Austrian Black Cross

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Austrian Black Cross
(ÖSK)
Oesk logo.svg
purpose War grave relief
Chair: Peter Rieser
Establishment date: 1919
Seat : Vienna
Website: http://www.osk.at/

The Austrian Black Cross ( ÖSK ) is a non-partisan Viennese association that deals with the construction, care and maintenance of the gravesites of fallen soldiers, civilian war victims as well as refugees and politically persecuted people of all nationalities .

Tasks and organization

Since its foundation in 1919 , the ÖSK has dealt with the preservation, care and construction of graves for civilian victims of the bombing war and political persecution, refugees and soldiers. The nationality of those affected is irrelevant. The ÖSK also helps in the search for burial grounds of war dead, participates in the exhumation, identification and transfer of fallen or war dead to their homeland and arranges war grave trips abroad. The ÖSK attaches great importance to youth work. International youth camps are regularly organized in Austria, Italy, Croatia, Germany and Russia, in which the young people help with the rehabilitation of military cemeteries. The financial expenses for the care of the approximately 241,000 graves are almost entirely made up of donations, membership and community funds. Many people are familiar with the Austrian Black Cross through the All Saints' Collection in the cemeteries.

The General Secretariat and the nine regional offices look after the graves in their areas of responsibility, as well as the maintenance of war graves abroad, especially in Central and Eastern Europe. There is a close organizational relationship with the Austrian Comradeship Association and the Armed Forces .

War graves

Cemeteries cared for by the Austrian Black Cross:

Austria

Vienna

Lower Austria

  • Allentsteig (collective cemetery with 3,900 soldiers of the former German Wehrmacht from the Second World War.)
  • Oberwölbling ( collective cemetery with 4,027 fallen from the Second World War; until the beginning of 2011, in future managed by the Austrian Ministry of the Interior.)
  • St. Georgen am Steinfelde (camp cemetery with 1,809 former prisoners of war from the First World War.)
  • Sommerein (camp cemetery from the Second World War, 17,000 m², the only one in Lower Austria, it must be assumed that more than 50,000 prisoners of war from Europe and Asia were buried here.)
  • Sigmundsherberg (The largest prisoner-of-war camp of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy was located here, initially Russian, from summer 1916 almost exclusively Italian prisoners from the Isonzo battles.)
  • St. Pölten (collective cemetery with 1,449 German soldiers from World War II)

Burgenland

  • Frauenkirchen prisoner of war cemetery (camp cemetery 2,363 prisoners of war - Serbs, Russians and Italians of the First World War)
  • Mattersburg (collective cemetery of the Second World War, inaugurated June 21, 1959. 1961–1964 additional beds were made from field graves and local cemeteries with 1,694 war dead.)

  • State Managing Director Colonel i. R. Wolfgang Wildberger at a funeral of exhumed Soviet soldiers in Oberwart on June 24, 2016.

  • The representative of the Russian embassy thanked the contemporary witness who had reported the existence of the mass grave to the authorities.

  • Delegations of the Burgenland Comradeship Association and the Austrian Armed Forces at this celebration.

  • Representatives of the Burgenland Comradeship Association at the burial of the coffins of a total of 38 members of the Red Army .

  • Deputies of the Burgenland Comradeship Association at the subsequent wreath-laying ceremony by the commander of the Jäger Battalion 19 .

Carinthia

  • Klagenfurt-Annabichl (The war grave complex in the western part of the cemetery is with community graves for 2,287 war dead from the First World War, 452 from the Second World War.)
  • Spittal / Drau- Aich
  • Völkermarkt - St. Ruprecht (facility is located west of the St. Ruprecht cemetery with 20 deceased soldiers from the First World War, 301 from the Second World War.)

Upper Austria

Displaced persons monument in Linz-Urfahr
  • Braunau-Haselbach military cemetery
  • Military cemetery in Mauthausen (the largest military cemetery in Upper Austria is located in the Freindorf district of the market town of Mauthausen and was created in 1917 for the 10,845 soldiers from various nations who died in the prisoner-of-war camp; after the Second World War, another part of the cemetery was built for 3,212 Italian war dead.)
  • Linz-Wegscheid Stadtfriedhof St. Martin (5,163 deceased soldiers of the First, 230 of the Second World War)
  • Linz - St. Barbara-Friedhof (memorial for the 3,289 dead of the First World War, 340 dead of the Second World War)
  • Freistadt-Jaunitzbachtal (388 Italian and Russian soldiers from the Freistadt POW camp during the First World War, 2,365 war dead from 14 nations during the Second World War.)
  • Sipbachzell (mass graves in Feldkirchen, Lambach and Sipbachzell from the time of the French Wars 1800 to 1809)
  • Klaus an der Pyhrnbahn (resting place of Lieutenant Georg Paul (died May 5, 1945) in the local cemetery near the mountain church in Klaus)
  • Hartkirchen -Deinham (6,025 Italian, Russian and Serbian soldiers of the First World War died in the Pupping POW camp near Aschach during the First World War, 1,032 Soviet soldiers of the Second World War who died in captivity)
  • Waldfriedhof Urfahr (563 war deaths in the First World War, 24 in the Second World War)
  • Weißkirchen (119 concentration camp prisoners who died in April 1945)
  • Vöcklabruck / Maria-Schöndorf (37 soldiers of the First and 183 soldiers of the Second World War)

