Fritz Weissenbeck

Fritz Weissenbeck (born July 1, 1920 in Lannach , † October 1, 1949 in Vienna ) was an Austrian communist, resistance fighter against National Socialism and a leading functionary of the Free Austrian Youth.

Life

Friedrich ("Fritz") Weissenbeck was born on July 1, 1920 in Lannach in Styria. The son of a working-class family, he came to Vienna at the age of four. After four years of elementary school and four years of middle school, he completed a two-year textile school. In 1932 he joined the Red Falcons . After February 1934 and the ban on social democratic organizations, he switched to the illegal Communist Youth Association (KJV). In 1935 Weissenbeck was arrested for throwing flyers and expelled from the textile school. He was released after being detained by the police for two weeks. In the course of a general amnesty, he was able to finish school in 1936.

In February 1938 Fritz Weiss Beck went to Spain to during the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republic against Franco's fascism to fight. From March 1938 he was a member of the 1st Battalion ("Edgar André") of the 11th International Brigade . Weissenbeck was wounded in a firefight as part of the Ebro offensive . From February 1939 to October 1940 he was interned in French camps, first in Saint-Cyprien , then in Camp de Gurs and finally in the internment camp in Argelès-sur-Mer . Weissenbeck was transferred to the KPÖ in the Gurs camp.

When the KPÖ asked the Austrian volunteers from Spain in the French camps to return to Austria in order to offer political resistance, Weissenbeck surrendered to the German authorities in Bordeaux. In November 1940 he was transferred to Saarbrücken and from there to the Vienna Gestapo . The legal proceedings against him for preparation for high treason have been dropped. On August 7, 1941, he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp and from there to the Ravensbrück concentration camp on July 2, 1942 .

In Ravensbrück, Weissenbeck was Kapo of the weaving department and, as a representative of Austria, was a member of the illegal anti-fascist camp committee. When the camp was cleared at the end of April 1945, he managed to escape. He returned to Vienna on May 19, 1945, where he was initially active in the youth work of the KPÖ and from 1946 as a functionary of the Free Austrian Youth (FÖJ). From January 1946 to 1949 he was chairman ("Stadtleiter") of the Vienna FÖJ and from May 1946 to 1949 deputy federal chairman. In addition, from 1945 to 1949 he was a member of the city management of the Vienna Communist Party. Since the 14th party congress in autumn 1948 he was a candidate for the Central Committee of the KPÖ.

On October 1, 1949, Fritz Weissenbeck had a fatal accident in a traffic accident. He was married to Margit (née Brabec) and had a son of the same name.

literature

• Manfred Mugrauer: “People's tribune with abuse”. On the 100th birthday of the Spanish fighter Fritz Weissenbeck (1920–1949) , in: Mitteilungen der Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft, 27.Jg. (2020), No. 2, pp. 6–12.