Hans Arnhold (politician)

Hans Arnhold (born March 27, 1911 in Bergwerk (municipality of Mariasdorf) , † November 17, 1989 in Vienna ) was an Austrian politician ( NSDAP ) and teacher. Arnhold was the Deputy Gauleiter of Burgenland and a member of the Burgenland Parliament .

Life

Arnhold was a graduate of the Evangelical Teacher Training Institute in Oberschützen and worked professionally as a teacher. He joined the Hitler Youth in 1928 and was a member of the NSDAP (membership number 1,500,000) and the SA from 1933 . In 1935 he also joined the SS (membership number 289.763), where from 1938 he held the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer . After the NSDAP was banned in Austria in 1933, Arnhold was active as an "illegal alien" alongside Tobias Portschy and was imprisoned in the Wöllersdorf camp between June 1934 and September 1934 due to his National Socialist activities . In March 1937 Arnhold took over the office of deputy Gauleiter of Burgenland, after the " Anschluss of Austria " to the German Reich he was also appointed by Portschy as a member of the state parliament and officially as deputy Gauleiter on March 15, 1938. Arnhold held the function of deputy Gauleiter until May 1938 and was also district and district organization leader as well as district election officer in the preparation of the "referendum" for the "Anschluss". After that he was active from May on in the staff of Reich Commissioner Josef Bürckel , in 1939 he became district leader of Vienna District IX and head of the Gau Propaganda Office.

After the outbreak of World War II , he volunteered for the Waffen SS in 1940 and did his military service there until 1943. From October 1943 to January 1945 he was again district leader of Vienna districts IX and I, and he also acted as section leader for the construction of the south-east wall . After that, from the beginning of 1945 he was a liaison officer between Reich Defense Commissioner Baldur von Schirach and Army Group South in Potsdam. He received the golden HJ decoration and the service award of the NSDAP in silver and bronze.

After the Second World War, Arnhold was sentenced to four years' imprisonment and financial collapse for high treason and “illegality”. On the other hand, he was acquitted of the charge of activity as district leader, as the People's Court assumed, on the basis of his cumulative offices, that he had been appointed or had been appointed as district leader. This acquittal was overturned on March 10, 1950, but Arnhold was acquitted again in the retrial. The investigations against him in the course of clearing up his responsibility for the construction of the south-east wall and the murder of Hungarian-Jewish forced laborers did not lead to any charges being brought.

From 1960 to 1977 Arnhold was director of the sales company of Austrian tube works.

literature

• Susanne Uslu-Pauer, Eva Holpfer: Before the people's court. Proceedings against Nazi perpetrators from Burgenland 1945–1955 (= Burgenland Research. 96). Office of the Burgenland Provincial Government - Main Section Provincial Archives and Provincial Library, Eisenstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-901517-59-4 .