Franz Mair (resistance fighter)
Franz Josef Maria Mair (born October 29, 1910 in Niederndorf ; † May 6, 1945 in Innsbruck ) was a high school professor and resistance fighter.
Life
Franz Mair was the third of four children of the Gendarmerie District Inspector Johann Mair and Berta Kollmann. He attended the Akademisches Gymnasium Innsbruck , where he passed his Matura in 1930 . After studying English and German at the University of Innsbruck , he worked as a teacher at this school. He was very popular with his students and was called "English Mair" by them; towards them he also expressed his aversion to the National Socialists .
During the Nazi regime he was involved in the resistance. He spoke out against National Socialism in public and narrowly escaped a death sentence. Mair made contact with various resistance groups, including the White Rose , and the Allies . Towards the end of the Second World War , he founded the resistance association "Gruppe Franz Mair" with former students (including Bert Breit ). He supported deserters and hid a French agent and his radio system with a farmer in Elbögen .
On May 3, 1945 he was wounded in an exchange of fire while defending the Innsbruck country house and succumbed to these injuries on May 6. On May 8, 1946, the first anniversary of the end of the war, the then governor Alfons Weißgatterer unveiled a plaque at the old country house, commemorating the Austrian and Tyrolean resistance and Franz Mair.
Commemoration
Today the Prof.-Franz-Mair-Gasse in front of the Academic Gymnasium, a memorial plaque on the old country house and a municipal grave of honor in the east cemetery remind of Mair .
His name was also affixed to the liberation monument at Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz in Innsbruck .
literature
- Horst Schreiber : Resistance and Remembrance in Tyrol 1938–1998. Franz Mair: teacher, free spirit, resistance fighter . Studien-Verlag, Innsbruck-Vienna-Bozen 2000. ISBN 3-7065-1432-X
Web links
- Biography - Memorial sites of National Socialism in Innsbruck and Seefeld
- Short biography on the website Der Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz in Innsbruck (also reprinted in Horst Schreiber , Christopher Grüner (eds.): Den für die Freiheit Österreichs Gestorbenen , 2016, ISBN 978-3703009556 )
Individual evidence
- ^ Resistance and Liberation in Tyrol 1945 , last accessed on August 5, 2015
- ^ Commemorative plaque to the Tyrolean resistance (Franz Mair) at the old country house ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ City of Innsbruck: Honorary graves of the city of Innsbruck (PDF; 0.2 MB)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mair, Franz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Mair, Franz Josef Maria (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian high school professor and resistance fighter during the Nazi era |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 29, 1910 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Niederndorf , Tyrol |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 6, 1945 |
| Place of death | Innsbruck , Tyrol |