Hans Sidonius Becker

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Hans Sidonius Becker (born September 21, 1895 in Pula in Istria , Austria-Hungary , † December 16, 1948 in Santiago de Chile ) was an Austrian author , painter and resistance fighter . He was one of the co-founders of the Austrian resistance group O5 .

Life

Hans Sidonius Becker was born on September 21, 1895 as the son of the Imperial and Royal Rear Admiral and head of the Naval Academy Fiume Alois Ritter von Becker (1842–1900) in Pula. and in 1913 did his Matura at the kuk state high school there . He then studied in Vienna and at the same time enrolled at the University of Vienna for law and at the School of Applied Arts for painting and architecture. However, the First World War soon broke out, and Hans Sidonius Becker was drafted into military service. At the end of the war he was first lieutenant .

After the war he first became a bank clerk. From 1922 to 1928 he worked on behalf of the Federal Press Service in Latin America . Back in Vienna, from 1930 to 1935 he was a member of the Hagenbund Artists' Association , the most progressive representation of visual artists in Austria . On 24 March 1929 he was in the Loge future of the Grand Lodge of Vienna added, one of his guarantor was the specialist, Karl Kraus trailers and confessing Social Democrat Victor Hammer . In the same year he married Annie Lieser, the daughter of Henriette Amalie Lieser . His wife and son had to flee Austria in 1938 because of their Jewish origins and were able to escape to the USA .

In 1934 Becker joined the Fatherland Front and became head of the propaganda department , reporting directly to Secretary General Walter Adam . He was particularly involved in the fight against National Socialism . He should not have been a real supporter of Austrofascism and is described as a rather liberal conservative , but he was a resolute opponent of the "Nazi danger". In his work and his struggle he felt abandoned by his own government as a result of the July 1936 agreement , as did others. As early as 1937 he demanded the creation of an office within the Secretariat of the Fatherland Front, which in the event of an annexation of Austria should serve as a platform for the coordination of combat measures against National Socialism.

It is unusual that, as an important member of the Patriotic Front, he did not quit Freemasonry. The relationship between the government and the grand lodge was more than tense. B. for a civil servant in the corporate state forbidden to be a Freemason. In January 1938 he was elected to the board of the Austrian League of Nations , the sister organization of the German League for the League of Nations .

After the troops of the German Reich marched into Austria on March 12, 1938 , Hans Sidonius Becker was arrested on March 14 and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on April 1, 1938 with the first transport of prominent people . In September 1939 he was transferred to the Mauthausen concentration camp and released in December 1940.

He returned to Vienna and studied ethnology ; In 1941 he was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD. In order to be able to remarry, he divorced Annie Lieser in 1943. Although he was observed by the Gestapo , it was not noticed that he was still politically active against the National Socialists and co-founded the resistance group O5 . He was arrested again on February 28, 1945 and deported to Mauthausen concentration camp on April 1, 1945.

After the war he tried in vain to make a career in the ÖVP . As a result he became a diplomat . After Austrian Freemasonry was re-established after the ban and persecution by National Socialism, in 1945 he joined the Humanitas Renata Collection Lodge , the Viennese lodge that brought together the 48 surviving Freemasons who were left of the approx. 800 Viennese Freemasons from before 1938 stayed. After he had to leave Vienna as a diplomat, he became a foreign member of the newly founded Lodge Zukunft on September 20, 1946 .

Becker became Consul General of Austria in Brazil in March 1947 and subsequently Chargé d' affaires of the Republic of Austria in Chile . On December 16, 1948, he was murdered by one of his employees in Santiago de Chile . The investigations revealed that it was a jealousy attack.

Works

  • Austria's struggle for freedom. The resistance movement in its historical significance. Publishing house d. Free Union d. ÖVP, Vienna 1946.
  • Reform or new building? On administrative reform. Free Union Publishing House, Vienna 1947.
  • Johannes Sydonius Ritter von Becker. From his work in the Austrian democratic resistance movement. Edited from his estate by DÖW , No. 12032/2.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard Urbanek: Denial of reality or panic reaction? Patriotic communication policy in Austria . Master's thesis at the Faculty of History and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna , 2011, p. 18.
  2. ^ Lost Modernity: The Hagen Artists Association 1900–1938 An exhibition by the Austrian Gallery Vienna in Halbturn Palace. Exhibition catalog, Halbturn 1993 dnb , p. 239.
  3. ↑ Günter K. Kodek: Our building blocks are the people. The members of the Viennese Masonic lodges 1869–1938. Löcker, Vienna, 2009 ISBN 978-3-85409-512-5 , p. 34.
  4. ↑ Dieter Wunderlich: Alma Mahler-Werfel (biography). In: www.dieterwunderlich.de. 2008, accessed November 7, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b c Norbert Knittler: The lost suitcase. A History of Austrian Freemasonry during National Socialism . Self-published research company Quatuor Coronati, Vienna 2004, p. 39.
  6. ↑ Gerhard Urbanek: Denial of reality or panic reaction? Patriotic communication policy in Austria . Master's thesis at the Faculty of History and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna , 2011, p. 19.
  7. ↑ Fritz Molden : The fire in the night . Amalthea, Vienna / Munich 1988, ISBN 3-85002-262-5 , p. 31 .
  8. ^ Marcus G. Patka: Austrian Freemasons in National Socialism. Böhlau, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78546-0 , p. 116.
  9. ↑ Illustration of the transport list at the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (PDF; 765 kB).
  10. ↑ Title of the dissertation: Lengua and Kaiotugui. Indian studies in the Chaco Boreal
  11. ^ Marcus G. Patka: Austrian Freemasons in National Socialism. Böhlau, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-205-78546-0 , p. 173.
  12. ↑ Günter K. Kodek: Our building blocks are the people. The members of the Viennese Masonic lodges 1869–1938. Löcker, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-85409-512-5 , p. 35.
  13. ^ Günter K. Kodek: The chain of hearts remains closed. Members of the Austrian Masonic lodges 1945 to 1985. Löcker, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-85409-706-8 , p. 19 .
  14. ↑ Gerhard Urbanek: Denial of reality or panic reaction? Patriotic communication policy in Austria . Master's thesis at the Faculty of History and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna , 2011, p. 20.
personal data
SURNAME Becker, Hans Sidonius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Becker, Hans; von Becker, Hans Sidonius; Becker, Hans S.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Artist, author, freemason and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Pula
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1948
Place of death Santiago de Chile