Heinz Fink

Under the name of Heinz Fink , a German citizen took part in anti-communist bomb attacks and propaganda campaigns in western Styria, Austria, after the end of the Second World War . Fink described himself as the leader of a group of insurgents who appeared as "Austria's monarchist partisans". In 1949 he was convicted by a British military tribunal with several accomplices .

Life

Personal details

The personal data of the assassin are not proven beyond doubt. At least in the post-war period he gave his name to Heinz Fink, and occasionally Heinrich Fink; At times he was also known as "the Berghofbauer". According to his own statements, he was born in Miami in 1908 . On the occasion of criminal proceedings, the Austrian press published findings from the investigation in April 1948, according to which Fink was actually called Bruno Ernst Malmede and was born on May 23, 1902 in Styrum an der Ruhr . In a more recent publication on the series of attacks, however, the name Malmede is not mentioned.

Pre-war and war years

According to a press release, Fink was repeatedly convicted of fraud in Germany under the name Bruno Ernst Malmede in the 1930s, most recently in 1940 to three years' imprisonment for recidivist fraud. According to statements by resistance fighters, he is said to have sought contact with the resistance against National Socialism in the Mödling district during the Second World War, further under the name Malmede, pretending to be the head of the American espionage service for Austria. He later used these contacts to blackmail the fighters and ultimately to betray them to the Gestapo .

In 1942 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht , but deserted after his unit had been transferred to the front. He was denounced and imprisoned. After several attempts to escape from prisons, he was interned in Mauthausen concentration camp , from where he managed to escape in February 1945. He stayed with a woman in Lower Austria who hid him from the authorities.

After the end of the war

Fink fled to Styria , where he and several foreigners approached the mayor of Kalwang as an alleged freedom fighter and, under threat of violence, forced him to issue freedom fighter confirmations. Then he acted as the public administrator of a former Nazi company near Liezen , from which he embezzled funds. In November 1945 Fink appeared as a speaker at a mass rally of the ÖVP in the Vienna Sofiensaele . He was finally arrested on the basis of reports of embezzlement and brought before the Liezen District Court. He managed to escape again from the prison there and hid in Waldstein near Deutschfeistritz from February to October 1947 before moving on to the Gleinalm area in December . During this time, Fink's role as the leader of the monarchist partisans falls.

Attacks and propaganda

On the morning of September 6, 1947, there was an explosive attack on the party venue of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) in Gratkorn , which damaged the building. Monarchist leaflets were found at the crime scene.

On the morning of October 22, 1947, leaflets were found in front of the gendarmerie posts, the rectory and the Zottler inn in Geistthal . Another distribution of leaflets in Geistthal took place on the night of November 2nd. On the night of November 15, a total of ten buildings in the village were painted with the slogans “Long live the monarchs”, “Cheer up the monarchs”, “Long live Kaiser Otto ”, “Away with the bartenders, Fink”. Another leaflet campaign took place on the night of November 24th in Kainach near Voitsberg . The flyers drawn by Fink, who called himself Berghofbauer , and a chief of staff, Holder, advertised the monarchist party and threatened violence against the Communist Party of Austria. The leaflet campaign was repeated in Kainach on the night of December 6th, and leaflets were distributed in Maria Lankowitz the following night .

In Gratkorn on December 13th, strangers placed a bomb on the doorstep of Elisabeth Bock, whose foster son Raimund Zach was chairman of the KPÖ in Peggau from January 1946 to July 1947 . On the night of December 14th there was another leaflet campaign, this time in Bärnbach . The schoolhouse in Södingberg was smeared on the night of December 23rd with the slogan “Fink smashes the parties, come to the Monarchi follows us”. On the night of December 29th, a residential building in Köflach was marked with the inscription “King Otto 13. 13. 38 Fink”, the sequence of numbers being Fink's prisoner number.

