Dr. Rudolf Buchinger

Rudolf Buchinger began his school education at the Realgymnasium, then transferred to the Lower Austrian State Agricultural School Edelhof near Zwettl. Due to the early death of his father, he had to take over his parents' farm.

After the First World War, he was elected a member of the Constituent National Assembly in 1919. 1922-1926 he was appointed Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, 1922-1923 he was also appointed head of the Federal Ministry of Food. From 1920-1930 he was a member of the National Council for the Christian Social Party. He then devoted himself above all to the cooperative system and became a pioneer of the agricultural cooperative system: for example, in 1927 as Chairman of the Lower Austrian Central Agricultural Cooperative Bank and President of the newly created "Girozentrale der Österreichischen Genossenschaften" [today: Raiffeisen Zentralbank [RZB]], 1931-1938 as Advocate General of the General Association for Agricultural Cooperatives in Austria [today: Raiffeisenverband], and 1934-1936 as a member of the Federal Economic Council. From 1936 to 1938, he was also a member of the State Council.

In 1929, he became a member of the KDB Rheno-Danubia zu Wien in the RKDB. Due to his services to the founding of the Comagna Tulln secondary school fraternity, he was awarded the ribbon of honor at the founding ceremony in 1933. He also received the ribbon of the Aggstein St. Pölten secondary school fraternity in 1934.

With the Anschluss, Rudolf Buchinger lost all offices and functions and was imprisoned for a short time; in 1944 he was again temporarily imprisoned by the Gestapo. During the Second World War, he lived in seclusion on his estate in Staasdorf.