ELLENBOGEN, WILHELM

ELLENBOGEN, WILHELM (1863–1951), Austrian politician. Born in Breclav (Lundenburg, Moravia), he was taken to Vienna by his family in 1870 and qualified as a physician in 1886. He was one of the first members of the newly constituted Social Democratic party, and served on its Executive Board from 1891. He was elected to the Reichsrat in 1901 and remained in the Austrian parliament also after 1918, until its dissolution in 1934. In 1907, Ellenbogen played an important part in securing the passage of the Universal Franchise Bill. At the end of World War i, he negotiated with the Hungarian government for food shipments to save Vienna from famine. In 1919 he became undersecretary for commerce, and in 1921 he succeeded Otto *Bauer as secretary for socialization, with the rank of a cabinet member. Later he headed the office for electrification of the state railroads (until 1929). After the Anschluss in 1938, Ellenbogen fled to France and in 1940 to New York. His publications include Was will die Sozialdemokratie? (1910), Sozialisierung in Oesterreich (1922), and Anschluss und Energiewirtschaft (1928).

add. bibliography:

A. Barkai, "The Austrian Social Democrats and the Jews," in: Wiener Library Bulletin, 24 (1970); A. Rabinbach, The Crisis of Austrian Socialism: from Red Vienna to Civil War, 1927 – 1934 (1983); R.S. Wistrich, Socialism and the Jews: The Dilemmas of Assimilation in Germany and Austria-Hungary (1982).

[Josef J. Lador-Lederer]