Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Helmuth Schattovits

Born in Austria in 1939, the PhD of business administration was chairman of the Austrian Student Union at the Vienna University of Technology during his studies and subsequently a university assistant at the Institute for Labour and Business Sciences. In 1969 and 1970 he was office manager of the then Minister of Education, Dr. Alois Mock. From 1970 to 1978 he was President of the Catholic Family Association of Austria (KFÖ). In 1983 he became director of the Institute for Marriage and Family (IEF) of the Austrian Bishops' Conference.

In 1994, during the International Year of the Family proclaimed by the UN at that time, Prof. Schattovits founded the Austrian Institute for Family Studies (AIF) and headed it as Managing Director until his retirement in 2001.

Prof. Schattovits played a decisive role in shaping Austrian's family policy over several decades and bundled and established family research in Austria at the ÖIF. He was also considered the "father of the modern childcare allowance". In addition, he was involved as the initiator and co-founder of the community B.R.O.T. ("Beten-Reden-Offensein-Teilen"), a new form of living together and integrative living.

The Catholic Family Association of Austria (KFÖ) has been awarding the "Dr. Helmuth Schattovits Medal" since 2017 as a regular tribute in memory of the family expert, who died in 2015.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Mazal, Head of the Austrian Institute of Family Studies (AIF) at the University of Vienna, was awarded this medal in May 2017 as a token of gratitude and recognition for his long-standing support of the Catholic Family Association in social and family policy issues.

Link to the press release of the Archdiocese of Vienna (09.05.2017)