Franz Dinghofer

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Franz Dinghofer, presumably when he took office as Mayor of Linz in 1907

Franz Seraph Dinghofer (born April 6, 1873 in Ottensheim ; † January 12, 1956 in Vienna ) was an Austrian judge and German national politician during the First World War and the interwar period . He was the “crier” of the First Republic and held several high-ranking functions, such as the third President of the National Council or Vice Chancellor . After retiring from politics, he was President of the Supreme Court from 1928 to 1938 . Dinghofer was an avowed anti-Semite , and from July 1940 NSDAP - party member .

Live and act

Coming from a long- established family in Ottensheim, Upper Austria - father and grandfather were both postmasters and innkeepers in the community - he attended the local elementary school from 1879 . He then moved to the Freistadt grammar school in 1884 , where he graduated from high school in 1892 , after which he completed a law degree at the University of Graz . In October 1892 he became a member of the Ostmark Graz fraternity . He was promoted to Dr. jur. PhD. In 1899 he married Cäcilia Meindl from Linz, owner of the “Schöllergut” in Linz Waldegg No. 57, with whom he had a son and two daughters.

In June 1902 Dinghofer became judge for civil and criminal matters at the district court in Urfahr . From 1907 to 1918 he was mayor of Linz, whereby he was not only the youngest mayor of a city ​​with its own statute for Cisleithania , but also the youngest elected mayor of Linz since the existence of a free municipality. As mayor, he was the founder of the first allotment gardens in Austria, and St. Peter was incorporated during his term of office . Furthermore, green and recreational areas were designed. Dinghofer pursued an active transport policy and advocated the expansion of the railway network. Furthermore, the gas works was communalized and municipal milk and meat sales points were set up to counteract the rise in prices. Workers' apartments were built and housing associations were founded. Furthermore, the municipal youth welfare office was set up for young people neglected by the aftermath of the war.

From 1911 until the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918 he was a member of the Reichsrat . Dinghofer was the founder of the German People's Union . He described himself as an anti-Semite and advocated the “exodus” of the Jewish population . In 1919 he founded the Großdeutsche Vereinigung , from which the German national and anti-Semitic-minded Großdeutsche Volkspartei emerged in 1920 , of which he was also chairman.

Since Linz was one of the best-supplied cities in the monarchy during the First World War , because the food office was founded under Dinghofer and bread and flour cards were introduced in 1914, Vienna became aware of him and in 1917 he was offered the post of kk food minister , the Dinghofer however refused.

All German Reichsrat members, including Dinghofer, became members of the 1918/1919 Provisional National Assembly for German Austria . Dinghofer was elected by her in the opening session on October 21, 1918 as one of her three equal presidents. As such, on November 12, 1918, when the National Assembly decided on the republican form of government and membership of the German republic , at the request of the State Council , he chaired and declared after the vote on the bill: adopted unanimously . As the incumbent president, accompanied by his presidential colleague Karl Seitz (Social Democrat) , he announced the decision from the crowd of thousands from the balustrade of the parliament building : "German Austria is a republic".

In 1919 Dinghofer became a member of the Upper Austrian state parliament and a member of the provisional state assembly. He was elected to the Constituent National Assembly on February 16, 1919 , but was unable to attend the opening session on March 4 and the presidential election on March 5 due to illness, which is why he was elected third president on March 12, 1919. In the National Assembly with the enactment of the Federal Constitutional Law on 10 November 1920 following, newly elected on October 17, 1920 National Council he was for I. legislative period to third president elected, and for the beginning on November 20, 1923 II. Legislative period.

From 1924 he was chairman of the council at the Vienna Higher Regional Court . Dinghofer held a leading role in the anti-Semitic and anti-socialist secret society of the German Community .

