Ernst Kirchweger

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Memorial plaque for Ernst Kirchweger in Sonnwendgasse

Ernst Kirchweger (born January 12, 1898 in Vienna ; † April 2, 1965 there ) was a tram conductor and later managing director of Compass-Verlag . Fatally injured by a right-wing extremist student during a demonstration against Taras Borodajkewycz , he was the first person to be killed in a political act in Austria after 1945.

Life

Ernst Kirchweger was born into a Viennese social democratic working class family and trained as a druggist from 1912 to 1915 . During the First World War he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Navy and served on ships in the Adriatic . In February 1918 he witnessed the uprising of the sailors in the Bay of Cattaro . At the end of 1918 he came back to Vienna from Italian captivity . When the Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Budapest in March 1919 , Kirchweger went to Hungary and fought in the ranks of the newly created Red Army . After the overthrow of the Soviet Republic at the end of August 1919, he returned to Vienna and initially worked as an employee of the workers' consumer cooperative. From 1922 to 1925 he was an employee of the Austrian Association for Settlements and Allotments . From October 1925 to February 1937 Kirchweger finally worked as a conductor for the city trams and was thus an employee of the City of Vienna.

Until February 1934 Ernst Kirchweger was a shop steward for the SDAP and an editorial staff member of the Free Trade Union Association of Trade and Transport Workers. After the February fighting of 1934 he joined the KPÖ . During the years of the Austro-Fascist dictatorship, Kirchweger was active in the illegal trade union movement and organized the tram drivers' group, of which he was the chairman. During the Nazi era he was active in organized anti-fascist resistance. In April 1945, after the liberation of Austria, he was briefly advisor for local politics in the district administration of Vienna-Favoriten . Until his death he was involved in the KPÖ and its cultural and political environment, for example as vice-president of the “Theaterfreunde”, the public organization of the New Theater in der Scala , or as treasurer of the “Austro-Hungarian Association for Culture and Economy”.

Professionally, Kirchweger had been head of administration at Compass-Verlag since 1937 , where he worked continuously until his retirement in 1963. From 1945 to 1947 he was the publisher's public administrator together with section head Josef C. Wirth.

death

On March 31, 1965 there was a demonstration by an "anti-fascist student committee" and former resistance fighters against the university professor Taras Borodajkewycz , who taught at the University for World Trade , was heavily involved with the National Socialists and was anti-Semitic after 1945 and who was anti- democratic his statements in many students, this also particularly with frat boys came, very well received. Kirchweger also took part in this demonstration. A counter rally was held by those who supported Borodajkewycz's views, which led to clashes. The 67-year-old Ernst Kirchweger was knocked down with a punch by a young man and injured so badly that he succumbed to his injuries two days later. Right-wing circles claimed that the crime was not committed by right-wing extremists. They tried to put the blame on the left. Student representatives from the Vienna University of Technology claimed in a press release that armed riot police from Lower Austria were responsible for the escalation at the demonstration, and that Kirchweger "was mistakenly beaten up by the same people".

A few days later, a suspect was identified. It was about the right-wing extremist , members of the FPÖ-affiliated Ring Freedom Students (RFS) and FPÖ official Gunther Kümel. Kümel had been noticed in various terrorist acts with a right-wing extremist background since 1958. In 1961, for example, he carried out an incendiary attack on the Alitalia office and in the same year was involved in a night raid on the Austrian parliament building, in which the terrorists fired pistols at the building. In 1962 he was sentenced to ten months' arrest for this. Before the fact, he had taken boxing training at university. On April 3, 1965, Kümel was arrested. On July 6, 1965, he was charged with manslaughter . The court denied manslaughter and sentenced Kümel to ten months of strict arrest on October 25, 1965 for violating self- defense ( putativnotwehre excess ) . Taking into account the pre-trial detention, Kümel was released on February 8, 1966.

Commemoration

Simmering fire hall - Former urn grave of Ernst Kirchweger

On the day of Ernst Kirchweger's funeral, on April 8, 1965, a mourning rally took place on Heldenplatz in Vienna and a silent march across the Ringstrasse to Schwarzenbergplatz, in which 25,000 people took part. Josef Hindels gave one of the funeral speeches. It was the largest anti-fascist rally in Austria since 1945. Kirchweger was then cremated in the Simmering fire hall and buried in the urn grove there (Section 8, Ring 2, Group 8, Grave 27). This grave was abandoned in 2005 and Kirchweger's urn was buried in a family grave in the Hietzinger Friedhof (group 11, grave 98).

