Friedl Fürnberg

Siegfried "Friedl" Fürnberg (born May 16, 1902 in Eggenburg , Lower Austria ; † April 27, 1978 in Moscow ) was General Secretary of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) and partisan in the Austrian freedom battalions against National Socialism .

Childhood and youth

Friedl Fürnberg was born in Eggenburg in Lower Austria in 1902. From 1904 he lived with his parents in Vienna , where he also grew up. His father died on one of the fronts of the First World War . In addition to attending secondary school and starting to study technology, Fürnberg had to support his mother. Financial difficulties forced him to drop out of studies.

October Revolution and Communist Party of Austria

The spirit of the October Revolution in November 1917 seized the young Friedl Fünberg; he became, in the spirit of the Bolsheviks , a professional revolutionary .

The sixteen-year-old Fürnberg joined the Social Democratic Party of Austria in November 1918, when the Habsburg dynasty had to abdicate and the Republic was proclaimed, and in March 1919 the Communist Party of Austria . He built up a youth group from 1920, was a member of the Central Committee of the KJV from 1921, and of the Central Committee of the KPÖ in 1924. From 1922 onwards, Fürnberg's connection with the Communist Youth International began , and he was elected secretary in 1928.

Communist International

During the period of his Moscow activity in the Youth International from 1927 on, Fürnberg's first international political appearance and advocacy for the KPÖ as a whole, going beyond the KJV, took place: It was only at the age of 25 that he was given the task of appearing in front of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in September 1927 ( EKKI) to represent the position of the KPÖ during the events of the Vienna Justice Palace fire in 1927. In the ECCI, the prevailing assessment was that the defeat of the spontaneous demonstration was determined by the “lack of will to seize power by the communists”. This opinion, also represented by Comintern chairman Bukharin at the time , corresponded to the prevailing view in the CI that the workers' movement was on the verge of a new revolutionary upswing, which social democracy, especially its left wing, was preventing. Friedl Fürnberg, on the other hand, stated that the uprising was "overestimated" by the AI ​​leadership, because it lasted only one day and the general strike should have been broken off after twenty-four hours. Relative stabilization still prevailed in Austria, and in the wake of July 15, 1927, an "increase in the power of the bourgeoisie " was recorded. Thanks to Fürnberg's demeanor, the KPÖ was able to convince the EKKI of the fundamental correctness of its position at the events in Vienna. That was a - for the time being, certainly still small - step towards rethinking in the Comintern, which gradually brought about a reassessment of the world situation and the nature of the fascism that was advancing in many countries at the time .

Party building

The entrustment of Friedl Fürnberg with leading party work in Austria coincided with the beginning of a new (and so far unique) phase of the upward development of the KPÖ. February 1934 and March 1938 in particular marked this development. The party had correctly assessed the political situation and gained many supporters among the workers - for the first time during the phase of the First Republic: After being forced into illegality by the rulers in 1933, the KPÖ became an influx after the February fights of 1934 from their leadership disappointed revolutionary workers for the first time to a party with significant influence on the working masses.

At this time - especially under the influence of Georgi Dimitrov , who incidentally had also lived in Austria in the 1920s - the Comintern corrected its assessment of the international situation, the fascist threat and the role of social democracy . From this side the way of the Austrian communists was therefore supported more clearly than before. The main reason for the turnaround that was becoming apparent as early as 1932, which was expressed in the KPÖ's gains in votes in regional and company elections, lay in the KPÖ itself. A growing part of the force previously absorbed by the factional struggle was used to organize company, union and local work spent and bore fruit. This turnaround could no longer be stopped by the Communist Party ban in 1933. Fürnberg himself was arrested for the first time before the party was banned. Imprisoned again after the February events, he was convicted in the socialist trial in 1936 and taken to the “detention camp” in Wöllersdorf . Together with Franz Honner he fled from there with the help of Max Stern and was sent abroad by the party, where a significant part of the party leadership gathered around Johann Koplenig .

Moscow exile and Austria's statehood

The part of the work of the KPÖ Central Committee members around Johann Koplenig and Friedl Fürnberg, who live in the Hotel Lux in Moscow, for the goal of restoring Austria as an independent state, was of great importance for Austria's future . The Soviet government made no statements about this in the period from 1939 to 1941. On November 6, 1941, in his speech on the anniversary of the October Revolution, Stalin formulated the characterization of Hitler's aggression: “As long as the Hitlerites were concerned with merging the German states and rejoining the Rhine region, Austria, etc., they could be joined with one hold a certain justification for nationalists. However, after they stole foreign territories and subjugated European nations - such as Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Norwegians, Danes, Dutch, Belgians, French, Serbs, Greeks, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Balts, etc., (...) they (the NSDAP ) become an imperialist, annexionist party of oppression. "

So here Stalin still regarded the Austrians as Germans, and even showed understanding for their “Anschluss”. The change of opinion - to which the work of the KPÖ leadership in Moscow with Koplenig, Fürnberg, Honner and others certainly contributed - was already in full swing at the time, which is shown by the fact that only one month later, in December 1941, In a conversation with the British Foreign Minister Eden, Stalin called for Austria to be re-established as an independent state. This war goal was enshrined in the Moscow Declaration of the three main powers of the anti-Hitler coalition of October 30, 1943, whereby it was the Soviet Union which from then on represented it most consistently and Churchill and Roosevelt's plans still exist for Austria in a southern German state to integrate together with Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg (or in a confederation of these areas with Hungary), issued a rejection. For Friedl Fürnberg and the KPÖ leadership in the Moscow emigration, radio propaganda , pamphlets, sending party representatives to Austria and, since 1941, political work among the Wehrmacht prisoners of war remained the only options.

