John Gudenus
John Gudenus ( born November 23, 1940 in Vienna ) is a former Austrian politician and colonel in the Austrian army in retirement. He was Federal Council of the FPÖ ( last at large mandate ) and was sentenced in April 2006 for NS - reactivation, because he had denied the Holocaust or greatly downplayed. John Gudenus is a member of the formerly noble family Gudenus.
Military career
Gudenus graduated from the Matura in 1961, from 1962 to 1965 the military academy. The study of economics and social sciences at the University of Vienna, he graduated from in 1972. Until his retirement Gudenus worked in the Federal Ministry of Defence. As colonel of the directorship service he joined in 2002 to retire as a member of the Federal Council on 27 November 2005.
In Albrecht Berg at the Great Krems, the ancestral home of the noble family Gudenus, he also operates a forestry. His son Johann Gudenus was Federal Chairman of the ring Libertarian Youth of Austria, between 2001 and 2005 District Council in Vienna / Wieden (4th district ) and is currently a Member of Parliament of the FPÖ in Vienna.
Political career
1973 Gudenus District Council in the Inner City, and later District auf der Wieden, a municipal councilor in Albrecht Berg and district party chairman of the FPÖ Wieden and is an avowed nationalist.
Gudenus was a member of the Federal Council from 1990 to 1992 and then a deputy in the National Assembly until 1995. Gudenus As of 1996, is again Bundesrat. After cleavage of AAF under Jörg Haider of the Freedom Party in March 2005, he pleaded to remain with the FPÖ.
For headlines John Gudenus also attended, as he agreed on 14 April 2005 in the Federal Council for a motion for new elections the opposition Democrats (SPÖ and the Greens ), which he thus - gave acceptance - of constitutional law without consequences. This ensured the turbulent processes in the vote for stir: The ÖVP Federal Councillor Michaela Gansterer and a colleague - the later Federal President Sissy Roth- Halvax (ÖVP ) - disabled Gudenus palpable in revealing.
Relationship to National Socialism
Gudenus belonged to right, German national wing of the FPÖ. Several of his statements made for excitement: He spoke out against the Nazi Prohibition Act, rejected the establishment of a memorial at the former Mauthausen concentration camp; Compensation payments to victims of Nazi persecution he described as " protection money ". As a Member of Parliament he had in 1995, after he had indirectly questioned the existence of gas chambers in the Third Reich into question withdraw.
On 18 April 2005 Gudenus -actuated in the ORF program "Report" again a statement about gas chambers in Nazi concentration camps, which caused a great sensation. He said that one should " not place taboos, but you should check physically and academically ." And one should not " answer yes or no " with a question. On April 27, John Gudenus stepped out of the FPÖ, according to him, to spare her damage from the discussion around him. Chancellor bowl (ÖVP ) called him the same day on the occasion of the celebrations for the anniversary year to withdraw from the Austrian Federal mandate on Federal President Fischer (former SPÖ) said something similar. The Vienna public prosecutor started investigations, however, has this set once again with the permission of the Ministry of Justice. Gudenus responded this way: "Well, that doubts are allowed", because: "There were gas chambers, but not in the Third Reich. But in Poland. So which is also available in textbooks. I never said that I basically doubting gas chambers. " These statements led again to great outrage and prompted the Greens to display Gudenus. The Vienna public prosecutor asked the coroner preliminary investigations on suspicion of violation of § 3 h Prohibition Act ( denial, grossly trivializing, approval or justification of Nazi genocide or other Nazi crimes against humanity ). In early June 2005, the Prosecutor of the Viennese state parliament the motion to set aside Gudenus ' MPs immunity. The application was approved on June 29.
The former liberal Federal Council John Gudenus then had to April 26, 2006 due to reactivation under § 3h Prohibition Act brought before a Viennese jury that sentenced him to one year of conditional imprisonment. The defense filed an appeal and nullity complaint, the prosecutor asked for a longer sentence and also appealed.
The judgment became final on 1 August 2006 by the retraction of the remedies of the parties.
Awards
- 2000: Large Silver Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria