Heinrich Maier (theologian)

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Heinrich Maier blessing hundreds of people in front of the church at the end of his primary mass in 1932

Heinrich Maier (born February 16, 1908 in Großweikersdorf , † March 22, 1945 in Vienna ) was an Austrian , Roman Catholic priest, educator, philosopher and resistance fighter against Hitler .

Life

Heinrich Maier was born as the son of Heinrich, a former railway clerk, and Katharina Maier, née Giugno, in Großweikersdorf in Lower Austria . The family moved several times following the father's employment. Heinrich Maier attended high school in St. Pölten from 1918 , and that in Leoben from 1926 , where he graduated from high school in June 1926 .

Priest in Austria

Heinrich Maier entered the Vienna seminary on October 9, 1926 and matriculated at the University of Vienna in the same year , where he studied theology until 1928 . 1928 changed Maier, instead of the diseased fellow student Franz Loidl , the "Pontifical German College Hungaricum et" at the Gregorian University in Rome where he scholastic philosophy studied (one of his former Mitkommilitonen was the later Vienna Archbishop Cardinal Franz König ). On July 6, 1929, Maier completed his studies in Rome with the addition of “bene probatus” and received his doctorate “(Laurea) c [um] laude prob [atus]” on July 16, 1930, according to the matriculation entry he is a member of the Catholic student union K.Ö.St.V. Nibelungia in the ÖCV , the only ÖCV association loyal to the emperor in the interwar period, of which Otto Habsburg was the “patron”.

He was ordained a priest on July 24, 1932 and was initially chaplain in Schwarzau im Steinfeld and Mödling . In 1935 he became a deacon in the Gersthof parish church . Since 1936 he was also active as a religion teacher, he taught at the technical and commercial federal college in Mödling, later in Vienna at the secondary school of the "Albertus-Magnus-Schulwerk" of the Marienbrüder in the 18th district in the Semperstrasse. Maier was President of the Marian Children's Congregation and an activist in the Catholic organization life in Vienna, for example as curator of the Austrian Scout Corps St. Georg. He “impressed with charisma and enthusiasm, he had a high level of intelligence and a scientifically sound education, was interested in art and politics and felt a strong inner connection with his home country. Sociability, paired with a warm and open personality, opened up many friendships across all social classes for him; However, he paid particular attention to the care and education of children and young people to become independent and responsible personalities; dealing with them was uncomplicated and friendly ... ". According to contemporary witnesses, Maier was "a real buddy", "a happy person" and "an accurate football player."

With the abolition of religious education in 1938, Maier also lost his position as a teacher, but remained a chaplain in the parish of Vienna-Gerstof-St. Leopold, deepened his theological studies and received his doctorate in July 1942 (second doctorate - theology). He then violated the orders of his church authorities by not only being “purely pastoral” but also politically active.

Resistance to National Socialism

Maier was very involved in the resistance against the National Socialists . As early as May or June 1940, he made contact with resistance groups around Jakob Kaiser , Felix Hurdes , Lois Weinberger , Adolf Schärf and Karl Seitz . Out of his conviction, the Catholic faith and Austrian patriotism, he was a resistance fighter who ultimately did not rule out militant means of suppressing the Nazi regime. Together with the Tyrolean Catholic-monarchist resistance fighter Walter Caldonazzi , who already led a resistance group in Tyrol with the police officer Andreas Hofer , and Franz Josef Messner , the general director of the Semperit-Werke, he founded the Maier-Messner-Caldonazzi resistance group . This Catholic-conservative group is described as "perhaps the most spectacular individual group of the Austrian resistance". The aim of the group was to bring about the end of the regime of terror through a military defeat as quickly as possible and to restore a free and democratic Austria. Maier also held the conviction that the inhuman National Socialist system built on brutality and military power could only be overcome by force and only militarily, so the aim of resistance could only be to weaken the internal and military forces of the Third Reich.

