Helmut Zilk

Helmut Zilk (9 June 1927, Vienna – 24 October 2008, Vienna) was an Austrian journalist and politician in the Austrian Social Democratic Party. He served as mayor of Vienna between 1984 and 1994. Biography Born in Vienna, Zilk was Mayor of Vienna from 1984 to 1994. In December 1993 he was severely injured when he opened a letter bomb which had been sent to his home in Innere Stadt by Franz Fuchs. Zilk died on 24 October 2008 of heart failure, after arriving home sick from a vacation in Portugal. He was married to Austrian musical star, Dagmar Koller. Czechoslovak secret police collaborator In October 1998, the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung accused Helmut Zilk of having collaborated with Czechoslovak secret police (StB) during the 1960s. He denied the accusations. Based on this and also on information from the StB archives, Zilk was denied a planned Czech medal of honour. The affair was widely covered by Czech and Austrian media. In 1998 the Czech presidential office cleared Zilk and president Havel apologized to him in person.