Johanna Preinstorfer

Johanna Preinstorfer was an Austrian farmer, teacher and politician of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) who opened door after door for women in the public life of Upper Austria. She was the first woman elected President of the Upper Austrian Landtag, the first woman to lead a municipality in the province as mayor of Ohlsdorf, and the first woman to sit in the full assembly of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Agriculture. She died on 12 November 2026 in her 98th year.

She was born Johanna Führer on 17 June 1929 in Altenmühl, then part of Altmünster and today part of Gmunden, the eldest of seven children of a couple who ran an inn. After primary and secondary school she moved to the grammar school of the Kreuzschwestern sisters in Ort, where she passed her Matura in 1948. She then completed a two year course for agricultural teachers, finishing in 1950, and taught home economics, agriculture and German at the agricultural school in Weyregg am Attersee.

On 10 October 1960 she married Alois Preinstorfer, a farmer from Ehrendorf in the municipality of Ohlsdorf, and moved to his Kothmairgut, a farm that bred bulls and grew vegetables. Between 1961 and 1969 the couple had three daughters and a son, and she worked the farm alongside raising her family.

Her public career began in 1971, when she became district farmers' representative for women. In 1973, after the death of her predecessor Kronsteiner, she became the provincial farm women's leader, and that year she was also the first woman elected to the full assembly of the Chamber of Agriculture. She served as deputy provincial leader of the Austrian Women's Movement and sat on the national party executive of the ÖVP.

After the 1973 provincial election she was sworn in to the Upper Austrian Landtag on 16 November 1973, and she remained a member until 29 October 1991. On 25 October 1979 she was elected First President of the Landtag, the first woman ever to hold the post, and she kept it until she left parliament. In local politics she sat on the Ohlsdorf municipal council and served as mayor from 1982 to 1989, again the first woman in Upper Austria to do so. She was given the professional title Ökonomierätin in 1986 and received the Grand Decoration of Honour of the Province of Upper Austria.

According to the Province of Upper Austria, her great concern was cooperation across party lines, and she worked above all for agriculture and for women in farming. Announcing her death on 13 November 2026, Governor Thomas Stelzer remembered her as a personality who always looked for common ground. Details of the funeral were to be published by the provincial government.