Among other things, the group took care of collecting and passing on information about locations, employees and productions about Nazi armaments factories to the Allies. This information for targeted bombing attacks by the Allies was partly passed on to the British and Americans via intermediaries in Switzerland. Regarding the group's strategy, Heinrich Maier stated in an interrogation on April 27, 1944 that, through information about the "armaments factories in the Ostmark", he had hoped to prevent further air raids on Austrian cities and "that this would prevent the other industries that we had after the war and the civilian population were spared. (...) Shortly afterwards I made Dr. Messner familiar with my plan and talked to him about which armaments centers we wanted to surrender to the enemy powers. We included the armaments factories in Steyr as well as credibly Wiener Neudorf and Wiener Neustadt catch the eye. "

The exact drawings of the V-2 , the production of the Tiger tank and other things could be passed on through Maier's relationship with the Vienna city commander Heinrich Stümpfl . Precise sketches of the situation and production figures from steelworks, weapon, ball-bearing and aircraft factories soon reached Allied general staffs. Walter Caldonazzi made contact with the Heinkel works in Jenbach, where drive components for the Messerschmitt Me 163 and V-2 rockets were manufactured. Maier had received some information from soldiers on leave from the front about the industrial facilities. American and British bombers were able to strike blows to armaments factories such as the secret V-missile factory in Peenemünde and the Messerschmitt works near Vienna. These contributions by the resistance group about the armaments industry and production sites would later prove to be 92 percent correct and were thus an effective contribution to Allied warfare. On the one hand, the Allies were able to hit the armaments industry in a targeted manner and, on the other hand, this information and the subsequent air raids decisively weakened the supply of the German Air Force.

Messner provided the first information about the mass murder of Jews from his Semperit factory near Auschwitz - a message the enormity of which aroused incredulous astonishment among the Americans in Zurich. The plan of the Maier-Messner-Caldonazzi resistance group to bring an American transmitter of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) from Liechtenstein to Austria failed, however. The British SOE was in contact with the Austrian resistance group through its colleague GER Gedye in 1943 , but was not convinced of the reliability of the contact person (Franz Josef Riediger, an employee of Messner) and did not enter into any cooperation due to security concerns.

In addition to establishing contact with allied secret services, the resistance group also tried to enlighten its own compatriots in order to prepare them politically for a future peace order. For this purpose, a central committee or preparatory groups were planned in the event of a collapse of the German Empire and a future state with a monarchical form of government, independent of Germany, to which Bavaria and South Tyrol were to belong in addition to Austria. The inner circle of the resistance group included Helene Sokal and her future husband, the chemist Theodor Legradi, who had international connections to the communist resistance, among others, the doctor Josef Wyhnal and the student Hermann Klepell . Klepell had connections with socialist circles, while another member, the communist Pawlin, established connections with the KPÖ . Leaflets were written in which Hitler was described as the "traitor of the German people" or "greatest criminal of all time charged with curse" and militarism as the "shame of our century". The leaflets also say "Only a madman or criminal like Hitler still speaks of victory. The inevitable end is coming. Why sacrifice thousands of people?" or "Hitler, the prisoner of his dreams of glory! That criminal who, because of his ambition, plunges an entire people into the abyss." These leaflet campaigns in particular cost money, some of which was raised by the Americans. The transfer of money from the Americans to Vienna via Istanbul and Budapest was one of the reasons why the Gestapo tracked down the group.

Arrest and conviction

Some members of the group were gradually arrested from February 1944 after being betrayed. Heinrich Maier was arrested by the Gestapo on March 28, 1944 in his parish in Vienna-Gersthof in the sacristy after Holy Mass and taken to the prison in the former Hotel Métropole on Morzinplatz. During the hours of interrogation by the Gestapo, confessions were then obtained through torture (according to the interrogation protocols: "stated after detailed questioning"). Maier was later transferred to the police prison on the Elisabethpromenade (today Rossauer Lände) and on September 16, 1944 to the prison of Regional Court I in cell No. E 307.

In the secret people's court hearings on October 27 and 28, 1944, a total of eight death sentences were passed against Heinrich Maier, Walter Caldonazzi, Franz Josef Messner, Andreas Hofer, Josef Wyhnal, Hermann Klepell, Wilhelm Ritsch and Clemens von Pausinger . The indictment was “preparation for high treason” by “participating in a separatist alliance” . The chairman of the People's Court Albrecht is said to have asked Maier, because he tried to exonerate the other co-defendants, "What do you get if you take the blame of others?", To which he replied, "Mr. Rat, I probably won't need anything more!" . In the judgment of the People's Court it is stated that, on the one hand, according to the credible statements of the Gestapo officials, no unlawful means of coercion of any kind were used against any prisoner to obtain statements and, on the other hand, all attempts by Maier to take the full blame on himself were completely implausible. Regarding the motives or thoughts of Maier with regard to the transmission of information about arms, steel and aircraft factories to the Allies, the People's Court stated: "The destruction of armories should affect German armaments production and thus shorten the war; in addition, the" independent Austria should be "In this way, the industries necessary for peacebuilding are preserved intact and the settlements are spared."