Salzburg

  • Garrison cemetery in Nonntal (In the southeastern part of a green area in the city of Salzburg, the Hans-Donnenberg-Park, bounded to the west by the 1st Salzburg allotment garden settlement, there is a circular garrison cemetery. There are around 30 grave crosses of soldiers and officers in a semicircle, mostly from the Salzburg house regiment Archduke Rainer No. 59. Franz Schröder, kuk captain of the Salzburg house regiment Archduke Rainer No. 59, born November 22, 1831, † May 26, 1874; Peregrin Ritter von Schragl, kuk Lieutenant, born September 24th 1841, † March 15, 1870; Franz Freiherr von Harffdreiborn, Austro-Hungarian Lieutenant in the Count Khevenhüller Regiment No. 55, born August 1, 1823 in Dreiburn, † August 29, 1886 in Salzburg. The cemetery was restored in 1951 by the Austrian Black Cross and is freely accessible. It accommodates 2172 war dead, including 46 officers. Most of the buried persons died between 1803 and 1886.)

Tyrol

Germany

Chapel for the 82 Austrians who died in the German-Danish War at the Schleswig garrison cemetery

Italy

  • Austrian military cemetery in St. Jakob / Bozen , South Tyrol (3,938 fallen and deceased soldiers from 1848 to 1945)
  • Naßwand near Toblach , South Tyrol (1,259 warriors from nine nations)
  • Waldfriedhof Bruneck , South Tyrol (821 dead)
  • Asinara (cemetery island near Sardinia with 7,000 dead prisoners of war 1914–1925, looked after by the Vienna Association)
  • Palmanova (collective cemetery 1914–1918, 20,000 members of the former Austro-Hungarian army rest here, 4,193 known, the rest unknown, looked after by the Lower Austrian Association)
  • Pontafel / Pontebba (part of the local cemetery in Pontafel with 28 war dead from the First World War, is looked after by the Carinthian Association.)
  • Feltre (Province of Belluno, 4,201 fallen from the Austro-Hungarian Army, mainly from the fighting over Mt. Grappa, is looked after by the Upper Austrian Association)
  • Prosecco (near Trieste with 5,733 fallen from the First World War, is looked after by the Upper Austrian Association)
  • Verona - Forte Procolo (5,684 deceased of the former Austrian-Hungarian garrison, fallen from Solferino and Custozza and kuk war dead occupied, is looked after by the Upper Austrian Association)
  • Cividale del Friuli (620 fallen soldiers (584 known, 36 unknown) of the 14, 59 and 2 riflemen and the 4 dragoons from the First World War, is looked after by the Upper Austrian Association)

Croatia

  • Pula (the world's only naval cemetery; there are around 45,000 dead from the former Austro-Hungarian Navy. The cemetery was renovated at great expense in the 1990s and is looked after by the Lower Austrian Association)

Poland

  • Garbek (Garbek war cemetery, No. 158, Tarnów district with 37 war dead [27 Austrian-Hungarian and 10 Russian fallen], is looked after by the Upper Austrian Association)
  • Tuchów (Tuchów war cemetery No. 163, Tarnów district with 233 war dead [137 Austrian-Hungarian and 96 Russian fallen], is looked after by the Upper Austrian Association)

Czech Republic

  • Jevíčko (funerary monument of the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , with 376 dead from the local hospital; Germans, French, Russians and Austrians; is looked after by the Lower Austrian Association)
  • Křečhoř (funerary monument of the Battle of Kolin , with dead Prussians and soldiers of the Austrian army such as Austrians, Czechs, Croats, Hungarians, etc.)

See also

literature

  • Andreas Reiter (Ed.): Austrian Black Cross. War grave relief. Documentation . Sn , Vienna 1987, OBV .
  • Thomas Reichl: The Austria-Hungary war graves in the World War and custody in the Republic of Austria. The work of the Austrian Black Cross in the interwar period . Dissertation. University of Vienna, Vienna 2007. - Full text online (PDF; 3.8 MB) , accessed on March 30, 2011.
  • Christina Springer: The Austrian Black Cross - its activities and scope after 1945 . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 2010. - Full text online (PDF; 5.9 MB) , accessed on March 30, 2011.

Web links

Commons : Austrian Black Cross  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oberwart: Last resting place for 38 fallen soldiers. In: Website www.bvz.at. June 21, 2016. Retrieved June 25, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Roland Pittner: "I just thought the poor fellows". In: Website kurier.at. March 10, 2016, accessed December 18, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Austrian monument on the Königshügel (online project war memorials)