10 Facts About Leopold Figl

Leopold Figl was an Austrian politician of the Austrian People's Party and the first Federal Chancellor after World War II.

Leopold Figl was the youngest Federal Chancellor of Austria after the war before Sebastian Kurz.

In 1930, Leopold Figl married Hilde Hemala and had two children.

Leopold Figl then worked as an oil engineer, but in October 1944 Figl was rearrested and brought to Mauthausen concentration camp.

Leopold Figl was released on 6 April 1945, when troops of the Soviet Army advanced to the centre of Vienna in an operation which became known as the Vienna Offensive.

The Soviet military commander, Fyodor Tolbukhin, asked Leopold Figl to manage the provision of food for the population of Vienna.

Leopold Figl was proposed as Chancellor; the Soviets agreed, because of his opposition to the Nazis and his managerial abilities.

However, Leopold Figl was strongly involved in its achievement, as he remained in the government as foreign minister.

Leopold Figl was patron of the Pfadfinder Osterreichs between 1960 and 1964 and president of this Scout association from 1964 until his death.

Leopold Figl died from kidney cancer in 1965 in Vienna, and is buried in an Ehrengrab at the Zentralfriedhof.