Creativity, the willingness to change things – and the grouchy humor he was known for: Kreisky’s multifaceted personality was reflected in his unusual life. The open-minded intellectual was a key figure in the political and economic rise of postwar Austria. As Federal Chancellor (1970-1983), he implemented fundamental reforms as well as long overdue modernizations, thus helping the SPÖ (Social Democratic Party of Austria) become one of the most successful social democratic parties in Western Europe. Willy Brandt was a close friend. Kreisky was a mediator between East and West, a global political player. A smart analyst who also had the talent of connecting with everyday people. This biography is based on the author’s decade-long engagement with the Kreisky phenomenon, including information from hitherto unknown sources. Wolfgang Petritsch held numerous interviews with international contemporaries as well as private friends to complete the dazzling image of this impressive personality.

Still in brutal solitary confinement in the Mauthausen concentration camp at the beginning of the year, Nazi prisoner Leopold Figl awaits his trial on death row. In April, as the Russians already begin to enter Vienna, he’s released. Soon after Figl organises the improvised Viennese food supply. In May, he became the first Governor of Lower Austria. Finally, he led the People's Party in November in the parliamentary elections, which made him the first Chancellor of the Second Republic. Based on meticulous research Helmut Wohnout allows the life of Leopold Figl to make the year 1945 eventful in a new whole new light.