Michael Hainisch was an Austrian politician, and first Federal President of Austria, after the fall of the monarchy at the end of World War I. He did not belong to any party and was an independent candidate. He was elected and assumed office in 1920, and stayed for two periods until 1928. He did a lot to develop the agricultural sector, the electrification of the railway, the tourism, the foreign-trade, the protection of local traditions and culture, and the creation of the law of protected monuments. He became also a member of the Academy of Sciences. Controversialy on the negative side, he supported Pan-German ideas and later supported the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi-Germany in 1938, as did many of his fellow Austrians back then.