Ernst Florian Winter
Encyclopedia
Ernst Florian Winter is an Austrian-American historian and political scientist, first director of the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna after World War II
and chairman of the International Council of the Austrian Service Abroad
.
, after that he went to Neulandschule. Winter was a member of the Austrian wing of the Neulandbewegung. Alfons Stilfried, the brothers Otto
and Fritz Molden were in the same group. Winter accompanied his father Ernst Karl very early in his political career. Regularly there were hour long discussions at their family residences, which were attended by people like Alfred Missong, August Maria Knoll, Hans Karl von Zessnerspitzberg and Engelbert Dollfuss
. When federal cancellor Kurt Schuschnigg
came back from his meeting with Hitler on the Berghof
on the 12th of February 1938, he made a stop at the Winters, to speek to Ernst Karl Winter. The 14-year-old Ernst Florian Winter kept the minutes at this talk.
A few days before “the Anschluss
” in March 1938, father Ernst Karl Winter fled on urgent advice of Hans Kelsen, because of political reasons to Switzerland. He had to leave his family behind for now. When the Gestapo
came to the house of the Winters and could not find Ernst Karl, they took his son Ernst Florian to the police station. Because of the good private contacts of the family mother Margerete achieved that her son could come back home on the same day. A few days later Margarete fled from Austria with her son Ernst Florian and his seven siblings.
, France
and England
the Winters came to New York in October 1939. The Winter family were one of the first non-Jewish emigrant families. Because there were no Austrian clubs in New York, many of the immigrated people met in the house of the Winters almost every Sunday for Austrian evenings. At the beginning of 1939 Ernst Karl Winter founded the Austrian American Center in New York, which was the first non-party national committee. This committee regularly organised demonstrations and marches and released weekly publications. There were almost no juveniles under the emigrants, nevertheless Ernst Florian Winter was voted as the leader. A few dozen juveniles regularly celebrated parades on the Fifth Avenue. Together with his father Ernst Florian met the US vice president Henry Wallace
.
Enrst Florian Winter did not join the “Österreichische Bataillon” initiated by Otto von Habsburg
, because he had his skiing instructor exam. As a member of the “Ski-Patrol-System” he received a letter of the U.S. minister of war, who planned to build a mountain division. On his 18th birthday he joined the U.S. Army, though he wrote at his application form: “volunteer to join for the liberation of my home country Austria, but I am not willing to kill.” The main reason of his strict attitude was that he already saw pictures of the German Concentration Camps at the “Gsur Verlag” of his father, which weighed heavily on him. This wish produced a lack of understanding, but because of his interpreter education it was fulfilled. In 1943 Winter got the American citizenship and 1944 he got a certificate of the University of Michigan
.
on the 4th of May 1945 with the 86. division of the 3. US-army at Burghausen
, were he stayed at the Brauerei Schnaitl.
Ernst Florian Winter had talks with most of the prisoners and forced laborers, because of those interviews they made decisions.
In assignment of baron Georg Ludwig von Trapp Ernst Florian had a look at the mansion in Aigen, which was the summer residence of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. There he had to discover that the house chapel had a carved svastika on the altar and it was totally converted. A few weeks after the liberation, Ernst Florian Winter had to leave his homeland again. The whole division had to go to Japan, where they had similar duties.
followed. He finished his Master of Arts in 1951. His topic was “Comparative analyses of the Renner-regime 1918 and 1945”. Furthermore he finished his ph.D. in 1954, the topic was „Austrian agriculture between 1918 and 1945.” Winter started his academic career as professor of history and political science at the Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. Moreover he was visiting professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Princeton university, Georgetown University and Indiana University.
1960 he returned to Austria on the call of Drimmel and Klaus, to establish the field of study of political science. 1964 Ernst Florian Winter was tilled from the state secretary Bruno Kreisky to be the foundation director of the “Diplomatic Universitiy of Vienna”, where he still operates as a professor today. From the foundation of the Institute for higher Studies (IHS) in 1963 he worked there as an assistant. Between 1967 and 1968 he was the director of the IHS.
