Michael Hainisch

Michael Hainisch (born Aug. 15, 1858, Aue, near Gloggnitz, Austria—died Feb. 26, 1940, Vienna) was an Austrian economist and statesman who served as the first president of the federal republic of Austria (1920–28). A liberal scholar and political-social activist with many public interests, he vigorously supported universal and female suffrage and popular education during the last years of the Habsburg empire. Throughout World War I and thereafter, he also advocated Anschluss (the incorporation of German...