Austrian freedom battalions and partisan warfare

From 1944 onwards, more concrete steps could be taken. After preparation with the responsible Soviet and Yugoslav officials as well as the Tito partisans, Friedl Fürnberg jumped from Soviet planes over liberated Slovenian territory together with 20 other anti-fascists at the beginning of October 1944 . He took part directly in the formation of the first Austrian freedom battalion and its first battles. Friedl Fürnberg reports:

“On November 24, 1944, the red, white and red flag of Austria was hoisted on a primitive wooden pole in a meadow near the Slovenian village of Tribuce. It was the climax of a short military celebration on the occasion of the establishment of the 1st Austrian Freedom Battalion as part of the Yugoslav partisan army. The battalion took an oath of allegiance for the liberation of Austria and to fight for an independent, democratic Austria, while at the same time the oath was aimed at a joint fight with the Slovenian partisans against German Hitler fascism and its allies. Not only communists had joined this troop, but sympathizers from all political directions. "

On the left sleeve of the Yugoslav uniform they wore the tapering red, white and red shield. The 1st Battalion was actually used for combat and propaganda purposes.

On May 12, 1945, members of these freedom troops moved into the Vienna Hofburg under the red-white-red flag.

with own words

The self-assessment he made in May 1972 at a festive meeting of the Central Committee of the KPÖ is informative testimony to a man who was particularly closely associated with the international communist movement and for a long time with the Soviet Union .

“It has long been said of me in the party that I am an incorrigible optimist. I do not deny this, any more than the fact that my optimism was not infrequently disappointed by events and people. Of course, I have tried to arrive at real assessments through more thorough, all-round analyzes, and I believe that in many cases - certainly not always - I have succeeded. But optimism remains, and I believe that it is not just a trait of character, but arises from our theory, from Marxism-Leninism, which has proven to be true hundreds of times and correctly foresees the future. We in Austria in particular need our well-founded optimism, without which we cannot withstand the strong pressure that is exerted on us (...) We are fighting against the petty-bourgeois philistineism, which unfortunately again and again makes itself felt in the Austrian labor movement. We fight against the mendacious, hypocritical humanism arguments pursued by people who defend and enable the atrocities of imperialism. Humanism first and foremost demands the overthrow of capitalism, the end of the rule of imperialism. In the struggle for this main goal of humanism in the present, we need comradeship, indeed friendship, between us and with everyone who wants to go with us. "

Fürnberg, like the chairman Johann Koplenig and the Communist Party chief ideologist Ernst Wimmer , lived in Vienna- Grinzing . He died in Moscow in April 1978.

Works

• The events in Austria. The struggle for independence and freedom, in alleged (Hubert Schrade), camouflage: Buildings of the Third Reich. Allegedly: Bibliographisches Institut , Leipzig undated [1938], Meyers Bild-Bändchen, 35.- pp. 40–45.
• The Jewish question and anti-Semitism , in alleged Gerhard Riebicke, camouflage: Das Sportphoto. 6th - 10th thousand, allegedly Knapp, Halle o. J. [1938], pp. 23–37. Der Fotorat series, 29. (actually: "The Communist International" 1938, 9).
• Historical experience demands the unity of the working class. For the 50th anniversary of the Hainfeld party convention , in (camouflage) chess. Practical guide to the game of chess. allegedly Friedrich M. Hörhold, Leipzig undated [1939], pp. 51–56 (actually: "The Communist International" 1939, 1).
• One year of Hitler's rule in Austria in (camouflage): Die Fledermaus. Operetta Guide. Verlag für Kunst und Wissenschaft Albert Otto Paul o. O. [1939], series: Miniatur-Bibliothek, 1501. pp. 38–52.
• In the struggle for a socialist Austria , KPÖ, Vienna 1952. Reprint.
• The Second Republic until the conclusion of the State Treaty 1945–1955.
• 50 years. The October Socialist Revolution and Austria . Globus, Vienna 1962.
• History of the Communist Party of Austria 1918–1955. Brief outline . Globus, Vienna 1977.

Web links

• Entry on Friedl Fürnberg in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Literature by and about Friedl Fürnberg in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ after Heinz Gittig, Illegale antifasch. Tarnschriften, edition 1972, no. 465.6.
2. ↑ Gittig 471.3.
3. ↑ Gittig 522.4
4. ↑ Gittig 524.3.