Hans Peter Doskozil

Hans Peter Doskozil (; born 21 June 1970) is an Austrian politician of the Social Democratic Party of Austria serving as governor of Burgenland. He previously served as minister of defence from 2016–2017. In the 2020 Burgenland state election, he led his party to win a majority of the seats in Burgenland's parliament. Due to an error in the count of his party’s national congress in June 2023, he was assumed to be the SPÖ’s party leader from 3 to 5 June 2023, when the error was discovered and his opponent Andreas Babler was declared party leader. Early life, education and career Doskozil was raised in Kroisegg, a district in the municipality of Grafenschachen in southern Burgenland, where he completed his compulsory Volksschule education. He later attended the Hauptschule in Pinkafeld and then the in the Oberwart District. In the first-half of 1989, Doskozil did his compulsory military service at the Landwehrstammregiment 13 (now Jägerbattalion 19) of the Austrian Army and soon afterwards began his policing career as a Sicherheitswachebeamter at the (BPD Wien). He started studying law part-time at the University of Vienna in 1994, graduating with a Mag. iur. in 2000. Between 2003 and 2008 he regularly moved between the Sicherheitsdirektion Burgenland, BPD Wien and the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Between 2008 and 2012, he worked in the office of the then-governor of Burgenland Hans Niessl before returning to policing as the head of the newly formed Landespolizeidirektion Burgenland in 2012. Doskozil, as head of the Landespolizeidirektion Burgenland, was praised for his handling of the Burgenland corpses discovery in 2015.