Thomas Klestil
| Term of Office: | 8 July 1992 - 6 July 2004 |
|---|---|
| Predecessor: | Kurt Waldheim |
| Successor: | Heinz Fischer |
| Date of Birth: | 4 November 1932 |
| Place of Birth: | Vienna |
| Date of Death: | 6 July 2004 |
| Place of Death: | Vienna |
| Political Party: | Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) |
Born in Vienna to a working class family—his father worked for the tramway—Klestil went to school in Landstraße where he made friends with Joe Zawinul. He studied economics in Vienna and received his doctorate in 1957. After entering the civil service he worked in Austria as well as abroad, for example for OECD. Fluent in English, Klestil was the Austrian Ambassador to the United Nations (1978–1982) and Ambassador to the United States (1982–1987) prior to his election as President.
After being nominated by the conservative Austrian People's Party to run for Federal President, he succeeded Kurt Waldheim on 8 July 1992. However, in the course of his two terms of office, Klestil's alienation from his own party became increasingly obvious, so much so that there was open antagonism between Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and Klestil when, in 2000, the latter had to swear in the newly formed coalition government with Jörg Haider's Austrian Freedom Party. Klestil, who during his election campaign had vowed to be an "active" president, repeatedly criticized the Austrian government and, in an interview with a Swiss daily given in 2003, stated that, theoretically speaking, it was in his power to dismiss the government any time he found it necessary to do so. As a matter of fact the Austrian Constitution does give far-reaching powers to the Federal President, but these had never been exercised by any of Klestil's predecessors.
Thomas Klestil, who had three grown-up children by his first marriage, divorced his wife of many years shortly after his successful election campaign of 1992 and subsequently, in 1998, married work colleague Margot Löffler, the woman he allegedly was already having an affair with at the time of his election. In 1996 he was taken seriously ill but recovered.
On 5 July 2004, 3 days before he was to leave office, he suffered a heart attack or heart failure, probably caused by his longtime lung problems and was left in critical condition. He died on 6 July at 23:33 local time at the AKH (Allgemeines Krankenhaus - General Hospital) in Vienna. On July 9 2004 he was interred in the presidential crypt at Vienna's Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof).
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| Preceded by: Kurt Waldheim | Presidents of Austria | Succeeded by: Heinz Fischer |