DI Alfred Klimesch

Alfred Klimesch was born the son of an imperial and royal. In 1914, at the age of just five, he witnessed the transfer of the bodies of the heir to the throne in the port of Trieste. After his father died in 1910, his mother moved to Linz with her children in May 1915 after Italy entered the war. Alfred Klimesch attended grammar school there.

After graduating from high school with distinction, Alfred Klimesch began studying electrical engineering at the Vienna University of Technology (Dipl.-Ing. 1932), where he joined the Norica student fraternity. After completing his studies, Alfred Klimesch joined Oberösterreichische Kraftwerke AG (OKA) and worked at a transformer station.

In early 1934, Klimesch moved to Radio-Verkehrs AG (RAVAG), the predecessor of ORF, and was technical director of the Linz transmitter. During the National Socialists' July Putsch in 1934, the Linz station had to fill in for broadcasts for the whole of Austria after the Vienna broadcasting center was temporarily occupied by Nazi putschists. This means that the Linz station has to correct the false radio reports. In 1935, Alfred Klimesch is appointed general manager of the Linz station. During this time, it is expanded into a powerful radio station, not least to counter the radio propaganda from Nazi Germany.

When Federal Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg resigns on the evening of March 11, 1938, the radio stations are also taken over by the National Socialists. Alfred Klimesch had to continue his duties as head of the Linz station under supervision. At around 2 a.m. on March 12, Anton Fellner announces on behalf of the Upper Austrian Gauleiter August Eigruber via the Linz radio station that the "seizure of power" has taken place throughout the country "in complete calm and discipline". On March 12, Alfred Klimesch is ordered by the SS to produce the report on Hitler's arrival in Linz, but refuses, but has to take over the technical direction of the report due to a lack of alternative personnel. On March 13, he was given leave of absence and later dismissed for political reasons.

Alfred Klimesch then found a job at Telefunken Berlin, which had expanded the Linz radio station under his management. In 1939, he was drafted into the German Air Force, where he was deployed in Flensburg in 1945. There he was taken prisoner of war by the British, from which he was able to return in the autumn.

After this, Alfred Klimesch returned to OKA and worked as a plant engineer in Gmunden, where he soon became an authorized signatory. He eventually became General Director of OKA and was President of the Association of Austrian Electricity Companies (VEÖ) from 1974 to 1977.