Erwin Puschmann

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Erwin Puschmann (born February 8, 1905 in Vienna ; † January 7, 1943 there ) was an Austrian communist and resistance fighter after Austria's annexation to the German Reich in March 1938.

Life

After his apprenticeship, Puschmann was a member of the Socialist Workers' Youth , but in 1923 he joined the Communist Youth Association (KJV). In September 1925 he traveled to the Soviet Union with the first Austrian delegation of young workers . Due to his unemployment from 1929 he devoted himself more to active sport . He not only used his membership in the "Westend" sports club for sporting activities, but also acted as a political agitator . In 1930 Puschmann became a member of the KPÖ . After the sports club "Westend" was banned in 1933, Puschmann founded the workers' sports club "Olympia 1933".

Due to his political commitment, Erwin Puschmann had to serve several prison sentences and a stay in the detention camp in Wöllersdorf during the period of Austrofascism . After a period of training in Moscow in 1935, he went to Prague in 1937 and, now part of the party leadership, to Paris . After the German invasion, he emigrated to Yugoslavia . From there he organized the rebuilding of the structures of the KPÖ and returned to Vienna as head of the illegal party leadership. This third illegal leadership group of the KPÖ in Austria also belonged to Hedy Urach .

Arrest and execution

Puschmann, who operated under the code name "Gerber" from Bratislava and Vienna, had contact with Willi Frank and Anton Reisinger , among others, but also with Kurt Koppel , code name "Ossi", who was an informant for the Gestapo . Puschmann was already known to Koppel from the KJV. On January 22, 1941, Puschmann was arrested. Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky describes the arrest as follows:

“'Gerber' sat across from me at a small table by the window. […] He gave me another piece of paper […] when suddenly […] two men rushed towards us. I can still see their rigid, expressionless faces today, just as their excited puffing sounds in my ears. Their excitement was well founded: with Erwin Puschmann, the highest functionary of the KPÖ until then, they had got the head of the entire organization of the communist resistance movement in Austria into their hands. " 

After several interrogations at the Vienna Gestapo headquarters on Morzinplatz , the trial began on September 22, 1942. In addition to Puschmann, Franz Sebek , Anna and Franz Haider, Margarete Schütte and Karl Lisetz also sat in the dock. Lisetz, Puschmann and Sebek were sentenced to death and beheaded in the courtyard of the Vienna Regional Court.

Commemoration

After Erwin Pusch man among others are Erwin Pusch man Alley in the 14th district of Vienna and the Erwin Pusch-Straße in Steyr named. A plaque commemorates him on the sports field of Slovan-Hütteldorf AC, Vienna 14th. His name can also be found on a plaque in the house of the KPÖ in memory of twelve KPÖ functionaries murdered during the Nazi era.

literature

  • Elisabeth Markstein : Moscow is much more beautiful than Paris . Milena, Vienna 2010, pp. 30–31.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky: Memories from the resistance. The combative life of an architect from 1938-1945 , Promedia Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Vienna 1994, p. 59.
personal data
SURNAME Puschmann, Erwin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian resistance fighter in the time of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH February 8, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1943
Place of death Vienna