.

      From 1956 he was a member of the Austrian Parliament, and in 1959 he was elected deputy chairman of the Social Democrats and became foreign minister. After the party's decisive defeat in the 1966 general election, he took the lead in an intraparty reform movement. He was narrowly elected chairman of the Social Democrats in 1967, and he became chancellor of Austria when the Social Democrats emerged from the 1970 elections as the strongest party; in 1971 they acquired an absolute majority. Kreisky was credited with successfully pursuing a policy of “active neutrality,” smoothing relations with neighbouring Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and seeking cooperation with other nonaligned nations. Under his leadership, the Social Democrats preserved their parliamentary majority in elections in 1975 and 1979. He resigned in 1983.

* * *