“By combining these names, we have succeeded in connecting the history and founding of the Second Republic with the history of military aviation,” said Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) in a broadcast on Wednesday. The FPÖ did not agree with the renaming.
In the future, the property will be named “after distinguished personalities and military officers of the Second Republic, with significant connections to the Austrian Armed Forces,” the ministry said. Figl was born in 1902 in Rust im Tullnerfeld, now part of the market town of Michelhausen. He was the first Chancellor of the Second Republic from 1945 to 1955. According to the broadcast, from 1947 onwards, plans for a re-establishment of the Federal Army began under Figl’s political leadership.
“Forerunner of military aviation”
Othmar Pabisch was, among other things, commander of the air division in Langenlebarn from 1985 to 1998. The trained operational pilot completed more than 5,000 flight hours during his service and also flew state guests in Austria, including Pope John Paul II during his visit to Austria in 1983. Pabisch “was considered a pioneer of military aviation and our air force in the Second Republic. He was “also the first general of the air force in the Austrian Armed Forces,” said Tanner.
“Historically critical facts”
The military airfield with barracks had been named after Godwin Brumowski since 1967, who was a fighter pilot in the First World War and who flew the combat mission against the Vienna Goethehof in the February battles of 1934. The military-historical monument commission decided to rename it “based on critical historical facts.” Proposals had been made by mid-April.
Criticism from the FPÖ
Criticism of the renaming came immediately from the FPÖ: the liberal defense spokesman Volker Reifenberger identified a “brazen approach” on the part of Tanner. The new name is “political abuse of the special class in the sense of an unabashed ÖVP Lower Austria and thus inadmissibly appropriates our armed forces for party political purposes.” Reifenberger also stated in a broadcast: “Leopold Figl has earned his merits, but this renaming is a complete misunderstanding – football stadiums are not named after tennis players, but rather deserving footballers.”
The future name doesn’t make sense to him because Figl has as much to do with aviation “as a hippopotamus has to do with tightrope walking,” said FPÖ state parliament member Andreas Bors in a broadcast. The renaming was “purely motivated by party politics and also a kowtow to the left-wing ‘cancel culture’,” said the state party secretary. “The air base doesn’t need a new name, but rather new equipment, better infrastructure and a new sports hall,” explained Bors in the direction of Tanner.