After his conviction, Maier was taken to Mauthausen concentration camp on November 22, 1944 . He was tortured for months before he was executed in order to obtain more information about the group. He was also crucified naked on a window cross.

Caldonazzi was beheaded in the Vienna Regional Court in January 1945 and Messner was gassed in Mauthausen concentration camp in April 1945 . On March 18, 1945 Maier was brought back to Vienna together with Leopold Figl, Felix Hurdes and Lois Weinberger. In the period up to his execution he was used to defuse unexploded bombs and explosive devices in various districts of Vienna. Alfred Missong reports that Maier approached death with deeply impressive composure. Chaplain Heinrich Maier was beheaded in the Vienna Regional Court on March 22, 1945 at 6:40 p.m. His last words were “Long live Christ the King! Long live Austria! "

Works

  • The struggle for the correct concept of church in the late Middle Ages. Represented by Marsilius von Paduas: “Defensor Pacis” and Johannes von Torquemadas: “Summa de Ecclesia”. Dissertation to obtain the theological doctorate at the Revered Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna, Vienna 1939.

Reception in art

Honors

Street sign Dr.-Heinrich-Maier-Straße with additional board
  • 1945 Grave of honor in Vienna : Cemetery in Neustift am Walde , group E, row 1, grave 13
  • 1949 naming of Dr.-Heinrich-Maier-Strasse in Vienna- Pötzleinsdorf , 1995 the street sign was given an additional board
  • 1970 Installation of a glass window in the Viennese Votive Church with a depicted scene from the Mauthausen concentration camp, whereby the prisoner with the blessing hand is chaplain Heinrich Maier while listening to the confession next to the death stairs forbidden
  • 1988 memorial plaque in front of the Gersthofer parish church St. Leopold
  • 1995 Honorary speech by Richard Schmitz , district chairman of the 1st district of Vienna (he was baptized by Heinrich Maier in 1940)
  • In 1996 a tree was planted in his honor in front of the Gersthof parish church of St. Leopold
  • 2008 for the 100th birthday: Commemoration in the documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance with compositions by Renate Spitzner and Gerald Spitzner
  • In 2010 in the newly opened Abbot Johannes Dizent Museum in Paudorf-Göttweig, Heinrich Maier is remembered in a memorial room.
  • In the Gersthof parish church stands the Kaplan Heinrich Maier statue of the headless caller by the artist Hans Schwabenicky (donated by Dean Norbert Rodt)
  • There is a memorial plaque in the parish church of Großweikersdorf

literature

  • Siegfried Beer : "Arcel / Cassia / Redbird". The Maier-Messner resistance group and the American military intelligence service OSS in Bern, Istanbul and Algiers 1943–1944. In: DÖW (ed.): Yearbook 1993. Vienna 1993, pp. 75–100.
  • Herbert Exenberger : Antifascist city guide. Vienna Education Committee of the SPÖ, Vienna 1986.
  • Ildefons M. Fux : For Christ and Austria. Perfectae Caritatis, 2001, ISBN 3-9501402-0-4 .
  • Benedicta Maria Kempner : Priest before Hitler's tribunals. Rütten & Loening, Munich 1966.
  • Franz Loidl : Chaplain Heinrich Maier again. In: Vienna Catholic Academy, working group for ecclesiastical history and Vienna diocesan history. Series 3, No. 172, Vienna 1987, pp. 27ff.
  • Norbert Rodt, Anton Hecht, Ernst Degasperi : Testimony of the Resurrection. Documents and pictures from the life of the priest Heinrich Maier. Tyrolia, Innsbruck / Vienna 1995, ISBN 978-3-7022-1981-9 .
  • Ursula Rumpler:  MAIER, Heinrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 27, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-393-2 , Sp. 885-899.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Ralf Siebenbürger: Heinrich Maier - A pastor in the resistance. In: The freedom fighter. 63rd Volume, No. 41, May 2014, pp. 8-10.
  • Herbert Steiner : Sentenced to Death: Austrians against Hitler. A documentation. Europa Verlag, Vienna / Cologne / Stuttgart / Zurich 1964.
  • Erika Weinzierl : Catholic priests in the resistance. In: M. Liebmann, H. Paarhammer, A. Rinnerthaler (eds.): State and Church in the "Ostmark". Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 978-3-631-32164-5 , pp. 473-500.

