Quotations

H. Androsch: "Accounting is the language of the business".

H. Androsch on reading: "Reading is an adventure in the reader's head but also essential food for the mind. My passion for books dates back to my childhood; I cannot imagine my life without my many books: my library focuses on history and economy. One book I always like to read is Goethe's Faust. The story is still of current interest which is reflected in the parallels that can be drawn between Faust II and the current financial crisis."

Bücher-Magazin "Buchliebling" 2009

"We even import nuclear power from Temelin but don't want to have nuclear power in our own country because we're simpletons and hypocrites."

Kleine Zeitung, January 13, 2009

"Grumblers - to use a modern expression - will exist always."

Economy, December 19, 2008

H. Androsch on the financial crisis, "Extensive fire cannot be fought with spray guns; the fire brigade is needed!"

Industrie. Technik + Wirtschaft, 12/2008

"The financial crisis is the result of the money industry's pact with greed, arrogance and stupidity."

Kärntner Tageszeitung, October 19, 2008

"I have always felt bored by idleness."

Society, 02/2008

"Politics finally has to overcome the terrorism of the status quo".

H. Androsch on the unwillingness to make reforms in the field of Austrian education policy.

Report Plus, 08/2008

"What would have happened 2000 years ago if Paulus had made a survey or had even hired an agency?"

Medianet, September 17, 2008 (www.zitate.at)

"MIT in the US and AIT in Austria." H. Androsch on  new start in Seibersdorf and the new name "Austrian Institute of Technologies", with the association with the world's most popular university research department, the MIT "Massachusetts Institute of Technology", being intended.

Format, August 14, 2008

"Giving AUA away will be possible after the elections as well." 

H. Androsch, industrialist and advisor to designated SPÖ chairman Werner Faymann, argues against an ill-considered privatisation order in Ö1.

Profil, 04.08.2008

"The budget is the nation's book of fate."

Kronen Zeitung, July 26, 2008

Literally taken. Hannes Androsch on the salaries of some executives: "Mediocrity is the most expensive thing."

Freiheit - Das Arbeitnehmer-Magazin, 07/2008

"Before jumping into a swimming pool one has to have a look wheter water is inside."

Kronen Zeitung, July 19, 2008

"Economy policy consists at 50 per cent of psychology - I will not discuss the percentage."

Kronen Zeitung, June 21, 2008

"I saved AUA for Austria in 1971 and made it profitable and afterwards, the company has reported profits for twenty years. The policy of the Austrian state holding (ÖIAG) has been wrong since 2000. Now, we are heading vor Alitalia and this is what we need least of all."

Travel Express, June 4, 2008

"Mediocrity is the most expensive thing." Industrialist Hannes Androsch on high executive salaries.

Salzburger Nachrichten, May 19, 2008

"The welfare state must become more efficient and must not distribute too much money without corresponding effect according to the principle of something for everyone."

Vorarlberger Wirtschaft, 03/2008

"I have provided for the family. I was able to help them mount the horse but they had to ride on their own."

Kärntner Tageszeitung, May 4, 2008

"I never wanted to become chancellor. Never. It was clear to me that everyone following Mr Kreisky would fail."

Mr Androsch, who was said to have set his sights on the chancellorship when he was "at war" with Mr Kreisky at the end of the 1970ies.

Kronen Zeitung, April 13, 2008

H. Androsch on the disappearance of the CA brand: "It's madness to give up the best name of a bank in Central an Eastern Europe". Being supervisory board member of Bawag, Mr Androsch has an idea: "I want the Creditanstalt brand for Bawag".

Kleine Zeitung, April 1, 2008

"It is absurd that this government has decided to extend the legislative period by five years and then, after one year, they are talking about early elections."

Kurier, March 31, 2008

"The fact that economic researchers make their forecasts exactly at one tenth of percent shows that they have a sense of humor."

Salzburger Nachrichten, March 29, 2008

"I do not work anymore, I am busy. Actually, I would not have to do anything anymore."

Kärntner Tageszeitung, March 27, 2008

"I would not presume to say who will be the next president. But one thing is for sure: a radical change is necessary in the US. And I trust in the Americans' flexibility which they have always proved to have. The Bush administration's excesses were a desaster".

News, February 7, 2008

"The fact that economic researchers increase their forecast exactly to a tenth per cent shows that they have a sense of humor".

Medianet, February 6, 2008

"In purely elaction-related arithmetical turns, they are tied to each other like a Moscow pyramid. As everybody knows, a Moscow pyramid consists of two drunk people who do not fall because they support each other."

Hannes Androsch on the grand coalition.

Wiener Zeitung, February 2, 2008

"I regard it as absolutely abstruse. Such a measure would be like expropriation. Top sportsmen and women as well as artists would not be happy if their pay slip showed much less money than before."