In November 1989, the community building erected between 1979 and 1981 at Sonnwendgasse 24 in Vienna's 10th district was named Ernst-Kirchweger-Hof. In 1990 the Wieland School owned by the KPÖ, also in Vienna- Favoriten , was occupied by left-wing activists and renamed the Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus .

More recently there have been anti-fascist commemorative rallies around the anniversary of Kirchweger's death.

As announced by the Vienna City Council on April 2, 2019, the grave in the Hietzinger Friedhof will now be listed as an honorary grave .

literature

  • Tano Bojankin: The history of the Compass publishing house-an intermediate status , in: Sylvia Mattl-Wurm / Alfred Pfoser (ed.): Die Vermessung Wien. Lehmann address books 1859–1942. Metroverlag, Vienna 2011, p. 347.
  • Heinz Fischer: One in the foreground. Taras Borodajkewycz , Europaverlag, Vienna 1966; enriched with the latest disciplinary knowledge against Borodajkewycz, otherwise unchanged again: Ephelant, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-900766-26-9
  • Michael Graber / Manfred Mugrauer: "It's your own fault". On the 50th anniversary of the murder of Ernst Kirchweger, ed. from the Communist Party of Austria. Globus-Verlag, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-9503485-3-8 .
  • Deborah Hartman: Der Fall Borodajkewycz, in: Robert Atzmüller (Ed.): Siegfrieds Köpfe. Right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism at the university, ed. from the Working Group on Conscientious Objection, Nonviolence and Refugee Care; LICRA Austria. Context XXI, Vienna 2001.
  • Manfred Mugrauer: Ernst Kirchweger (1898–1965) . (PDF) A biographical sketch, in: Mitteilungen der Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft, 22nd year, No. 2, June 2015, pp. 1–8.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On this and the following: Manfred Mugrauer: Ernst Kirchweger. A well-deserved functionary of the labor movement . In: “It is your own fault.” On the 50th anniversary of the murder of Ernst Kirchweger . Edited by the Communist Party of Austria. Globus-Verlag, Vienna 2015, pp. 21–28.
  2. ↑ Gerard Kasemir: Late end for "scientifically" presented racism. The Borodajkewycz Affair in 1965 . In: Michael Gehler, Hubert Sickinger (ed.): Political affairs and scandals in Austria. From Mayerling to Waldheim . Kulturverlag, Thaur 1996, pp. 486-501.
  3. ↑ Rafael Kropiunigg: An Austrian affair. The Borodajkewycz case . Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2015, ISBN 3-7076-0535-3 , p. 82.
  4. ↑ In 2011, Kümel denied having been a member of the RFS to Rafael Kropiunigg. Rafael Kropiunigg: An Austrian affair. The Borodajkewycz case . Czernin Verlag, Vienna 2015, ISBN 3-7076-0535-3 , p. 82.
  5. ^ Siegfried Sanwald: The trial against Gunther Kümel. Excess of self-defense vs. Manslaughter - a questionable verdict . In: Michael Graber, Manfred Mugrauer: “The dead man is also to blame.” On the 50th anniversary of the murder of Ernst Kirchweger . Published by KPÖ . Globus-Verlag, Vienna 2015, pp. 33–43.
  6. ↑ 25,000 mourned Kirchweger. Socialist government members and a strong ÖVP delegation march in silence . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna April 9, 1965, p. 1 , middle right ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  7. ^ Memorial rally for the anti-fascist Ernst Kirchweger. In: No-racism.net . March 21, 2001, accessed March 31, 2020 . Memorial rally for those affected by right-wing extremist and fascist violence after 1945. In: Group AuA.blogsport.de. March 27, 2007, accessed March 31, 2020 . Memorial rally for those affected by right-wing extremist and fascist violence after 1945. In: Group AuA.blogsport.de. March 29, 2009, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Ernst Kirchweger receives a grave of honor. In: ORF Vienna . April 2, 2019, accessed March 31, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Permalink Austrian Library Association.
personal data
SURNAME Kirchweger, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION first political casualty in Austria after 1945
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1965
Place of death Vienna