Dr. Rudolf Leopold

Rudolf Leopold graduated from grammar school in Melk and was then called up to the Landwehr Infantry Regiment No. 49 in 1917. He served on the Russian front and on the Isonzo (last rank Lieutenant of the Reserve). After the war, he studied agriculture in Vienna at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (Dr. rer. agr. 1923), where he joined the Kürnberg student fraternity.

After completing his studies, Rudolf Leopold first worked briefly for the Tyrolean State Agricultural Council and then from 1923 to 1927 as a crop inspector for the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture. In 1927, he was appointed to the Ministry of Agriculture and in 1931 became head of Department 6 (including plant cultivation and viticulture).

In 1936, Rudolf Leopold became head of the Department of Agriculture and was appointed head of the department on January 31, 1938. In March 1938, he was dismissed and forced to retire with three quarters of his pension. He then worked in various agricultural businesses and in the food industry.

After the war, Rudolf Leopold was rehabilitated and became Head of Section in the State Office for Agriculture and Forestry of the Provisional State Government, heading the Trade Policy Department, which reported directly to the State Secretary. After the Federal Government was re-established at the end of 1945, he moved to the Federal Chancellery and headed the United Nations Assistance to Austria (UNRRA, Marshall Plan). From 1947, this aid to Austria is managed as the ERP Department within the Foreign Affairs Division of the Federal Chancellery. From 1951 until his retirement in 1963, he was Head of the Agriculture Section in the Ministry of Agriculture.