Sources and individual references

  1. ↑ a b c Katharina Kniefacz, Herbert Posch: Heinrich Maier. In: Memorial Book for the Victims of National Socialism at the University of Vienna in 1938. University of Vienna , January 11, 2017, accessed on August 3, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Ekkart Sauser : BBKL XXII . Publishing house Traugott Bautz, Nordhausen 2003.
  3. ↑ See Wolfgang Schmitz in Hecht, Rauch, Rodt: Geköpft für Christus & Österreich (1995), p. 43.
  4. ↑ Ursula Rumpler:  Maier, Heinrich. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 27, Bautz, Nordhausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-88309-393-2 , Sp. 885-899.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive  on 2007-06-29)
  5. ↑ Cf. Hecht, Rauch, Rodt: Beheaded for Christ & Austria. (1995), p. 93.
  6. ↑ a b c d Hansjakob Stehle : The spies from the rectory. In: The time. January 5, 1996.
  7. ↑ Horst Schreiber , Christopher Grüner (Hrsg.): Those who died for the freedom of Austria: The liberation monument in Innsbruck. Processes of remembering. Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck 2016, p. 72.
  8. ↑ Fritz Molden : The fire in the night. Victims and meaning of the Austrian resistance 1938-1945 . Amalthea , Vienna 1988, p. 122.
  9. ^ Franz Loidl : Chaplain Heinrich Maier - a victim of the National Socialist system of violence in: Herbert Schambeck (ed.): Church and State. Fritz Eckert on his 65th birthday . Duncker & Humblot , Vienna 1976, pp. 271-292.
  10. ^ A b Peter Broucek : Military Resistance: Studies on the Austrian State Conception and National Socialist Defense . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-77728-1 , The Austrian Identity in Resistance 1938–1945, pp. 163 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  11. ^ Gerhard Jagschitz: Speech in the Church of St. Leopold - Gersthof about Kaplan GDR. Heinrich Maier, Easter Monday, March 28, 2005.
  12. ↑ a b c d Andrea Hurton, Hans Schafranek : Im Netz der Verräter. In: derStandard.at . June 4, 2010. Retrieved August 3, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Gisela Hormayr: The resistance against the Nazi regime. In: Wilfried Beimrohr (Ed.): Zeitgeschichtliche Streiflichter: Tyrol in the First Republic, under National Socialism and in the post-war period, Innsbruck 2010, p. 226 ff.
  14. ↑ See Peter Pirker "Super version of German rule. The British secret service SOE and Austria" (2012), p. 252 ff.
  15. ↑ Peter Pirker: "Whirlwind" in Istanbul. Secret services and exile resistance using the example of Stefan Wirlandner . In: DÖW (ed.): Yearbook 2009: Focus on armed resistance - resistance in the military . Lit Verlag , Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-643-50010-6 , p. 117 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  16. ↑ See judgment of the People's Court GZ 5H 96/44 u. a., p. 10ff.
  17. ↑ See judgment of the People's Court GZ 5H 96/44 u. a., p. 7ff.
  18. ↑ See judgment of the People's Court GZ 5H 96/44 u. a., p. 21ff.
  19. ↑ See judgment of the People's Court GZ 5 H 96/44 u. a., p. 12.
  20. ↑ Cf. Hecht, Rauch, Rodt: Beheaded for Christ & Austria . (1995), p. 121.
  21. ^ Heinrich Maier (theologian) in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna .
  22. ^ Abbot Johannes Dizent Museum opens. In: pfarre-paudorf.com . 2010, accessed July 29, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Maier  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Maier, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian priest and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Großweikersdorf
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1945
Place of death Vienna