24 Facts About Karl Lueger

Karl Lueger was an Austrian lawyer and politician who served as Mayor of Vienna from 1897 until his death in 1910.

Karl Lueger is credited with the transformation of Vienna into a modern city at the turn of the 20th century, although the populist and antisemitic politics of the Austrian Christian Social Party, which he founded and led until his death, remain controversial, as they are sometimes viewed as a model for Adolf Hitler's Nazism.

Karl Lueger came from a modest background, born at Wieden to Leopold Lueger of Neustadtl an der Donau and his wife Juliane.

Karl Lueger's birthplace is the western part of the main building of the Vienna University of Technology at Karlsplatz where Lueger's father worked as an usher at the Vienna Polytechnic.

Karl Lueger nevertheless was able to attend the renowned Theresianum boarding school as a day student.

Karl Lueger studied law at the University of Vienna, receiving his doctorate in 1870.

Karl Lueger established his own lawyer's office in Vienna in 1874 and soon became known as a "little people's" advocate.

Karl Lueger would serve on the council until his death, save for a two-year break from 1876 to 1878.

Karl Lueger was elected mayor for a fifth time in 1897, and after a personal intercession by Pope Leo XIII, his election was finally sanctioned later that year.

Karl Lueger would have neither Social Democrats nor Pan-Germans nor Jews in the municipal administration.

Karl Lueger planned to make Vienna one of the most beautiful of garden cities.

Karl Lueger pursued the municipalization of gas and electricity works as well as the establishment of a public transport system, introducing streetcars, and of numerous institutions of social welfare, most of which strongly relied on debt financing.

Karl Lueger incorporated the suburbs, and built parks, gardens, hospitals, and schools.

Der schone Karl Lueger achieved tremendous popularity among the citizens.

Karl Lueger served as mayor of Vienna until his early death from diabetes mellitus in 1910.

Karl Lueger was buried in the crypt of the newly erected St Charles Borromeo Church at the Zentralfriedhof, whose groundbreaking ceremony he had performed.

Karl Lueger was to found and lead the party in 1893, which quickly rivaled the Social Democrats.

Karl Lueger remained one of its most effective leaders till his death and developed his party's federation policy as a means of dealing with the monarchy's issues of multiple nationalities.

Karl Lueger was known for his antisemitic rhetoric and referred to himself as an admirer of Edouard Drumont, who founded the Antisemitic League of France in 1889.

Karl Lueger overtly supported the volkisch movement of Guido von List and created the pun "Judapest", referring to supposed Jewish domination of the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Karl Lueger expressed some scepticism about German nationalism, but as with his antisemitism was quick to exploit the sentiments for his own political purposes.

Karl Lueger opposed Austro-Hungarian dualism in favour of federalism and the equality of all the nations making up the empire.

For some, the Karl Lueger monuments show that Vienna has neglected its obligations to the victims of the Holocaust in order to keep its nostalgic appeal as the grand Imperial City.

Karl Lueger was the subject of a 1943 biopic Vienna 1910, in which he was played by Rudolf Forster.