Franz Jetzinger

Franz Jetzinger (born December 3, 1882 in Ranshofen in Upper Austria, † March 19, 1965 in Ottensheim in Upper Austria) was an Austrian civil servant, politician and writer. He was best known as the author of the book Hitler's Youth .

Live and act

After attending high school, Jetzinger studied at the theological faculties of the University of Salzburg and the University of Innsbruck . From 1905 to probably 1919, but at the latest until 1921, he was a member of the Catholic student association AV Austria Innsbruck . After completing his studies, he became a Jesuit priest and professor at the Philosophical-Theological School in Linz. In this context he visited Palestine in 1908.

From 1914 Jetzinger took part in the First World War as a field curate. After 1918 intensive political activity followed, first in the German People's Party (constituency Ried), then, from 1919, in the Social Democratic Party . From 1919 to February 1934 Jetzinger was a social democratic member of the state parliament (constituency Innviertel ). From 1920 to 1930 he worked as an editor for the "Tagblatt". On February 14, 1921, he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church for working for the then Marxist and atheist social democracy . In 1930 he became district administrator substitute and in 1932, as district administrator, he became a member of the Upper Austrian provincial government in Linz.

After the ban on accepting mandates on February 12, 1934, Jetzinger was imprisoned for five weeks as a social democrat under Dollfuss . After that he worked as an insurance clerk at the Vienna municipal administration. In 1935 he rejoined the Catholic Church and got a job as an official librarian in the study library in Linz. As a member of the provincial government of Upper Austria, Jetzinger obtained Hitler's Austrian military files - which included details about his arrest for evacuation in 1914 - and kept them hidden in his attic until 1945. Hitler's attempts to locate and obtain the compromising document by the Gestapo after his invasion of Austria in 1938 failed. On April 22, 1944, Jetzinger was arrested by the Gestapo. In 1957, Jetzinger, who as a politician hated Hitler and the Nazi system, wrote the book Hitler's Youth , in which he published documents from Hitler's military files, among other things.

Hitler's youth

Jetzinger became known in 1956 for his book Hitler's Youth , in which he was able to refute many of the claims about his early years that were later launched by the dictator. In addition, Jetzinger fell through his sharp criticism of the book Adolf Hitler published in 1953 . My childhood friend from August Kubizek , whom he accused of making false claims. While earlier Hitler biographers such as Joachim Fest or Werner Maser adopted Jetzinger's criticism, his damning judgment on Kubizek's credibility was corrected by later research (e.g. Brigitte Hamann's book Hitler's Vienna ). In particular, Hamann was able to convincingly portray personal motives for Jetzinger's tendency to give virtually every statement in Kubizek's book a negative interpretation, which implies subsequent fabulousness. As motives for the type of representation, literary competition and financial damage to Jetzinger are assumed, since his book experienced less demand than he had expected after Kubizek's memoirs came on the market shortly before the publication of his book.

Works

• Hitler's youth. Fantasies, lies and the truth . Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1956.

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz Jetzinger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography of Franz Jetzinger on the server of the federal state of Upper Austria .
• No evidence of Aryan . Critical review of the Jetzinger book Hitler's Youth in Spiegel 24/1957