DI Albert Hochleitner

Albert Hochleitner was born the son of Anton Hochleitner, a district chief forester and Christian Social member of the state parliament. Among other roles, Anton Hochleitner also served as forester on an estate belonging to Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne. Hochleitner had 17 siblings; he attended elementary school in Rauris and high school in Salzburg. After graduating from high school in 1914, he immediately began studying agriculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (earning a Dipl. Ing. degree in 1923), where he joined the Austria Wien fraternity. However, he was soon drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army (Archduke Rainer Infantry Regiment No. 59) (final rank: First Lieutenant in the Reserve) and was seriously wounded. After the war, he resumed his studies.

After completing his studies, Hochleitner was employed by the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture (including as district agricultural chamber secretary in Wolkersdorf). Beginning in 1931, he served as a civil servant in the Ministry of Agriculture and was appointed Ministerialrat in 1936.

On April 1, 1938, Hochleitner was forced into retirement and subsequently worked in the private sector (until 1941 as head of an export office in Vienna and thereafter as manager of a gravel plant in Styria). At the end of the war in 1945, he was staying in Rauris; he rejoined—this time in Salzburg—the Chamber of Agriculture and became its director.

Following the liberation of Austria and the restoration of the Republic in April and May 1945, respectively, he joined the newly founded Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and served briefly as governor of Salzburg and later as chairman of the board of Ennstalkraftwerke AG. In 1954, he was admitted to the Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem (OESSH).

Upon retirement, he moved to Vienna, where he also passed away.