He remained a member even after the Nazi Party was banned in Austria and after Engelbert Dollfuss had dissolved the Austrian parliament and established the Ständestaat, a fascist dictatorship.

[citation needed] In 1933, Robert Haider moved to Bavaria but returned to Austria the following year after the failed Nazi attempt to overthrow the Austrian government with the July Putsch.

[7] Haider was born in the Upper Austrian town of Bad Goisern in 1950, a time when his parents' finances were rather moderate, and his elder sister, Ursula, was four years old.

After he graduated with highest distinction in 1968, he was drafted into the Austrian Army, where he voluntarily spent more than the compulsory nine months (called "the voluntary one year").

His personal life was heavily connected with this part of Austria: Haider became wealthy in 1983 when he inherited the estate of Wilhelm Webhofer, who had owned a large parcel of land in Carinthia commonly known as "Bärental" (bear valley).

Thus when the estate was sold in 1941, one Josef Webhofer (a former resident of South Tyrol, Italy, and an Optant) paid 300,000 Reichsmark (equivalent to 1 million euros in 2021) to obtain title to the land.

[citation needed] Haider represented the pan-German nationalist wing of the party, opposed to the classical liberal one led by Steger.

In 1991, in a debate in the regional parliament, a Socialist leader attacked Haider's plan of reducing unemployment payments for people seen as "freeloaders", calling it forced work placement reminiscent of Nazi policies.

"[14] Haider claimed that the legislators understood his comment as a criticism of the present Austrian government, but in the days that followed the SPÖ joined with the ÖVP in a vote of no confidence against him.

However, Haider's German nationalist roots were still evident in his rejection of minority rights for non-German-speaking ethnic groups, hostility towards European integration and immigration.

[18] An exception was the split off by the Liberal Forum in 1993 headed by Heide Schmidt, who had served as Haider's deputy chairman and run as the FPÖ's candidate for presidency in 1992.

[19] Following analyses of the diplomatic sanctions, EU leaders came to believe that the measures were counterproductive and returned to normality in September 2000, even though the coalition remained unchanged.

This triggered general elections in November, which resulted in a victory with 42.3% of the vote for the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) led by Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel.

In October 2003, in a cabinet reshuffle instigated by Haider, Herbert Haupt stepped down as Vice Chancellor and was replaced by Hubert Gorbach.

Subsequent polls showed that both parties were losing voter approval and in danger of failing to reach the critical 4% of the national vote barrier required for representation in parliament.

"[23] Haider had neither confirmed nor denied the widespread rumours about his sexuality, but he was often criticised for surrounding himself with young men in his political movement, which was nicknamed 'Haider's boys' party'.

In December 2001, the Austrian Constitutional Court ruled that topographic road signs in all settlements in Carinthia which have had more than 10% of Slovene-speaking inhabitants over a longer period of time, should be written both in German and Slovene.

[32] Instead of erecting hundreds of new bilingual signs, as ruled by the court, Haider ordered the removal of several existing ones,[33] which triggered a wave of protest among the local Slovene minority, including acts of civil disobedience.

After the Court condemned his action as illegal, Haider threatened to call a regional referendum on the issue,[36] for which he was publicly admonished by the Federal President Heinz Fischer.

[39] In his last speech, delivered on the celebration of the 88th anniversary of the Carinthian Plebiscite only a few hours before his death, Haider reiterated his opposition to any kind of visual bilingualism in the region and warned the Slovene politicians "not to play with fire".

As an Austrian-born, I am so saddened that, with all the progress we have made working for an open and tolerant society, one man's statements can taint world opinion of an entire country.

"[citation needed] Haider also compared the deportation of Jews by the Nazis to the expulsion of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II.

"[51] Haider died of injuries from a car crash at Lambichl in Köttmannsdorf near Klagenfurt, in the state of Carinthia, in the early hours of 11 October 2008.

[52] Police reported that the Volkswagen Phaeton that Haider had been driving came off the road, rolled down an embankment, and overturned,[53][54] causing him "severe head and chest injuries".

[61] An initial investigation uncovered no signs of foul play,[60] and conspiracy theories about the death have been strongly rejected by the Austrian police.

The director general of the Carinthian administration declared that in case the Governor had been intoxicated, the state would have the right to recourse for the damaged car against Haider's descendants.

[68] However, Ernst Trost [de] pointed out in the Kronen Zeitung that while Haider had enjoyed a "comet-like rise" in politics, he had also "ever again embarked on self-destructive actions and provoked opposition."

[70] That year, the consequences of Haider's financial policies became apparent when the Bavarian-Carinthian Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International got into serious difficulties, later leading to the bank's nationalisation.

[73] In October 2009, an Austrian court ruled it illegal for media to call Haider a homosexual, because it would be a "breach of personal and privacy rights".

[74] According to a confiscated black booklet handwritten by Walter Meischberger, a former Freedom Party politician, Austrian authorities said they would examine a diary that allegedly detailed money transfers from Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi.