Dr. Ludwig Draxler

Ludwig Draxler was born in Vienna as the son of a high-ranking civil servant and attended a humanistic grammar school in Vienna-Landstraße. During the First World War, he reached the rank of first lieutenant in Air Regiment No. 1. Draxler then studied law at the universities of Innsbruck and Vienna. In 1919, he joined the student fraternity Corps Rhaetia. Together with the future Home Army leader Ernst Rüdiger Fürst Starhemberg, he is a member of the Oberland Free Corps and takes part in the battles in the Upper Silesian voting area. He marries and subsequently has four children.

After completing his doctorate in 1922, Ludwig Draxler initially works as a lawyer and criminal defense attorney. He became vice president of the Lower Austrian Trade Association and a member of the board of directors of several companies, such as Hirtenberger Patronen- und Metallwarenfabriks AG, Österreichische Creditanstalt and Radio Verkehrs AG. In 1928, he joined the Heimwehr and became a lawyer and consultant to the Heimwehr federal leadership. In 1930, he set up his own law firm. In 1934, he became Vice President of the Austrian Credit Institute for Public Enterprises and Works, in whose reorganization he was involved.

In 1934, Ludwig Draxler rose to become a member of the State Council and the Bundestag, where he became Chairman of the Finance and Budget Committee.

On 17 October 1935, he became Finance Minister (during this time, he was represented in the State Council and Bundestag by a substitute member). When the influence of the Heimwehr in the government of Kurt von Schuschnigg is pushed back, this also means the end for Draxler as Finance Minister on November 3, 1936. However, he remained a member of the State Council and the Bundestag until Austria's downfall in March 1938.

On March 12, 1938, he witnessed the invasion of the German Wehrmacht in Vienna and the demise of a free and independent Austria. Ludwig Draxer was arrested by the Gestapo on March 14, 1938 and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938 on the so-called Prominent Transport. He was released on August 10, 1939 and returned to Vienna. He then worked as a lawyer and in-house counsel at Dresdner Bank.

There, Ludwig Draxler witnessed the liberation of Austria in May 1945. After the war, he continued to work as a lawyer. Among other things, he represents the Habsburg-Lothringen family, headed by Otto von Habsburg-Lothringen. He is also the administrator of the Starhemberg estates and a lawyer for West German companies and the Fiat Group. In the 1950s, he became Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Hirtenberger AG and sat on the supervisory boards of numerous other companies. He joined the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.