Franz Rehrl

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Monument to Franz Rehrl on Max-Reinhardt-Platz in Salzburg

Franz Rehrl (born December 4, 1890 in Salzburg , Austria ; † January 23, 1947 there ) was a lawyer and politician of the Christian Social Party of Austria and from 1922 to 1938 Governor of Salzburg.

Political career until 1938

Rehrl was born as the son of the city carpenter Franz Rehrl (1860-1908), who was a carpenter of the St. Peter monastery , and his wife Barbara (née Wallner) in Salzburg and attended elementary school and grammar school there , from which he graduated in 1910. Like his brother Josef Rehrl, he joined the K.ö.St.V. Almgau Salzburg. After studying law at the University of Vienna and training in administration, Franz Rehrl joined the Salzburg regional service in 1915. Shortly afterwards he became secretary of the then governor Alois Winkler and after the First World War he belonged to the provisional government of Salzburg. In 1919 he became a member of the Salzburg state parliament , and from 1919 to 1922 he was deputy governor. On December 1, 1920, Franz Rehrl was appointed to the Federal Council for the Christian Social Party , where he held this position until May 31, 1932 and was elected chairman of the Federal Council three times in 1922, 1927 and 1931. In 1922, at the age of only 31, he was appointed Governor of Salzburg.

As governor, Franz Rehrl made outstanding contributions to the Salzburg Festival . During his tenure, architect Eduard Hütter converted the large covered winter riding school into the first festival hall in 1925, the second conversion in 1926, and the third and fundamental conversion of the festival hall by Clemens Holzmeister in 1937, with the auditorium by 180 at the request of Arturo Toscanini Was rotated. This rotation made an extension of the stage necessary, for which Governor Rehrl even had his birthplace in (today's) Toscaninihof demolished. In March 1930, the state parliament decided under him to build the Grossglockner High Alpine Road . On August 30th of the same year, Franz Rehrl opened the construction of this ambitious road construction project from the Austrian inter-war period, which was completed in 1935, with the first explosion in Ferleiten . Franz Rehrl was also the first to drive the Grossglockner High Alpine Road by car on September 22, 1934, on the unfinished lane in a converted Steyr 100 . In addition, he is the initiator of the construction of the Gaisbergstrasse and the Alpenstrasse in the city of Salzburg as well as the construction of the Tauern power station and the Fuscher bear factory.

Rehrl was seen as a politician who was ready to reach a consensus and campaigned for the persecuted Social Democrats after the February riots in Austria. Historians describe him as a person with a “pronounced, tenacious and imaginative sense of what is economically feasible”, as a type of entrepreneur who, despite all odds, “succeeds in establishing new combinations”.

Imprisonment and return to Austria (1938–1947)

As a result of the annexation of Austria to the German Reich on March 12, 1938, he was removed from office shortly after the German troops marched into Salzburg and temporarily detained. In August 1943, on behalf of Helmuth James Graf von Moltke , the Jesuit father Augustin Rösch tried to win him over to participate in the planned political upheaval in the course of the Walküre company on July 20, 1944 . Despite his bad health due to diabetes , he allowed himself to be proposed as political representative for military district XVIII (Salzburg). Five days after the failed attack, he was arrested in Zell am Ziller and imprisoned in the Lehrter Strasse cell prison in Berlin until the end of the war.

In August 1945 he returned to Salzburg, badly damaged, where he died on January 23, 1947 as a result of his imprisonment. Dr. Franz Rehrl was buried in a grave of honor in the Morzg district cemetery in Salzburg . In the same year, his brother Josef Rehrl replaced Governor Albert Hochleitner, who had been in office since 1945, and held this position until 1949.

Honors

Franz Rehrl was awarded numerous medals and other decorations. In 1928 he was awarded the Great Decoration of Honor on Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria . In 1930 he received the 1st Class Decoration of Honor of the German Red Cross and the Grand Cross of the Order of Gregorius . In 1935 he was appointed Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honor . In 1936 he received the Commander's Cross of the Order of Malta . In 1937 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy and in 1938 the Hungarian Order of Merit 1st Class . He was also awarded the Grand Cross of the Austrian Order of Merit.

Governor Franz Rehrl received honorary citizenship of the city of Salzburg (1929) and the municipality of Strobl (1946).

A few months before his death in 1946, in recognition of his services to the city of Salzburg and the resistance he had shown against the Nazi regime, the former Karolinenplatz in the Äußerer Stein district was renamed to Dr. Franz-Rehrl-Platz . This is bordered by Imbergstrasse, Giselakai, Bürglsteinstrasse and the Nonntaler Brücke. Due to his services in connection with the town elevation, the construction of the Schmittenhöhebahn and the construction of the Großglocknerstraße, a street in Zell am See also bears his name.

In the Salzburg old town at the entrance to Toscaninihof on Max-Reinhardt-Platz there has been a wall memorial in the form of a relief since 1958 , which was created by the artists Jakob Adlhart and Hans Pacher .

Private

Rehrl was married to Maria Opferkuch from Salzburg, from this marriage they had two daughters.

Others

Franz Rehrl was an original member of the KÖStV Austria Vienna and the owner of the Catholic student association AV Austria Innsbruck , the K.Ö.St.V. Kürnberg Vienna, Rheno-Juvavia Salzburg and KaV Norica Vienna.

literature

  • Wolfgang Huber (Ed.): Franz Rehrl. Governor of Salzburg 1922–1938. SN-Verlag, Salzburg 1975.
  • Josef Brettenthaler: Salzburg Synchronicity. Verlag Alfred Winter, Salzburg 2005, ISBN 3-85380-055-6 .
  • E. Hanisch :  Rehrl Franz. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 9, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-7001-1483-4 , p. 23. (PDF; 155 kB)
  • Michael Polgar: 100 years of K.Ö.ST.V. Kürnberg 1900–2000 . Self-published, Rohrbach 2000, p. 212 .

Web links

Commons : Franz Rehrl  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Former Governor Dr. Franz Rehrl. In:  Salzburger Volkszeitung , January 24, 1947, p. 2 (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / svz.
  2. ^ The history of AV Austria Innsbruck. ( Memento from November 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Rehrl, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (CS) and governor of Salzburg, member of the Federal Council
DATE OF BIRTH 4th December 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Salzburg
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1947
Place of death Salzburg