Herbert Schambeck was born on July 12th, 1934 in Baden bei Wien in Austria. He graduated in Law. His field of specialization was constitutional and administrative law. In 1967 he was appointed Full Professor of Public Law, Political Sciences and Legal Philosophy at the University of Linz. He gave guest lectures in many countries all over the world. At the same time he engaged in a political carrier, being elected in 1969 as a member of the Federal Council – the senate – of the Republic of Austria. He became Chairman of the Christian Democrat Party in 1975, and continuously President or Vice-President of the Federal Council.
He was married to Elisabeth who died in 1989. They had a daughter.
His ties with the Holy See became notorious, notably since his membership of the Delegation of the Holy See to the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1969 to 2007.
Prof. Schambeck collected multiple academic awards, mainly in the German speaking world and in Eastern Europe.
Ten years ago Prof. Schambeck addressed our Academy on commemorating its twentieth anniversary of foundation. He did not miss recording the role he played in its foundation. I can witness myself to the fact that the very idea of creating such an academy came from him in 1988. He contacted Fr. Schasching, sj, Prof. Weiler and Fr. Utz, op. and informed the then Secretary of State Cardinal Casaroli of the project. I was working with Casaroli at that time and so became involved in the project as well. In 1988 as I moved to the University of Strasbourg I continued to meet Schambeck and Utz in Zürich and Vienna. Finally we wrote a letter to His Holiness Pope John Paul II submitting formally the idea of a Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. This was finally created with the papal decree on January 1st, 1994.
Later in a private conversation with Pope John Paul the latter said about the Academy : “the initiative came from Austria”.
After his 80th anniversary, Prof. Schambeck became honorary member of our Academy in 2015. He died in Vienna on 2nd of October 2023.