Clemens Pausinger

Honorary grave of Clemens von Pausinger-Frankenburg and his son Clemens Pausinger in the Hietzinger cemetery

Clemens Pausinger (born July 5, 1908 in Brittany ; † July 18, 1989 ) was a judge and resistance fighter against National Socialism from the von Pausinger family .

Youth and education

Clemens von Pausinger was born in France as the son of the painter Clemens von Pausinger-Frankenburg and Aemilia Bandiera de Prosperis . As a result of the Nobility Repeal Act , his name was officially Clemens Pausinger from 1919. He studied in Innsbruck and Vienna - for economic reasons, with many interruptions - law . From 1931 to 1934 he was a member of the Student Freikorps of the Heimwehr , the Patriotic Front and the Voluntary Protection Corps . In 1938 Pausinger received his doctorate and started a career as a judge. In the same year he also joined the NSDAP as a candidate and served as a block warden .

Resistance under National Socialism

From January 1942, Clemens Pausinger served with the rank of NCO in an interpreting company at the Army Surveying Office in Vienna, where he met Wilhelm Ritsch , a member of the Maier-Messner resistance group . They were unanimous in rejecting the Nazi regime. Together they made in summer 1943 with a squeegee and covered with gauze wooden frame a cyclostyle ago, which they duplicated leaflets them in the inner city of Vienna scattered. One of the texts read:

“Why any longer war? It's going back on all fronts. Only a madman or criminal like Hitler still speaks of victory. The inevitable end is coming. Why sacrifice thousands of people? Is this only to extend the life of Hitler and his group of criminals by a few more days? Away with militaryism, the shame of our century. We have enough. All of these no longer have the right to be treated as human beings. It must meet the most terrible retribution. It is time to free ourselves from this tyranny. If we hesitated further, we too would lose all right to determine our own lives. Regardless of the class, join together towards the common goal: extermination of Hitler, the greatest, curse-laden criminal of all time. "

- Pausinger and Ritsch : Judgment of the People's Court, p. 10 f.

Clemens Pausinger was arrested in the spring of 1944 and sentenced to death and loss of honorary rights for life by the People's Court on October 28, 1944 for preparing for high treason and favoring enemies . Pausinger's defense attorney had questioned Pausinger's sanity in court and, according to his co-conspirator, Helene Legradi , he was in fact about to be psychiatricized , which probably saved his life. In any case, the liberation of Vienna preceded his execution.

After the war

Soon after the war, Clemens Pausinger resumed his work as a judge and participated in trials against alleged perpetrators of Nazi crimes . In 1946, as examining magistrate, he prepared the proceedings against some of those responsible for the massacre in the Stein prison , in which his co-conspirator, Andreas Hofer, was also shot. In 1948 he was a judge in a trial against alleged accomplices in the Rechnitz massacre .

From September 7 to 21, 1947, at the suggestion of Clemens Pausinger, an exhibition was held in the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters , in which over 1,000 photos of former Gestapo employees were on display . In addition, a model of the Vienna Gestapo control center was set up in the former Hotel Métropole with numbered interrogation and detention rooms. It was hoped that former prisoners would give information about what was going on there in order to support the slow pursuit and investigation of members of the Gestapo. The exhibition was so well attended that the population was asked, in order not to obstruct court operations, to only fill out registration forms and to refrain from speaking to the examining magistrate in person.

Clemens Pausinger continued to work as a judge and retired as a higher regional judge. He died on July 18, 1989 and was buried at Hietzing Cemetery .

annotation

1. ↑ The place of birth is listed in the judgment of the People's Court as Esternougat , C. Turner suspects that it means Saint Énogat in Dinard .

supporting documents

1. ↑ DÖW (Ed.): Resistance and persecution in Tyrol 1934–1945, Volume 2 . Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1984, ISBN 978-3-215-05369-6 , pp. 446 .
2. ^ Clemens von Pausinger: For the 75th birthday of the famous artist . In: Salzburger Chronik . No. 49 . Salzburg February 28, 1930, p. 8 ( Online at ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online ).
3. ^ C. Turner: The Cassia Spy Ring in World War II Austria: A History of the OSS's Maier-Messner Group . McFarland, Jefferson 2017, ISBN 978-1-4766-2991-9 , pp. 75 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
4. ↑ People's Court : Judgments 5 H 96/44 - 5 H 100/44 and reasons for the judgment . Vienna October 28, 1944, p. 1–30 ( online on the DÖW website [PDF; 7.6 MB ] Numbering error: Pages 11 and 12 are duplicated).
5. ↑ They died so we could live . The group of Dr. Maier. In: The New Reminder Call . tape 5 , no. 2 , February 1952, p. 7 ( online at ANNO).
6. ↑ Hellmut Butterweck : National Socialists before the Vienna People's Court: Austria's struggle for justice 1945–1955 in contemporary public perception . StudienVerlag, Innsbruck / Wien 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5480-0 ( limited preview in Google book search - name listed as Klemens Pausinger [sic!]).
7. ↑ The hearing of witnesses in the Steiner trial ended . In: Wiener Zeitung . No. 193 , August 21, 1946, pp. 5 ( online on ANNO).
8. ↑ Werner Drizhal: The Kreuzstadl in Rechnitz. Austrian Union of Private Employees, Printing, Journalism, Paper , September 12, 2016, accessed October 7, 2017 . 
9. ^ Gestapo exhibition in the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in 1947. (No longer available online.) Vienna City and State Archives (Municipal Department 8), archived from the original on October 15, 2017 ; accessed on October 7, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Thousands of Gestapo helpers are wanted . In: Wiener Zeitung . tape 240 , no. 208 . Vienna September 7, 1947, p. 4 ( online on ANNO).