After 1945 he became a mainstream Social Democratic politician, eventually serving between 1970 and his death in 1978 as Third President of the National Council ("Nationalratspräsident").
[5] Otto Probst attended the "Further education college for graphic arts" ("Fortbildungsschule für das graphische Gewerbe") between 1926 and 1930.
Political activity on behalf of the (now banned) Socialist parties had been illegal since shortly before the short-lived insurrection in February 1934.
Directly after the insurrection Probst found himself held for several days in political detention because he had been identified as a member of the national executive of the Young Socialists.
[3] In the long-remembered "Socialist [show] Trial" of 1936 he was one of the 30 people facing charges involving illegal political activism.
[3] Then in August 1939 he was caught up in a Gestapo wave of arrests targeting remaining Revolutionary Socialist activists, and transferred to the Buchenwald concentration camp where he was kept till 1943.
[3][7] Between 27 March 1963 and the end of the "Grand Coalition" government on 19 April 1966, Otto Probst served under Chancellors Gorbach and Klaus as "Minister for Transport and Electricity Supply" ("Bundesminister für Verkehr und Elektrizitätswirtschaft").
No lake steamer had been named after any individual since the creation of the republic in 1919, and personality cults of all types had been discredited by Adolf Hitler.
On 24 November 1964 thousands of demonstrators - one source states there were 20,000 - awaited the arrival of Otto Probst's special train at Bregenz station.
As the minister approached by boat from Bregenz in order to preside at the naming ceremony, information came through that the call in the "Vorarlberger Nachrichten" (the local newspaper) for people to demonstrate against him had met with a far larger and more determined response than the authorities had anticipated.
It was only on 14 July 1965 that the Party executive were seen to soften their position, recommending to the minister that he should give the new lake steamer the name "Vorarlberg".