Wolfgang Brandstetter

Wolfgang Brandstetter is an independent Austrian politician and legal scholar who served as a member of the Constitutional Court of Austria from 2018 to 2021. He previously served as the Minister of Justice of Austria, as well as the country's Vice Chancellor.

Early life Brandstetter was born on 7 October 1957 in Haag. Brandstetter grew up in Eggenburg, and later attended the Bundesgymnasium Horn, where he took his matura. He continued to practice law, appearing as the criminal defence lawyer for the technical director in the Kaprun disaster during the proceedings in 2004, for Chancellor Werner Faymann in investigations during an advertising case, Kazakh ex-ambassador Rakhat Aliyev, and Rudolf Fischer in the Telekom Austria Affair.

Brandstetter was chosen to be a member of the Werner Faymann cabinet in December 2013, designated to serve as the country's Minister of Justice. In 2016, he formally acknowledged that the Austrian judiciary was a tool of the Nazi regime, and that it had violated fundamental legal protections. He announced that it would become mandatory for future judges and prosecutors to receive historical education about the judiciary during the Nazi era, and would have to visit memorial sites for the Holocaust. In 2018, he served as a special adviser to European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Věra Jourová on rule-of-law issues.

Member of the Constitutional Court (2018–2021) In February 2018 Brandstetter was appointed as a member of the Constitutional Court of Austria.

When prosecutors opened a probe in 2021 into whether Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had lied to a parliamentary committee investigating allegations of corruption by members of his previous government, Brandstetter also became a subject of criminal investigations.

In June 2021, Brandstetter resigned following the publication of a series of private text messages sent to him by former colleague Christian Pilnacek (suspended section head in the Austrian Ministry of Justice) containing sexist and racist language.

Personal life

Brandstetter is married and has three children.

Honours Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Principality of Liechtenstein (11 February 2019).