He was married to Johanna von Trapp (1919–1994), the daughter of Georg Ludwig von Trapp. They were married from 1948 to 1994 and had seven children. From 1964-1977 they lived together in Schloss Eichbüchel, which is in lower Austria in Katzeldorf. There they had the “Eichbüchler-Gespräche” and Austria-seminars for ten years and international professors like Oskar Morgenstern, Paul Lazarsfeld, Friedrich Heer and Henry Kissinger took part at them. Already 1945 the first government proclamation developed under Karl Renner. That is why Schloss Eichbüchel is often designated as the birthplace of the republic of Austria.
From 1972 to 1978 his activities at the UNEP as chairman regularly led him to Nairobi. 1975 Winter was foundation member of the Resources and Industries Associates Group. Furthermore he was chief of the section for agriculture and environment technology in New York City and Vancouver, he led this department until 1994. Between 1969 and 1994 Winter was a high rank associate of the UNIDO in Vienna. Since 1992 he was board member of an international cooperation for eco-friendly technologies.
Further political assignments of the United States led him amongst others to Geneva, Russia and Mongolia. All in all he worked and lived in 83 countries. Ernst Florian Winter speaks Chinese, German, English, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
.
.
Federal president Heinz Fischer awarded Ernst Florian Winter on the 10th of august, The Austrian Honor Cross for Science and Art I. Class.
On the 10th of October, 2010 in Pfaffstätten, Ernst Florian Winter was together with Mirie Rushani awarded with the Weltmenschpreis 2010.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and chairman of the International Council of the Austrian Service Abroad
Austrian Service Abroad
Austrian Service Abroad is a non-profit initiative and was founded in 1998 by Andreas Maislinger and Andreas Hörtnagl. Since 2001 Michael Prochazka is part of the managing committee.-General Information:...
.
Childhood
Ernst Florian Winter is the oldest of eight children of the sociologist and former third vice mayor of Vienna (1934–1936) Ernst Karl Winter. Ernst Florian Winter went to the humanistic grammar school in the Klostergasse in WähringWähring
Währing is the 18th district of Vienna, Austria. It is in the northwest part of the city. In addition to currently hosting a number of Vienna's foreign embassies, Währing was the site of the original burial places of composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.-Location:Währing lies in the...
, after that he went to Neulandschule. Winter was a member of the Austrian wing of the Neulandbewegung. Alfons Stilfried, the brothers Otto
Otto
Otto is a given name of Germanic origin meaning wealthy.-Given name:*Otto , mayor of the palace of Austrasia briefly in the mid-seventh century*Otto I, Duke of Saxony*the Ottonian dynasty...
and Fritz Molden were in the same group. Winter accompanied his father Ernst Karl very early in his political career. Regularly there were hour long discussions at their family residences, which were attended by people like Alfred Missong, August Maria Knoll, Hans Karl von Zessnerspitzberg and Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...
. When federal cancellor Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Schuschnigg
Kurt Alois Josef Johann Schuschnigg was Chancellor of the First Austrian Republic, following the assassination of his predecessor, Dr. Engelbert Dollfuss, in July 1934, until Germany’s invasion of Austria, , in March 1938...
came back from his meeting with Hitler on the Berghof
Berghof
Berghof or Berghoff may refer to:* Herbert Berghof, founder of HB Studio in New York City* Berghof , Adolf Hitler's home in the mountains of Bavaria* Berghof Foundation for Conflict Studies* The Berghoff , Chicago...
on the 12th of February 1938, he made a stop at the Winters, to speek to Ernst Karl Winter. The 14-year-old Ernst Florian Winter kept the minutes at this talk.
A few days before “the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
” in March 1938, father Ernst Karl Winter fled on urgent advice of Hans Kelsen, because of political reasons to Switzerland. He had to leave his family behind for now. When the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
came to the house of the Winters and could not find Ernst Karl, they took his son Ernst Florian to the police station. Because of the good private contacts of the family mother Margerete achieved that her son could come back home on the same day. A few days later Margarete fled from Austria with her son Ernst Florian and his seven siblings.
