Franz Heckenast

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Franz Heckenast (born November 7, 1889 in Komárom , today Komárno , Slovakia ; † February 15, 1939 in Buchenwald concentration camp ) was an Austrian officer and opponent of National Socialism .

Life

After attending the Mährisch Weißkirchen cadet school and the kuk Technical Military Academy in Mödling , he was retired in 1912 as a lieutenant in the kuk Feldkanonen-Regiment 12 in Budapest . During the First World War he took part as an artillery officer on various fronts. In 1920 he was taken over as a major in the armed forces. As a staunch Catholic , he was involved in the “Catholic-German Soldiers' Union”, which turned against National Socialism . On July 30 and 31, 1934, he participated in the military trial against the participants in the July coup . As a lieutenant colonel in the first armed forces, he witnessed the German invasion of 1938. After he refused to take the oath to Hitler after the “Anschluss” , he was forced into retirement on March 15, 1938, arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp , where he died soon after.

The Armed Forces of the Second Republic honored him together with his comrade, Captain Karl Burian , who had been executed by the National Socialists, by naming the office building at Schwenkgasse in the command building Heckenast-Burian in Vienna. His grave of honor is in the Vienna Hietzing cemetery .

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Commons : Franz Heckenast  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Hedge branch, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian officer and opponent of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Komárom , Slovakia
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1939
Place of death Beech forest