Rudolf Ramek Explained

Rudolf Ramek
Office:Chancellor of Austria
Term Start:20 November 1924
Term End:20 October 1926
President:Michael Hainisch
1Namedata:Leopold Waber
Predecessor:Ignaz Seipel
Successor:Ignaz Seipel
Office1:Second President of the National Council
Term Start1:4 October 1930
Term End1:4 March 1933
Predecessor1:Matthias Eldersch
Successor1:Johann Böhm (1945)
Embed:yes
Office2:Minister of Foreign Affairs
Term Start2:15 January 1926
Term End2:20 October 1926
Predecessor2:Heinrich Mataja
Successor2:Ignaz Seipel
Office3:Minister of the Interior
Term Start3:23 April 1921
Term End3:21 June 1921
Predecessor3:Ignaz Seipel
Successor3:Ignaz Seipel
Office4:Minister of Education
Term Start4:23 April 1921
Term End4:21 June 1921
Predecessor4:Egon Glanz
Successor4:Leopold Waber
Office5:Minister of Justice
Term Start5:17 October 1919
Term End5:24 June 1920
Predecessor5:Richard Bratusch
Successor5:Matthias Eldersch
Birth Date:12 April 1881
Birth Place:Teschen, Austria-Hungary
Death Place:Vienna, Nazi Germany
Restingplace:Municipal Cemetery in Salzburg
Party:Christian Social Party

Rudolf Ramek (12 April 1881[1]  - 24 July 1941) was an Austrian Christian Social politician, who served as Chancellor of Austria from 1924 to 1926.

Life

Ramek was born in Teschen in Austrian Silesia (present-day Cieszyn, Poland). A member of the Christian Social Party, he was a delegate of the Austrian Constitutional Assembly in 1919 and served as State Secretary of Justice in the rank of minister in State Chancellor Karl Renner's cabinet until 24 June 1920. A member of the National Council after the 1920 legislative election, he succeeded his party fellow Ignaz Seipel as Austrian chancellor on 20 November 1924.

Under Ramek's government, the Schilling became the official Austrian currency in 1925, after a hyperinflation period of the old Austrian krone in the early 1920s. The supervision of the country's finances by a League of Nations Commissioner finished the next year, however, the depression continued and unemployment figures were rising. Ramek finally resigned during the crisis around the state-owned Österreichische Postsparkasse postal savings bank on 20 October 1926, again succeeded by Ignaz Seipel.

Upon the 1930 legislative election, Ramek became vice president of the National Council parliament. Together with the other members of the chairmanship, Karl Renner and Sepp Straffner, he resigned on 4 March 1933 after a quarrel over voting irregularities, giving Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss the opportunity to prevent any further meetings of the legislature. After the Social Democratic February Uprising of 1934 was crushed, Ramek on 30 April reconvened the assembly, only to adopt the imposed May Constitution of the Federal State of Austria, whereby the National Council was abolished.

Ramek died in Vienna and was buried in the Salzburg Municipal Cemetery.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Dr. Rudolf Ramek, Biografie Parlament Österreich . www.parlament.gv.at . de.