The most important action took place on December 30, 1947, when at 1.45 a.m., an explosives attack was carried out on the gendarmerie post in Geistthal. However, the explosive charge thrown in front of the entrance door of the post did not detonate. Seven shots were fired at the building from an infantry rifle. In addition to the failed attack in Geistthal, there were bomb attacks on the communist party bars in Frohnleiten and Gratkorn, which were damaged in the process. Alfred Fleischhacker also destroyed the barracks of the CPA at the Graz Lendkai near the Keplerbrücke by an explosive charge.

Arrest and conviction

Heinz Fink was arrested after a manhunt on December 31st in the house of the electrician Franz Payer in Hochtregist . A pistol hidden under a head cushion was seized. In addition to Fink, 22 other people were arrested, including the Gratwein printer owner Peter Klinger, who printed the leaflets. A total of 16 of the people were tried in Graz in February 1948 before the British middle military court . The charge was unlawful possession of weapons and explosives. Fink testified before the military tribunal that the Field Security Section (FSS) knew about the weapons and explosives but did nothing about it. The FSS denied in court that they knew about the guns or had been in contact with Fink. He agreed that he was under oath and therefore could not say where or from whom he had received the weapons. Furthermore, because of his fear of the Russians, he sees himself justified in carrying a weapon.

All of the accused were found guilty. Heinz Fink was later sentenced to a total of seven years in prison by the Graz Regional Court.

Johann Pagger was sentenced to four years in prison for the shots fired at the gendarmerie post in Geistthal . Johann Kink testified that he had carried out the attacks on the communist party bars in Frohnleiten and Gratkorn on Fink's instructions. Kink was sentenced to three years in prison. Alfred Fleischhacker took part in the demolition of the Graz KPÖ barracks and distributed leaflets in Graz with the assurance of clothing and supplies from the partisans. Fleischhacker and the members Rudolf Schlatzer, Johann Kreiner and Simon Wagner were each sentenced to three years in prison. The printer's owner Peter Klinger, who had printed the movement's leaflets, and member Johann Jantscher each received two years' imprisonment. The other members accused received sentences ranging from two years to six months.

literature

• Walter Brunner (Ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district. Volume 1 (= Great historical regional studies of Styria. Volume 5). Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, ISBN 978-3-901938-23-8 , p. 198.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} NN:  "Berghofbauer" Heinz Fink - really Malmede. In:  Wiener Zeitung , April 30, 1948, p. 2 (online at ANNO ). .
2. ^ ^{A b c} Walter Brunner (Ed.): History and topography of the Voitsberg district . tape 1 . Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv, Graz 2011, p. 198 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Monarchist partisan leader - OeVP agitator. In:  Austrian Volksstimme. Central organ of the Communist Party of Austria , October 9, 1947, p. 3 (online at ANNO ). .
4. ^ Ernst Reinhold Lasnik : Bärnbach. From village to city . Municipality of Bärnbach, Bärnbach 2007, p.  140 .
5. ↑ ^{a b} Ingo Mirsch: The history of the market town of Gratkorn . Ed .: Marktgemeinde Gratkorn. Gratkorn 1997, p. 258 .
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} ACA:  "Rebel" Fink before the military court. In:  Weltpresse. Evening edition , February 20, 1948, p. 2 (online at ANNO ). .
7. ↑ APA:  The "Berghof Bauer" before the military court. In:  Weltpresse. Evening edition , February 18, 1948, p. 2 (online at ANNO ). .
8. ↑ The "Berghofbauer" in court. In:  Workers will. Social democratic organ of the Alpine countries / workers will. Organ of the working people of the Alpine countries / workers will. Organ of the working people for Styria and Carinthia / workers will. Organ of the working people for Styria, Carinthia (and Carniola) Neue Zeit. Organ of the Styrian Socialist Party , February 20, 1948, p. 3 (online at ANNO ). .
9. ↑ ^{a b} EM:  Seven years in prison for Fink. In:  Workers will. Social democratic organ of the Alpine countries / workers will. Organ of the working people of the Alpine countries / workers will. Organ of the working people for Styria and Carinthia / workers will. Organ of the working people for Styria, Carinthia (and Carniola) Neue Zeit. Organ of the Styrian Socialist Party , February 21, 1948, p. 2 (online at ANNO ). .