On August 1, Wolfgang Prinz took over the management of the Strategic Market and Opinion Research Unit in the Target Group Communication Department at the BMLV. His area of responsibility now includes surveys on the domestic and social situation, population surveys on security and defense policy opinions as well as empirical social research in the area of departmental communication.
He had already been in charge of the department since March 2022, after his predecessor Stefan Rakowsky moved to the Federal Chancellery in March 2022.
Wolfgang Prinz started his career in the Austrian Armed Forces in 1997 with a one-year EF course in NBC defense. From the following year, he studied psychology and business administration until 2006, during which time he was assigned to the AFDRU (Austrian Forces Disaster Relief Unit) as a militia officer. From 2006 until 2014, he worked for eight years as a military psychologist at the Army Personnel Office, where he was responsible for assessing suitability for foreign deployments. This was followed by a position as a military psychologist at the Army Psychological Service and as deputy head of the Internal and Social Situation Division of the Center for People-Oriented Leadership and Defense Policy at the National Defense Academy, before he started as deputy head of the Strategic Market and Opinion Research Unit in the Target Group Communication Department in 2021. During his time in the Austrian Armed Forces, Wolfgang Prinz also completed two deployments abroad – both as a contingent psychologist. On the one hand, he was involved in the European Union’s EUFOR Tchad/RCA military mission in 2008 and 2009, and on the other, he supported an AFDRU mission in Turkey in February 2023 (-> AFDRU unit returned from deployment).
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