On October 20, 1926, he resigned as Third President of the National Council in view of his acceptance into the federal government. In Ignaz Seipel's government he was Vice Chancellor from October 20, 1926 to May 19, 1927 , then Federal Minister in the Federal Chancellery and from 1927 to 1928 Federal Minister of Justice . As a result of the " Béla Kun affair ", Dinghofer resigned as Minister of Justice on July 4, 1928 and withdrew from politics.

Dinghofer returned to his profession in 1928, moved to the federal capital ( 1st district , Uraniastraße 4) in 1929 and was President of the Supreme Court for a total of ten years, until he was on May 11, 1938 (after the "Anschluss" of Austria ) has been retired.

In 1938 it is said to have been expropriated in the area of ​​the Schöllergut on today's Hanuschstrasse in Linz, which his late wife had brought into the marriage. As a replacement for this, Dinghofer bought the Villa Sarsteiner in Bad Ischl, Bauerstraße 11. He was also involved in the Aryanization of the Upper Austrian mining company Kamig .

The Mauthausen Committee Austria (MKÖ) and the Network Against Racism and Right- laid on March 14, 2019, according to research at the German Federal Archives in Berlin evidence on the existence Franz Dinghofer was after his application for admission from April 18, 1940 from 1 July 1940 Nazi Party member ( Membership number : 8.450.902).

Dinghofer's family lived in Vienna until 1945 and in Bad Ischl after the war . Franz Dinghofer died at the age of 83 on January 12, 1956 and was buried in the St. Barbara cemetery in Linz (section 15, crypt).

reception

On the occasion of the 92nd anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic of Austria, a symposium in honor of Franz Dinghofer took place in parliament in 2010 on the initiative of the Third President of the National Council, Martin Graf ( FPÖ ). In the run-up to this symposium, the Dinghofer Institute, Study Society for Political Research (DI) was founded . The Dinghofer Institute sees itself as a private, not-for-profit association with the purpose of promoting research and teaching in the fields of law, medicine, theology and ethics, as well as philosophy, especially legal philosophy.

One street in Linz and one in Ottensheim is named after Franz Dinghofer.

The Linz Greens are calling for a debate on the renaming of Linzer Dinghoferstraße because the former mayor was a member of the NSDAP. At least the street signs should be provided with additional information boards. The demands of the Greens refer to research by the Mauthausen Committee Austria (MKÖ). On March 14, 2019, the MKÖ reported an inquiry to the Federal Archives in Berlin as to whether Dinghofer was a member of the NSDAP. The information from the Federal Archives read: Dinghofer had tried to be admitted to the NSDAP in 1940, and this had already been granted to him after two and a half months. MKÖ chairman Willi Mernyi stated that, as far as is known, Dinghofer had not committed any crime. But he supported a criminal regime. In this context, there was also criticism of an ORF documentary in which Dinghofer was described as the “builder of the republic”. In the ORF III production, Dinghofer’s proximity to National Socialism was excluded. The documentation was presented to the public on February 18, 2019 by ORF General Director Alexander Wrabetz , Vice Chancellor and FPÖ Federal Party Chairman Heinz-Christian Strache and the Third President of the National Council Anneliese Kitzmüller (FPÖ) in Palais Epstein .

