Memorial to the firefighters murdered by fascism

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Memorial stone of the central fire station Am Hof, Vienna Inner City

The memorial to the firefighters murdered by fascism is located on the southwest facade of the civil armory in Vienna's inner city and was designed by the sculptor Mario Petrucci . It shows a decapitated firefighter with his head in his right arm and is dedicated to the resistance fighters Georg Weissel , Ludwig Ebhart , Josef Schwaiger , Rudolf Haider , Hermann Plackholm and Johann Zak .

inscription

The inscription on the monument reads:

The loyal fighters / against fascist / violent rule

Ing. Georg / Weissel † February 15, 1934

Ludwig / Ebhart † March 10, 1944

Josef / Schwaiger † March 19, 1944

Rudolf / Haider † June 21, 1944

Hermann / Plackholm † October 31, 1944

Johann / Zak † October 31, 1944

Fire Department of the City of Vienna in 1947

Donor and unveiling

The foundation of the monument was the fire brigade of the City of Vienna . The unveiling of the memorial stone by Mayor Theodor Körner took place in a solemn ceremony on October 27, 1947.

About the resistance fighters

Georg Weissel (* 1899) was a chemist and fire department officer . He was a member of the Academic Legion of the Republican Protection Association and was the watch commander of the main fire station in Floridsdorf at Weisselgasse 3. On the morning of February 13, 1934, the fire fighters belonging to the Protection Association armed themselves under Weissel's leadership to fight for a democratic republic. Fire director Wagner alerted the security forces when he heard of the "refusal to serve and rebellion" in Floridsdorf. The fourth company of the alarm department of the Federal Security Guard went to storm the main fire station. 61 firefighters were captured and the fire station was occupied by the police. Weissel was sentenced to death by a court martial of the Dollfuss regime and executed on February 15, 1934 in the regional court of Vienna by the executioner Johann Lang at the choke bar.

The others honored on the memorial stone belonged to the communist cell within the Vienna fire police. In 1943 around seventy members of this resistance group were arrested. The main hearing took place from March 13th to 25th, 1944 before the Supreme SS and Police Court in Vienna, at which five firefighters were sentenced to death and another 41 to prison terms, some of them life imprisonment. Rudolf Haider was sentenced to death in a separate trial.

Two of those sentenced to death were shot at the Kagran shooting range :

"For reasons of deterrence, the execution took place in a quasi-public setting: by special order, all firefighters (with the exception of those who were absolutely necessary to keep the service going) were forced to appear as spectators at the shooting range."

literature

  • Bouzek, Helmut: Vienna and its fire brigade , Vienna undated
  • Erich Fein: The stones speak: Memorials of the Austrian struggle for freedom, memorials f. the victims of fascism: a documentary , Europaverlag 1975, p. 42
  • Toman, Ernst: "... because I am not afraid of death!" Vienna fire brigade in the resistance against fascism , Vienna 1986

Reports of the reveal:

  • Unveiling of the memorial plaque for the fallen firefighters, in: Rathaus-Korrespondenz, October 26, 1947
  • The victims of the Vienna fire brigade, in: Arbeiter-Zeitung, October 28, 1947
  • The hero board of the fire brigade. The memorial plaque Am Hof ​​unveiled, in: Österreichische Volksstimme, October 28, 1947

Web links

Commons : memorial plaque for Nazi victims (Vienna, Am Hof ​​9-10, professional fire brigade Vienna)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Daily report Gestapo Vienna No. 1 from 1–3 April 1944
  2. ↑ Documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance : Search for traces: Hermann Plackholm (1904-1944), with identification recordings of the Gestapo Vienna, accessed on March 17, 2015

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 '42.4 "  N , 16 ° 22' 5.5"  E