Georg Weissel (resistance fighter)

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Illustration by Georg Weissel
Fire station Am Spitz of the Viennese professional fire brigade , which Weissel managed in 1934 as the main fire station of Floridsdorf at the time
The grave of Georg Weissel
Memorial stone of the central fire station Am Hof, Vienna Inner City
Street sign with additional sign

Georg Weissel (born March 28, 1899 in Vienna ; † February 15, 1934 there ) was an Austrian chemist and officer in the Viennese professional fire brigade , most recently in the rank of high commissioner . He led the Floridsdorfer Schutzbund in the February fights in 1934 and was sentenced to death after his capture.

Life

Weissel became a member of the Socialist Students and Friends of Nature while studying chemistry at the Vienna University of Technology. In 1922 he acquired the title of engineer and in 1925 joined the professional fire department in Vienna . Weissel was already in command of the Schutzbund department of the Vienna Fire Brigade from 1927 , but he withdrew from the post because of disputes. It was only in 1933, when the Schutzbund had already been banned by the Austrofascists , that it resumed its illegal activities.

On February 13, 1934, as guard commander of the Viennese professional fire brigade , he led the firefighters in the Floridsdorf district of Vienna to offer armed resistance against the security forces of the Dollfuss regime . The resistance failed. The federal security guard finally stormed the main fire station in Floridsdorf. Weissel was reported for "objection and rebellion" by a court martial in the Regional Court II sentenced to death , and in the early morning hours of February 15, around 1 am, the Regional Court of Vienna by the executioner Johann Lang on Würgegalgen executed .

In addition to Weissel, the Schutzbund commanders Emil Swoboda and Karl Münichreiter (who was seriously injured as a result of the fighting) were also hanged in Vienna after the February fighting . The bodies of the executed were not given to the relatives, but anonymously buried in secret: despite all the secrecy trials informed the underground spread "Arbeiter-Zeitung" on April 8, 1934 its readers over the graves of the Vienna February fallen: "With the help of cemetery workers succeeded in finding the graves of Weissel and Münichreiter in the central cemetery, which had been buried in the fog and night after the execution. Weissel's grave is in Group 87, Row 42, Number 12; Münichreiter's grave is in group 35, row 25, number 5. “ Münichreiter's widow was finally able to get her husband's body exhumed and cremated in the Simmering fire hall according to his will . Weissel's grave is still at the aforementioned location at the Vienna Central Cemetery (3rd gate).

Since 1947, the memorial to the firefighters murdered by fascism at the Vienna fire station Am Hof ​​has been commemorating Weissel and five victims of the Nazi judiciary, the communists Ludwig Ebhart , Josef Schwaiger , Rudolf Haider , Hermann Plackholm and Johann Zak . The memorial was designed by Mario Petrucci and shows a decapitated firefighter with his head in his right arm.

In 1948 a grave monument for Georg Weissel was erected in the central cemetery. In Floridsdorf, after the Second World War, the Weisselgasse next to the main fire station and the Georg-Weissel-Hof in Richtgasse , as well as the Weisselbad - a now abandoned Tröpferlbad - were named after him. The Georg-Weissel-Heim is also located in the Säulengasse in Vienna-Alsergrund .

Weissel left behind his wife Maria and his son Erwin. Erwin Weissel (1930–2005) later became professor for social, economic and financial policy at the University of Vienna .

See also

literature

  • Joseph T. Simon: Georg Weissel. In: Norbert Leser (Ed.): Work and Reverberation - Large figures of Austrian socialism . Verlag der Wiener Volksbuchhandlung, Vienna 1964, pp. 425–441.
  • Short biography of Georg Weissel. In: Josef Fiala: The February fights 1934 in Vienna Meidling and Liesing. A civil war that wasn't . Dissertation, University of Vienna, 2012; univie.ac.at (PDF) pp. 177–179.

Web links

Commons : Georg Weissel (resistance fighter)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the victims from 1934 to 1945. Unveiling of the sacrificial memorial in the central cemetery - a grave memorial for Weissel . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 27, 1948, p. 3 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  2. ↑ othes.univie.ac.at p. 180.
  3. ↑ For the victims from 1934 to 1945. Unveiling of the sacrificial memorial in the central cemetery - a grave memorial for Weissel . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 27, 1948, p. 3 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  4. ↑ For the victims from 1934 to 1945. Unveiling of the sacrificial memorial in the central cemetery - a grave memorial for Weissel . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 27, 1948, p. 3 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  5. ^ Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Gedenken und Mahnen in Vienna 1934-1945. Vienna 1998, p. 434f.
  6. ^ Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Gedenken und Mahnen in Vienna 1934-1945. Vienna 1998, p. 194f.
personal data
SURNAME Weissel, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian resistance fighter, commander of the Republican Protection Association
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1934
Place of death Vienna