literature

  • Uta Jungcurt: Pan-German extremism in the Weimar Republic: Thinking and acting of an influential bourgeois minority. De Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-045477-2 , p. 135 f.
  • Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I Politicians, Part 1: A – E. Heidelberg 1996, pp. 205-206.
  • Fritz Mayrhofer: Franz Dinghofer - Life and Work (1873–1956). In: Historisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz 1969. Linz 1970, pp. 11–152, online in three parts: pp. 11–50 (PDF; 5.9 MB) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at, pp. 51–100 (PDF; 7.6 MB ) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at, pp. 101–152 (PDF; 7.6 MB) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ottensheim baptisms / duplicates 1873 / 106/1873. 3rd line. In: Matricula Online. Retrieved February 3, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Mayrhofer 1970, p. 13.
  3. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I Politiker, Part 1: A – E, Heidelberg 1996, p. 205.
  4. ↑ a b Mayrhofer 1970, p. 15.
  5. ↑ Mayrhofer 1970, pp. 40–57 (chapter “The Transport System”).
  6. ↑ Mayrhofer 1970, pp. 57–59 (chapter “The municipalization of the gas works”).
  7. ↑ Mayrhofer 1970, pp. 73 f., 82.
  8. ^ Fritz Mayrhofer: Franz Dinghofer. Herald of the Republic. In: Upper Austria. Volume 1, Verlag OÖ Landesarchiv, Linz 19xx; Susanne Preisinger: Franz Seraph Dinghofer (1873–1956). On the thirtieth anniversary of death. In: Free arguments. Freedom magazine for politics. Born 13, Vienna 1986.
  9. ^ Daniela Ellmauer, Michael John, Regina Thumser (ed.): "Aryanizations", confiscated assets, provisions and compensation in Upper Austria, Volume 11 (= publications of the Austrian Commission of Historians. Volume 17). Verlag Oldenbourg, Vienna / Munich 2004, ISBN 3702905219 , p. 44f.
    Michael John: Population in the city. “Locals” and “strangers” in Linz. (19th and 20th centuries). Archive of the City of Linz, Linz 2000, ISBN 3900388806 , p. 141.
  10. ↑ a b Mayrhofer 1970, p. 18.
  11. ↑ Othmar Rappersberger: You too were at our school once - Dr. Franz Dinghofer. In: 118th annual report of the federal high school in Freistadt . Self-published, Freistadt 1988.
  12. ^ A b Andreas Huber, Linda Erker, Klaus Taschwer : The German Club. Austro-Nazis in the Hofburg. Czernin, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-7076-0651-5 , p. 97 .
  13. ↑ Mayrhofer 1970, p. 128 f. (Chapter “Resignation as Minister of Justice”).
  14. ↑ Mayrhofer 1970, p. 19.
  15. ↑ a b Mayrhofer 1970, p. 20.
  16. ↑ NSDAP-Gaukartei / BArch R 9361-IX KARTEI / 6391205. (PDF) In: mkoe.at (Mauthausen Committee Austria). Retrieved on March 15, 2019 (NSDAP membership file of Dr. Franz Dinghofer; exact text in the form in which the data on person and membership were typed and stamped: "Member no .: 8450902. Record: 1. July 1940. Admission requested on: April 18, 1940. Apartment: Vienna 1 Uraniastr. 4. Area: Vienna. District: Vienna ”).
  17. ↑ Mauthausen Committee and Antifa network uncover scandal: the alleged “master builder of the republic” was a National Socialist. In: mkoe.at (Mauthausen Committee Austria). March 14, 2019, accessed March 15, 2019 .
  18. ↑ a b Colette M. Schmidt, Harald Fidler: Mauthausen Committee criticizes the Dinghofer documentary. In: derstandard.at . March 14, 2019, accessed March 15, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Dinghofer Institute. Study Society for Political Research. Website of the Dinghofer Institute. Retrieved February 3, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Dinghoferstrasse. In: stadtgeschichte.linz.at. Retrieved February 3, 2020 .
  21. ↑ Greens want to rename Dinghoferstraße. In: ooe.orf.at . March 14, 2019, accessed March 15, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Builder of the Republic - Franz Dinghofer. Documentation. In: tv.orf.at. February 13, 2019, accessed March 15, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Honored and honored in parliament: The anti-Semitic “Master Builder of the Republic” Dinghofer. In: semiosis.at. February 13, 2019, accessed March 15, 2019 .
predecessor Office successor
Gustav Eder Mayor of Linz
1907–1918 		Karl Sadleder
personal data
SURNAME Dinghofer, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dinghofer, Franz Seraph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian judge and politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Ottensheim
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1956
Place of death Vienna