Name Gernot Rumpold Party Freedom Party of Austria | Role Austrian Politician | |
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Gernot Rumpold (born September 11, 1957) is an Austrian politician, best known for his association with Jorg Haider.
Rumpold was born in Villach, Carinthia, and attended schools in Pinkafeld, apprenticing as an electrician. From the 1970s, he became known as Jorg Haider's Mann furs Grobe (roughly, hatchet man), and became the only constant fixture in Haider's retinue during the next quarter century, even though his working-class background came across as suspect to some in Haider's upper-class-dominated FPO. After working as an HVAC technician from 1980 to 1982, he served in a number of capacities in the FPO during the 1980s: organizational advisor to the FPO from 1982 to 1984, managing director of the FPO in Carinthia from 1984 to 1986, and personal advisor to the FPO chairman (Haider) in 1986. Although generally content to operate behind the scenes, he was a member of the Federal Council of Austria for a short time, serving from October 30, 1989 to June 6, 1990. He subsequently served as business manager of the FPO from 1990.
