Franz artist (soldier)

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Commemorative plaque in Avranches dedicated to Franz Künstler and Lazare Ponticelli .

Franz Künstler (born July 24, 1900 in Sósd , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary , † May 27, 2008 in Bad Mergentheim ) was the last surviving veteran of the Austro-Hungarian Army who had served in the First World War at the age of almost 108 , and the last veteran of the Central Powers .

Live and act

Franz Künstler was born as the youngest of five siblings in the Banat , now Romania , then Austria-Hungary . His father Jakob artist was a Banat Swabian from Wiseschdia ; his mother Anna Biehl came from Nakodorf . Franz Künstler attended the Nikolaus-Lenau-Lyceum in Timisoara and originally wanted to study law. However, he was drafted on January 6, 1918 and one month later drafted into the 1st Artillery Regiment, where, after training in Szeged, he served as a gunner on the Italian front on the Piave until the end of the war .

In the inter-war period , the artist lived in Hungary and ran his own shop in Budapest as a merchant . During the Second World War , Künstler worked as a motorcycle courier at the front in Ukraine . In 1945 he got into an argument with the Arrow Cross members . He was arrested by the communists in October 1945 and interned in a barracks for alleged party harm. In 1946, artists who belonged to the German minority were expelled from Hungary and were sent to the Backnang refugee camp .

Artist received German citizenship in 1946 and lived in Niederstetten . Even in old age he worked there as a museum guide in the hunting museum at Schlosshaltenbergstetten , in whose neighborhood he lived. Artist died of the consequences of an intestinal operation and a broken thigh in the Bad Mergentheimer Caritas hospital . He was buried on June 4, 2008 in Niederstetten.

Awards

See also

The last World War I veterans in other countries included:

  • Florence Green (1901–2012), last British veteran of the First World War
  • Frank Buckles (1901–2011), last American veteran of the First World War
  • Claude Stanley Choules (1901–2011), British veteran of the First and Second World Wars (Australian citizen from 1926)
  • Henry Allingham (1896–2009), last veteran of the Royal Navy of the First World War
  • Harry Patch (1898–2009), last British Army veteran of the First World War
  • Louis de Cazenave (1897–2008), last World War I veteran who took part in the fighting as a French citizen
  • Lazare Ponticelli (1897–2008), last veteran of the First World War in the French Foreign Legion (French citizen from 1939)
  • Erich Kästner (1900–2008), last surviving German soldier of the First World War
  • Charles Kuentz (1897–2005), last surviving German soldier from Alsace during the First World War (French citizen from 1919)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ André Groenewoud: The last soldier of the emperor (see web links)
  2. ↑ The last soldier of the Austrian Empire. In: welt.de . May 29, 2008, accessed December 14, 2014 .
  3. ↑ a b Rüdiger Soldt: When I'm 110, the devil can get me . In: faz.net of May 28, 2008, accessed December 14, 2014
  4. ↑ Profile: 104-year-old stands in the museum. In: Focus Online. November 29, 2004, accessed December 14, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Article  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Franconian news on the death of the artist@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.fnweb.de  
  6. ↑ a b AP: 'Life Artist': The oldest German died. In: stern.de. May 27, 2008, accessed December 14, 2014 .
  7. ^ Artist's tomb
personal data
SURNAME Artist, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian war veteran
DATE OF BIRTH July 24, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Sósd , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 2008
Place of death Bad Mergentheim