Friedrich Hexmann

Friedrich Hexmann , alias Franz Walter , (born April 27, 1900 in Brno , Austria-Hungary , † May 18, 1991 ) was an Austrian politician (KPÖ).

Life and activity

As a teenager, Hexmann joined the group of so-called left-wing radicals around Franz Koritschoner during the First World War . In 1918 Hexmann took part in the so-called January strike , a comprehensive strike action directed against the war policy of the Austrian leadership at the time. On November 3rd of the same year he helped found the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ).

In 1919 Hexmann became secretary of the Communist Youth Union. In the 1920s he was active as a party speaker. He was also a member of the Politburo.

In December 1934 Hexmann was arrested for his political activities. He was sentenced to six months in police custody and 12 months in court and then sent to the Wöllersdorf detention camp for an indefinite period . An attempt at liberation planned for January 25, 1937 by like-minded people failed because some of those involved were arrested shortly before the start of the action.

After the annexation of Austria by the German Reich in March 1938, Hexmann fled into exile in the Soviet Union , where he remained until 1945. During the Second World War he gave lectures to German prisoners in Soviet prisoner-of-war camps. Since November 1944 he has been editing the communications of the ABÖK , a newspaper published by the anti-fascist office of Austrian prisoners of war for Austrian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union.

The National Socialist police officers classified Hexmann as an enemy of the state: In the spring of 1940 the Reich Main Security Office in Berlin placed him on the special wanted list GB , a list of people who, in the event of a successful invasion and occupation of the British Isles by the Wehrmacht, would be followed by special commandos of the occupying forces SS should be located and arrested with special priority.

In 1947 Hexmann became a representative of the KPÖ at the CPSU in Moscow . In this context he was u. a. responsible for the organization of the repatriation of those prisoners of war from Austria who were still in the Soviet Union at that time.

In 1948 Hexmann settled in Vienna . There he was a party functionary in the Politburo and a member of the Central Committee of the KPÖ.

literature

• Karl Flanner: Wiener Neustadt im Ständestaat , 1983, pp. 118–121.
• Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss : Politics, Economy, Public Life , 1980, p. 292.

Web links

• Article: "Friedrich Hexmann: I only became more left-wing extremists in prison"

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry on Hexmann on the special wanted list GB (reproduced on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London) .