Franz Knapitsch

Franz Knapitsch (* as Franz von Knapitsch on June 1, 1911 at Mayerhofen Castle, Carinthia ; † May 24, 1980 in Vienna ) was an Austrian landowner, politician and member of the state parliament.

Franz von Knapitsch was brought up in the spirit of monarchism and became a landowner in St. Salvator ( Gut Mayerhofen ). In the First Republic he joined the Landbund . He was hostile to the authoritarian corporate state 1934–1938 . After the “Anschluss” he became a member of the NSDAP for economic and opportunistic reasons and benefited from the “ Aryanizations ” through the acquisition of the “Chemische Fabrik Saturn GmbH” from its previous Jewish owner. In 1943 he was expelled from the NSDAP due to his monarchist attitude and imprisoned for four months in 1943/44.

In the Second Republic he wanted to get involved in the Austrian People's Party , but was recruited by Josef Ostertschnig for the Democratic Party of Austria (DPÖ). He supported the party with a donation of 66,000 schillings and wrote some monarchist articles for the party newspaper in which he spoke out in favor of a referendum on Austria's form of government as a republic or monarchy. In November 1945 Knapitsch became party chairman. In the state elections in Carinthia in 1945 , he was the only representative of the DPÖ to enter the Carinthian state parliament . However, he left there again soon after Nazi material and sliding goods were found on his estate in Mayerhofen and he was arrested on January 10, 1946. He was also accused of having worked for the illegal NSDAP as early as 1934 . In September 1947 he was in the first instance by the People's Court Graz to 10 months heavy prison convicted. He was also sentenced to seven months in prison by a British military tribunal for possession of Allied property, and to nine months in prison by the Klagenfurt Regional Court for fraud. He fought against the conviction by the People's Court and in 1953 achieved that he was acquitted of allegations of illegal NSDAP membership before 1938.

literature

• Peter Autengruber : The Democratic Party of Austria. In: Carinthia I. Journal for historical regional studies of Carinthia. Wolfsberg 1995, pp. 379 f., 383, 397, 400, 404-407 ( digitized online at ANNO ).