Emigration to America
Through SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
the Winters came to New York in October 1939. The Winter family were one of the first non-Jewish emigrant families. Because there were no Austrian clubs in New York, many of the immigrated people met in the house of the Winters almost every Sunday for Austrian evenings. At the beginning of 1939 Ernst Karl Winter founded the Austrian American Center in New York, which was the first non-party national committee. This committee regularly organised demonstrations and marches and released weekly publications. There were almost no juveniles under the emigrants, nevertheless Ernst Florian Winter was voted as the leader. A few dozen juveniles regularly celebrated parades on the Fifth Avenue. Together with his father Ernst Florian met the US vice president Henry Wallace
Henry Wallace
Henry or Harry Wallace may refer to:*Henry A. Wallace , U.S. Vice President 1941-1945, presidential candidate for the Progressive Party 1948**Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center...
.
Enrst Florian Winter did not join the “Österreichische Bataillon” initiated by Otto von Habsburg
Otto von Habsburg
Otto von Habsburg , also known by his royal name as Archduke Otto of Austria, was the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary from 1916 until the dissolution of the empire in 1918, a realm which comprised modern-day Austria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,...
, because he had his skiing instructor exam. As a member of the “Ski-Patrol-System” he received a letter of the U.S. minister of war, who planned to build a mountain division. On his 18th birthday he joined the U.S. Army, though he wrote at his application form: “volunteer to join for the liberation of my home country Austria, but I am not willing to kill.” The main reason of his strict attitude was that he already saw pictures of the German Concentration Camps at the “Gsur Verlag” of his father, which weighed heavily on him. This wish produced a lack of understanding, but because of his interpreter education it was fulfilled. In 1943 Winter got the American citizenship and 1944 he got a certificate of the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
.
Liberation of the homeland
Ernst Florian Winter took part at the invasion of the Normandy. He was the first Austroamerican, which marched into the InnviertelInnviertel
The Innviertel is a traditional Austrian region south-east of the Inn river. It forms the western part of the state of Upper Austria and borders the German state of Bavaria...
on the 4th of May 1945 with the 86. division of the 3. US-army at Burghausen
Burghausen
Burghausen may refer to several places in Germany:*Burghausen, Altötting, a town in southeastern Bavaria*Burghausen bei Münnerstadt, part of Münnerstadt in northern Bavaria*Burghausen bei Freising, part of Kirchdorf an der Amper in central Bavaria...
, were he stayed at the Brauerei Schnaitl.
Ernst Florian Winter had talks with most of the prisoners and forced laborers, because of those interviews they made decisions.
In assignment of baron Georg Ludwig von Trapp Ernst Florian had a look at the mansion in Aigen, which was the summer residence of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. There he had to discover that the house chapel had a carved svastika on the altar and it was totally converted. A few weeks after the liberation, Ernst Florian Winter had to leave his homeland again. The whole division had to go to Japan, where they had similar duties.
Academic Studies and doctrine
After Winter had returned to the USA, he graduated in social science at the Columbia College. Political science and international relations at the Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
followed. He finished his Master of Arts in 1951. His topic was “Comparative analyses of the Renner-regime 1918 and 1945”. Furthermore he finished his ph.D. in 1954, the topic was „Austrian agriculture between 1918 and 1945.” Winter started his academic career as professor of history and political science at the Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. Moreover he was visiting professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Princeton university, Georgetown University and Indiana University.
1960 he returned to Austria on the call of Drimmel and Klaus, to establish the field of study of political science. 1964 Ernst Florian Winter was tilled from the state secretary Bruno Kreisky to be the foundation director of the “Diplomatic Universitiy of Vienna”, where he still operates as a professor today. From the foundation of the Institute for higher Studies (IHS) in 1963 he worked there as an assistant. Between 1967 and 1968 he was the director of the IHS.