Hannes Androsch on the proposal to tax top earners at 80 per cent.

Österreich, January 29, 2008

"What we do is to muddle on until we do not own anything. The banking industry is the best example. Half of it now belongs to foreign companies without any reason."

Sonntags Rundschau Linz, January 13, 2008

Asked wether he was saving, Hannes Androsch said on the occasion of the World Savings Day, "In order to answer this question, we have to define the word first. If saving means not to use up the whole harvest but keep enough to sow the new harvest, it will make sense. Saving just for non-consumption, like a squirrel, without finding the things later on, is lunacy. To sum up: to reap, one must first have sown. To sow, one must first have saved."

Kurier, October 30, 2007

"Sentimental ideas could be spared in business life as they are appropriate for the cemetery or family celebrations." Hannes Androsch answering the question whether he regrets hacing to sell FACC.

WirtschaftsBlatt, October 10, 2007

"Each human being has a right to his or her private life. The right to private life is valid for public persons of any kind even if they make propaganda with their private lives, no matter if this propaganda is sanctimonious or provocative. This limit is to be respected as human right as long as the private life is not possibly hindering the respective person in his or her public duty."

LiVe-Heute das Beste der Woche, March 23, 2007

On using salt: "I am a gourmet. And I am happy that I do not need to follow a strict diet without salt. Salt belongs to our food. But like it is with many other things, it is all about the right dose."

Medizin populär, March 01, 2007

"Being finance minister is unpopular. It is the party's task to make the politician popular."

Kleine Zeitung, February 13, 2007

"I did not plan my political career. Neither in the sandpit nor in the swimming pool. All I wanted to do was going to Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart."

Kleine Zeitung, February 12, 2007

"I first go to know Alfred Worm as journalistic spearhead of the political judiciary put onto me by Mr Kreisky and Mr Mock to remove me from politics. Mr Worm referred to the case concerning the AKH in Vienna as political scandal although this was not true. His assumption was also disproved in three lawsuits. Mr Worm accepted it and published it accordingly in the magazine NEWS later on. He even travelled to London to interview me. In the course of the interview, he confessed that the accusations against me had been wrong from A to Z and had been an act of political judiciary. Mr Worm was a person who was able to recognise and admit a mistake. We had the opportunity to have it out and thus parted in peace."

News, February 08, 2007

"In the power struggle both Mr Kreisky and Mr Mock led against me, Alfred Worm was the journalistic spearhead. He uncovered the AKH scandal in the right way but the political scandal he made out of it, also against me, was disproved in three lawsuits. Later on, Alfred Worm never contradicted me in private talks that the lawsuits against me had been politically wrong. After all that bitterness on the part of me, we finally parted in peace. He died before time."

Österreich, February 06, 2007

"This is a government of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) including a chancellor from the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ)."

Hannes Androsch on the distribution of departments of Mr Gusenbauer's government.

Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, January 09, 2007

"This day is not without a sentiment for me. After all, this bank was founded by Karl Renner. And I am convinced that my fatherly friend, Anton Benya, woult agree to what we are doing now."

At the press conference on the sale of Bawag on December 15, 2006

"We have gone through a period with the weakest growth in Austria since 2000, with a record unemployment rate and ticking time bombs regarding the National Austrian Railways' or Asfinag's indebtedness."

Hannes Androsch in a review of Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser's term of office

Profil, December 14, 2006

Raidl: "I always recommend the Austrian People's Party (OeVP) to quote more from Dr. Androsch."

Androsch: "But in all respects, please."

The talk after the elections. Format, November 20, 2006

"There cannot exist troopers only."

Mr Androsch also considers Austrian President Heinz Fischer predestined to be the nation's mediator.

Falter, 45/2006

"Mr Schüssel must not believe he would be able to correct the result in the case of new elections. Should the Austrian People's Party (OeVP) continue sticking to its indignant defiant and blocking behaviour for some time, I would recommend forming a minority government."

Kleine Zeitung, November 7, 2006

"It has to be clear that the elections were not won by the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPOe) but lost by the Austrian People's Party (OeVP)."

Kronen Zeitung, October 23, 2006

"As much market as possible, as much state as necessary."

Profil, September 11, 2006

"People always ask about a good deal without any risk but such a deal has not yet been invented."

Kronen Zeitung, September 2, 2006

"We have aimed a prosperity and set up a maintenance state"
Kronen Zeitung, December 31, 2005

"Protective measures should be taken against targeted misuse
of the words ‘savings' and "reforms'".

Kronen Zeitung, November 1, 2003
In reference to terms used particularly often by the ÖVP-FPÖ coalition government.