Wolfgang Schmitz, who was president of the Austrian central bank from 1968 to 1973, died in Vienna on 16 November last year. He was 85 years old. Born into a Viennese family of politicians and academics, he studied law and economics in his hometown, in Fribourg (Switzerland) and at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. After his studies he joined the Chamber of Commerce and eventually rose to the position of head of the department of economic policy in 1963. In these early years of his career