2023-06-21 10:06:00
The reason for the corresponding decision by the rectorate of the Linz Art University was Koller’s past, who was an SS Untersturmfuhrer during the Nazi era. The Senate had previously unanimously approved this step, according to a statement from the university.
“As things stand today, such academic honors would no longer be awarded to him,” said Rector Brigitte Hütter. As a tenant of buildings erected by the Nazi regime, the art university bears a special responsibility in coming to terms with National Socialism.
“That’s why we turned on the documentation archive in the Koller case in order to come to a decision. In view of the test results, we see it as our duty to draw the appropriate conclusions,” Hütter continued.
Little attention has been paid to the Nazi past so far
Herbert Koller, born in 1911 and deceased in 1995, went down in history not only as a former manager of Vöest, the predecessor of the Linz steel group Voestalpine AG, which is still active today, but also as an honorary member of the Linz Art University.
Herbert Koller (3rd from left) Image: OÖPB
Koller’s Nazi past has received little attention so far: he joined the NSDAP as early as 1931. At the University of Vienna, he started out as a research assistant with a doctorate in law. In February 1941, Koller then joined the SS and was promoted to Untersturmfuhrer. From 1944 he served in the Navy and was in British captivity from 1945 to 1947. The documentation archive of the Austrian resistance confirmed all these key data after a corresponding examination by the University of Art and Design Linz, as well as Koller’s membership numbers in the NSDAP and the SS.
In post-war Austria, Koller in der Vöest worked his way up from a simple clerk to works director at Hütte Krems, before rising to general director of the entire group in 1961. In this function he once earned special merits for the restructuring of the nationalized industry. And he came to other honors: In his retirement, the chamberlain was appointed to the General Council of the Austrian National Bank, from 1981 to 1988 he was its first vice president.
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