Fritz Wöss

Friedrich Weiss (born February 19, 1920 in Vienna ; † February 3, 2004 there ; pseudonym: Fritz Wöss ) was an Austrian writer .

Life

After the occupation of Austria, Friedrich Weiss joined the German armed forces at the age of 18 as a flag junior and, as a front officer, took part in the capture of Dunkirk and the occupation of Normandy . During the attack on the Soviet Union , he was a member of Army Group North .

In December 1941, already as a battery leader, he was wounded in fighting south of Lake Ladoga off Volkhovstroy . After being sent back to the Eastern Front after a hospital stay, he joined the 20th Romanian Division in Narriman as a liaison officer before the start of the Russian offensive south of Stalingrad .

Weiss survived the Battle of Stalingrad and was captured by the Soviets on January 29, 1943. In 1948 he returned home, enrolled at the University of Vienna and completed his law degree with a doctorate. In 1951 he was a civil servant in the Vienna City School Board. In the fall of 1957, he initially self-published the first volume of his trilogy , Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever .

The Paul Zsolnay Verlag took over the publishing rights and published until 1964, the entire trilogy. The film adaptation and a broad polemic in the German-speaking area, which was also promoted by his commitment to the direct participation of the people in the formation of the state's will, made the book titles known worldwide.

In 1960 Weiss became director of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna . He succeeded in getting the young students interested in the ideas of direct democracy . He founded an interest group for direct democracy at the university and, together with professors, assistants and students, articulated a constitution that should enable citizens to directly participate in decision-making and share responsibility in the state.

In 1968 he founded the Union for Direct Democracy and on April 5, 1973 the Austrian environmental protection movement .

On March 8, 2004 he was buried in Vienna at the Grinzinger Friedhof (group 22, row 7, no. 4).

Awards

• 1982: Medal of Honor of the Federal Capital Vienna in silver
• 1987: Gold medal for the State of Vienna
• 1990: Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, 1st class

Works

• Dogs, do you want to live forever . Paul Zsolnay Verlag , Vienna 1958. (New edition Tübingen 2017: ISBN 978-3-945796-82-5 )
• The fish starts to stink on the head . Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 1960. (New edition Tübingen 2018: ISBN 978-3-96357-006-3 )
• The Germans to the front . Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 1964.
• An alley for truth . WIP Wöss Int. Publ., Vienna 1994.

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Wöss in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Fritz Wöss in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Fritz Wöss in the Internet Movie Database (English)