Alfons Stillfried

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Alfons Stillfried (born Alfons Freiherr von Stillfried und Rathenitz ; pseudonym: Astill ; born November 20, 1887 in Vienna ; † July 26, 1974 there ) was an Austrian officer and resistance fighter .

Youth and education

Alfons Freiherr von Stillfried and Rathenitz was born as the son of Raimund Freiherr von Stillfried and Rathenitz and Helene (nee Jankovich de Jeszenicze ). He graduated from the German Gymnasium in Prague in 1906 . After a year as a one-year volunteer 1906/1907 enrolled Alfons 1908 Jus at the University of Vienna and was passing in the kk State railway company hired (StEG). In 1912 he passed the first state examination . In 1913 he resigned from the StEG and started a career as an officer.

First World War and the interwar period

During the First World War, Alfons von Stillfried took part in the advance on Warsaw in 1914 and was transferred to the Italian front in 1915 . He received several awards and was promoted to captain .

After the war, the monarchist and patriot reoriented his career. Alfons Stillfried - the title of nobility was lost due to the Nobility Repeal Act - got into the oil business. In 1921 he married Alice Greiner and the couple had three children.

World War II and Resistance

After the " Anschluss of Austria " to the German Reich in 1938, Alfons Stillfried was repeatedly interrogated by the Gestapo and banned from working.

In 1939, at the instigation of his cousin Rudolf Marogna-Redwitz, he was drafted into the Abwehr and became head of department at the foreign letter inspection office at Taborstrasse , a military censorship office. In 1941 he was taken over by the Wehrmacht with the rank of major.

From 1942 Stillfried had contact with Hans Becker , who later became the central figure of the resistance group O5 . Together with his friend, the defense worker Erwin Lahousen , Stillfried was able to establish the first connections between the Austrian resistance against National Socialism and abroad in 1943 .

After the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944 , Stillfried was temporarily arrested by the Gestapo and then released from the Wehrmacht for alleged, but unproven, subversive activities.

In September 1944, Fritz Molden and Wolfgang Igler, the adjutant of Carl Szokoll , met representatives of the civil and military resistance in Stillfried's apartment on Saarplatz to discuss a possible collaboration. In December 1944 he was involved in the establishment of the Provisional Austrian National Committee (POEN), a political body of the O5 in which all political directions (with the exception of the National Socialists) should be represented.

In the first weeks of March 1945 he was arrested again and was to be tried by the People's Court as soon as possible . He was saved at the last minute from the execution, which was to be carried out by an SS firing squad .

Second republic

In the first years after the Second World War, Stillfried worked as a lecturer and publicist for the concerns of the former resistance fighters. In autumn 1945 he was elected President of the Austrian League of Democratic Freedom Fighters . A special concern of his was the recognition of the contributions of the resistance for the liberation of Austria by the federal government , and thus indirectly also by the Allied occupation powers , since this contribution was mentioned in the Moscow Declaration as an important basis for the final settlement . With this in mind, he also advocated the rapid publication of the Red-White-Red Book .

From 1950 Stillfried was active as a writer. He died in Vienna in 1974.

plant

  • The quiet peace. 3 centuries from the life novel of an Austrian family. European publisher, Vienna 1956.
  • The Premyslids and the Origin of the Stillfried House. Borotha-Schoeler Verlag, Vienna 1971.

literature

  • Mario Erschen: Stillfried: A name in the gleam of history. A literary approach. Böhlau, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-205-79510-0 .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Critical considerations, employed in the field and recorded in the diary by Astill. Vienna: Goldschmid, 1918. ( DNB 361720092 )
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Alfons Stillfried. In: Familienverband-stillfried.de. Retrieved November 23, 2017 .
  3. ^ Hans Werner Scheidl: First Bavarian border counts, then Austrian patriots. In: The press . January 7, 2014, accessed November 23, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Bernhard Stillfried: The Viennese Colonel who said Hitler killed. In: Wiener Zeitung . July 20, 2006, accessed November 23, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Fritz Molden: The fire in the night . Amalthea, Vienna / Munich 1988, ISBN 3-85002-262-5 , p. 119, 124 .
  6. ↑ Barbara Stelzl-Marx : Carl Szokoll and the "Radetzky" operation . In: DÖW (ed.): Yearbook 2009: Focus on armed resistance - resistance in the military . Lit Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-643-50010-6 , p. 102 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  7. ↑ Why didn't you shoot? In: Profile . May 22, 2004. Retrieved November 23, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Fritz Molden: The fire in the night . Amalthea, Vienna / Munich 1988, ISBN 3-85002-262-5 , p. 148 .
  9. ↑ Fritz Molden: The fire in the night . Amalthea, Vienna / Munich 1988, ISBN 3-85002-262-5 , The Austrian Resistance Movement and its Popular Support: A Lecture by Alfons Stillfried given on June 17, 1946 in Vienna, p. 213-232 .
personal data
SURNAME Stillfried, Alfons
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stillfried and Rathenitz, Alfons von (full name); Astill (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian officer and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1974
Place of death Vienna