Angelus Steinwender
Angelus Steinwender OFM (born March 14, 1895 in Maria Lankowitz , Styria , † April 15, 1945 in Krems an der Donau , Lower Austria ) was an Austrian clergyman and resistance fighter .
Life
Eduard Steinwender, as his real name was called, was born as the son of a simple miner in Maria Lankowitz. In 1913, at the age of 18, he joined the Franciscan Order and was ordained a priest in 1920 . He studied theology at the University of Graz and obtained his doctorate in 1924. In 1928 he took over the management of the Franciscan monastery in Graz as Guardian ; the monasteries in Sankt Pölten and Vienna followed . In 1939 he was elected Provincial of the Vienna Franciscan Province.
Steinwender was a member of the Fatherland Front , the Ostmärkische Sturmscharen and an admirer of the politics of the Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, who was murdered in 1934 . From an early age he was an opponent of the politics of National Socialism .
“Dollfuss, who is small in stature, did great things for Austria. He ... awakened love for Austria ... "
After the annexation of Austria, Steinwender supported the anti-fascist freedom movement of Austria (AFÖ), to which another Franciscan priest, Kapistran Peller , the priest Anton Granig and the Carinthian state parliament member Karl Krumpl belonged. Together they produced leaflets and also appeared publicly against the Nazi regime.
On July 6, 1943, Father Angelus Steinwender was arrested by the Secret State Police in the Franciscan monastery in Vienna . Like Father Kapistran Peller, he spent more than a year in custody in the Rossau correctional facility in Vienna. The trial against Steinwender and twelve other members of the AFÖ should have taken place on July 20, 1944, but the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on the same day was decisive that the hearing had to be postponed to August 11, 1944. The court only accused Steinwender of having provided the AFÖ with a duplicating machine and a typewriter; nevertheless it was enough to sentence Steinwender and seven other defendants to death . Although the Viennese Cardinal Theodor Innitzer asked for mercy, the requests went unheard.
By April 1945, the condemned prisoners spent in the death cell of the Vienna courthouse. When the Red Army was only a few kilometers from Vienna, Steinwender and 45 other prisoners sentenced to death were sent on a death march via Stockerau and Maissau to Krems on the night of April 4 to 5, 1945 April 1945 arrived in Stein an der Donau prison . Six days later, on 15 April 1945, ordered the SS , to execute all prisoners , including Father Kapistran Pieller and Father Angelus Steinwender.
literature
- Ch. Chancellor: Steinwender P. Angelus (Eduard). In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 200.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Angelus Steinwender and Kapistran Peller. (No longer available online.) In: www.franziskaner.at. Franciscan Orders , archived from the original on January 20, 2008 ; accessed on November 10, 2017 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Steinwender, Angelus |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Steinwender, Eduard (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian Franciscan and resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 14, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Maria Lankowitz , Styria |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 15, 1945 |
| Place of death | Krems an der Donau , Lower Austria |