Anti-fascist freedom movement in Austria

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The Antifascist Freedom Movement in Austria (AFÖ) was an Austrian resistance group from the Catholic-conservative-bourgeois camp against the Nazi regime .

The anti-fascist freedom movement was founded in Carinthia in 1941 by the priest Anton Granig and the member of the state parliament Karl Krumpl , both from Carinthia, as well as the Franciscan cleric Frater Benno OFM. The group was formed at the end of February 1942 / beginning of March 1942 in Anton Granig's apartment. The first call was in February 1942:

“Carinthians, our home is in need! Brown criminals have betrayed our homeland. Our sons bleed and fall on the front lines for brown crime. The brown traitors are at home in warm offices and exploit the people. Carinthians, let's do it! Out to the front with the brown bigwigs! Carinthia and our Austria must be freed from the Prussian yoke again. Everyone agrees against the brown criminals! Long live Carinthia! "

Further leaflet campaigns followed; Explosive attacks against railway bridges and the state police in Klagenfurt were considered.

Activists included Eduard Pumpernig , Kapistran Peller OFM , Angelus Steinwender OFM, Georg Kofler, Arthur Trattler , Anton Jaklitsch , Wenzel Primosch , Franz Bernthaler , Karl Wanner , Ernst Ortner and Otto Tiefenbrunner . The circle of sympathizers formed, among others, Arthur Schuschnigg (brother of Kurt Schuschnigg ), Alois Karisch , later district administrator in Carinthia, and the Archbishop of Salzburg, Andreas Rohracher .

On July 6, 1943, some members of the AFÖ were arrested by the Gestapo , almost all the others by the end of summer 1943. In the process of the People's Court on August 11, 1944 in Vienna, chaired by Kurt Albrecht , the AFÖ was smashed, some members either to death or sentenced to prison in later trials.

"The defendants [Eduard] Pumpernig, Dr. Granig, [Wenzel] Primosch, [Ernst] Ortner, [Karl] Krumpl, Dr. [Eduard] Steinwender and Dr. [Wilhelm] Peller founded an organization with Habsburg separatist goals, especially in Carinthia, between 1941 and 1943, or took part in these anti-state activities as accomplices. Pumpernig, Dr. Granig, Primosch, Ortner, Dr. Steinwender and Dr. Peller also made or distributed calls against the state or otherwise made himself available for this work. "

literature

  • Maximilian Liebmann : The "Antifascist Freedom Movement Austria" , 2001
  • Wilhelm Baum : Nazi victim of the Catholic Church - The anti-fascist freedom movement in Austria , in: The book of names. The victims of National Socialism in Carinthia, Klagenfurt 2010, pp. 300-312.
  • Herlinde Roth: Contributions to the resistance against the Nazi regime in Carinthia 1938-1945 , phil. Diss., Vienna 1985, pp. 99-110.
  • Maximilian Liebmann: Church in Society a. Politics , ed. v. M. Kronthaler, R. Zinnhobler u. DA Binder, Graz 1999, pp. 318-337.
  • August Walzl: Against National Socialism. Resistance to Nazi rule in Carinthia, Slovenia and Friuli , Klagenfurt 1994.
  • Michaela Kronthaler: Dr. Anton Granig - co-founder of the 'Antifascist Freedom Movement in Austria' , in: Bedrehte Kirche. Pressed - persecuted - liberated, ed. v. M. Liebmann u. M. Kronthaler (= Graz contributions to the history of theology and church contemporary history 9), Graz 1995, pp. 32–37.
  • Church in the Gau. Documents on the situation of the Catholic Church in Carinthia from 1938 to 1945 , ed. v. Peter Tropper, Klagenfurt 1995, p. 226.
  • Maximilian Liebmann: Plans and actions of the “Antifascist Freedom Movement in Austria” as well as those of individual followers , in: Church in Society u. Politics, ed. v. M. Kronthaler, R. Zinnhobler u. DA Binder, Graz 1999, pp. 338-357.
  • Wilhelm Baum: Sentenced to death. Nazi Justice and Resistance in Carinthia , Klagenfurt, 2012, pp. 82-133 u. 240-276 (documents).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Angelus Steinwender and Kapistran Peller" ( Memento from January 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), viewed on February 19, 2010
  2. ↑ a b c Wilhelm Baum:  Granig, Anton. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 32, Bautz, Nordhausen 2011, ISBN 978-3-88309-615-5 , Sp. 536-543.
  3. ↑ Gerhard Hartmann: "For God and Fatherland: History and Work of the CV in Austria" , viewed on February 19, 2010
  4. ↑ Identification card index of the Gestapo Vienna. DÖW , archived from the original on December 20, 2010 ; accessed on August 21, 2017 .