He was married to Johanna von Trapp (1919–1994), the daughter of Georg Ludwig von Trapp. They were married from 1948 to 1994 and had seven children. From 1964-1977 they lived together in Schloss Eichbüchel, which is in lower Austria in Katzeldorf. There they had the “Eichbüchler-Gespräche” and Austria-seminars for ten years and international professors like Oskar Morgenstern, Paul Lazarsfeld, Friedrich Heer and Henry Kissinger took part at them. Already 1945 the first government proclamation developed under Karl Renner. That is why Schloss Eichbüchel is often designated as the birthplace of the republic of Austria.
Diplomatic career
Between 1968 and 1970 Ernst Florian Winter was director of social science at the UNESCO in Paris. At the same time he was chief negotiator between the USA and the People’s Republic of China. Winter was member of the UN-commission of the United States for the development of China-strageties between 1970 and 1972. In January 1972 he was as the first US-American to a chosen group, which was invited by the back then Chinese prime minister, Zhou Enlai, to a two month long stay at the institute for foreign politics of China. 1974 within the UNEP-FAO Winter was chairman of the first mission of the UN-agency in China. In the following year he led the China-Mission of the UNEP-WHO.From 1972 to 1978 his activities at the UNEP as chairman regularly led him to Nairobi. 1975 Winter was foundation member of the Resources and Industries Associates Group. Furthermore he was chief of the section for agriculture and environment technology in New York City and Vancouver, he led this department until 1994. Between 1969 and 1994 Winter was a high rank associate of the UNIDO in Vienna. Since 1992 he was board member of an international cooperation for eco-friendly technologies.
Further political assignments of the United States led him amongst others to Geneva, Russia and Mongolia. All in all he worked and lived in 83 countries. Ernst Florian Winter speaks Chinese, German, English, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
Agriculture in Kosovo
Since the 1990s Enrst Florian cultivated an organic self-sustaining area in the Deferggental in eastern Tyrol. Nowadays he is dedicated to a environment program of the United Nations “Agriculture in Kosovo”, which is why he visits this area. There he teaches on the University of Business and Technology in Priština..
Austrian Service Abroad
Since 2009 Ernst Florian Winter is chairman of the international council of the association “Austrian Service Abroad”, which is also attended by others like Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, György Dalos, Alberto Dines, Gabriela von Habsburg, Beate Klarsfeld, Branko Lustig, Erika Rosenberg and Ben Segenreich..
Awards
On May 3, 2008 Ernst Florian Winter was awarded with the Egon-Ranshofen Werthheimer-Preis in Braunau-am-Inn. Austrian expatriates get honoured with this prize, when they were dedicated in a highly state for their home country Austria. With this he is lined up with the world famous Trapp Family and the actor Dietmar Schönherr.Federal president Heinz Fischer awarded Ernst Florian Winter on the 10th of august, The Austrian Honor Cross for Science and Art I. Class.
On the 10th of October, 2010 in Pfaffstätten, Ernst Florian Winter was together with Mirie Rushani awarded with the Weltmenschpreis 2010.
External links
- 3. US-Armee#Zweiter Weltkrieg|3. US-Armee (Zweiter Weltkrieg)
- Ernst Karl Winter
- Institut für Höhere Studien
- Österreichischer Auslandsdienst
* Politikwissenschaft#Österreich|Politikwissenschaft (Österreich)] - Schloss Eichbüchl
- Umweltprogramm der Vereinten Nationen|Umweltprogramm der Vereinten Nationen (UNEP)
- Lebenslauf von Ernst Florian Winter
- Laudatio auf E.F. Winter
- Für die Befreiung Österreichs in der Rundschau-OnlineOberösterreichische RundschauOberösterreichische Rundschau is a weekly newspaper in Upper Austria, published in 13 regional editions. In addition, there is a free Sunday newspaper Sonntags-Rundschau.- History :...
- Internationaler Rat des Österreichischen Auslandsdienstes