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08. 03. 10. - 11:00

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08. 03. 10. - 11:00

More than 1,000 attend Dohnal funeral

More than 1,000 people attended the funeral of former Social Democratic (SPÖ) Women’s Minister Johanna Dohnal’s on Saturday at the crematorium at Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof cemetery.

Many others bid her farewell while her body was lying in state before the funeral.

Dohnal’s close relatives attended her burial at a "grave of honour" placed between former SPÖ Science Minister Herta Firnberg and resistance member Rosa Jochmann after the funeral.

Such resting places are usually given to personalities who are considered to have made outstanding achievements for Vienna and Austria.

Mourners at the funeral ceremony in Vienna-Simmering included President Heinz Fischer and former SPÖ Chancellor Franz Vranitzky.

SPÖ Chancellor Werner Faymann called Dohnal "a person of great historical importance" who had accomplished a great deal for "women, our country and our movement."

SPÖ Women’s Minister Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek noted that Dohnal had moved large stones from the path leading to sexual equality but warned that a great deal remained to be done. The minister added that Dohnal had been rewarded for her pioneering efforts with "many illnesses, insults and hatred."

Female saxophone quartet Airplay provided music at the funeral.

Dohnal, Austria’s first women’s minister between 1990 and 1995 in the cabinet of SPÖ Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, died on 20 February at her home in Lower Austria at the age of 71. She had been suffering from heart problems for some time, according to reports.

Former SPÖ Chancellor Bruno Kreisky selected her as state secretary for women’s affairs in 1979 after she had been a district councillor in Vienna-Penzing and the SPÖ’s Vienna secretary.

She became leader of the SPÖ’s women’s organisation and deputy party leader in 1987.

SPÖ Chancellor Franz Vranitzky then named her Austria’s first women’s minister in 1990. She was succeeded by Helga Konrad in 1995.

The making of sexual abuse a criminal offence came during Dohnal’s term as minister in an SPÖ-ÖVP coalition government.

Dohnal’s formal political career ended in 1995 although she became honorary chairwoman of the SPÖ’s women’s organisation that she had once been leader of and worked with a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

She distinguished herself throughout her political career with her fight for gender equality and women’s rights, focusing especially on reconciliation of work and family duties and paternity leave for men.

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