Herbert Killian

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Herbert Killian (born November 24, 1926 in Korneuburg ; † June 26, 2017 ) was an Austrian historian and emeritus university professor for forest history at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna . He is known as the “ Nestor of Forest History” in Austria. As a young man, Killian was deported to Siberia for over six years (1947–1953) and served three years of it in Soviet custody in Kolyma .

Life

Youth, school days and World War II

Herbert Killian is the third child of an AHS teacher and the great-nephew of Natalie Bauer-Lechner , Gustav Mahler's confidante for many years . He completed elementary school in his hometown of Korneuburg and from 1938 to 1943 the secondary school in Stockerau .

In September 1943 he was drafted as an air force helper and served as such in Fischamend and Ternitz . After completing the Reich Labor Service in Poland , he was drafted into the German armed forces . In January 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Americans in France , from which he tried to escape twice. The first attempt failed after a short time, the second in March 1945 was successful, and he made his way, first together with a comrade, then alone, via Verdun to Lorraine and finally to the Rhineland . From there he came back in an adventurous way to his homeland in July 1945, which was now in the Soviet occupation zone . From September 1945 he attended the 7th grade and then the 8th grade of the Realgymnasium in Stockerau. In June 1947 he also passed the written school leaving examination there .

Abduction, conviction, imprisonment and “release” in the Soviet Union

On June 8, 1947, a few days before taking the oral school-leaving examination, Killian felt disturbed while studying by the noisy children of Soviet occupation soldiers in front of his room window, whereupon he slapped one of the boys several times. This led to his arrest and sentencing before a Soviet military court in Vienna for "hooliganism" to three years imprisonment. However, he could not compete in Austria, but was deported via Ödenburg (Sopron) and Lemberg to Kolyma (Northeast Siberia), an area about 2000 kilometers north of Japan on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk near Alaska , where he was imprisoned in various Gulag labor camps. In the same forty-four-day train journey to Wanino and ship transport to Magadan , the administrative center of the Dalstroi Gulag camp complex in the far north of the Soviet Union, Karl Fischer and Kurt Seipel were among a few other Austrians , whom he did not meet at the time. He only met Kurt Seipel in Austria in the 1990s.

In the first volume of his three-part autobiography , Killian reports in detail about this time. During the years of imprisonment, Killian worked under inhumane conditions, for example as a gold prospector . Even at temperatures below −50 ° C in deep snow, he had to collect the needles of the dwarf stone pine . The daily target was 80 kilograms of needles. Since this could not be achieved, the already meager food rations were further reduced. Once he tried to flee and found himself in a hopeless situation. After several days he was lucky to find his way back to the camp. He fell seriously ill several times, but was repeatedly nursed back to health to such an extent that he could be reassigned to work. According to his own statements, he discovered the Christian faith during his detention . His family in Austria knew nothing about his fate in those years, he was not allowed to conduct any correspondence . Killian further describes, “that a maximum of 20 Austrians, i. H. one percent of the Austrians abducted by the Soviets were imprisoned in the Kolyma camps ”, as he was told by a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences during a visit to Magadan in 2002 . He had known 13 of them personally. The length of stay in Kolyma varied for each individual and ranged from a few months to many years.

In 1950, Killian was released from prison. However, he could not return to Austria because the Soviets did not issue him an exit visa . Apart from that, he was only allowed to move freely within a radius of 20 kilometers. So he had no choice but to look for work in Kolyma. He was employed as a medic in a hospital in Jagodny. In addition, he worked in the household of a head nurse at the hospital. From this time he was able to get in touch with his parents in Austria again. According to Killian's autobiography, at the beginning of 1952, Lieutenant Colonel Shevelov, the head of the Soviet State Security Agency in Magadan, the official predecessor organization of the KGB , offered him an early return to Austria if he would work as a spy for the USSR , which he did however refused.

His efforts to obtain an exit visa, in which he was also supported by the Austrian embassy in Moscow , were successful in 1953: in November Killian was able to return to Austria, although the return trip turned out to be quite adventurous. In the second volume of his autobiography, he reports on his life as a “freedman” in the Soviet Union.

Back in Austria

On November 9, 1953, Killian returned to Austria. The living conditions had changed a lot in the meantime and it was very difficult for him to return to a normal life at first. From 1954 Killian worked initially as a forestry apprentice in a manorial company, from 1955 in the Federal Forest Research Institute Vienna (FBVA). In 1954 Killian married, the marriage had two sons. Killian reports about this time in the third volume of his autobiography.

From 1972 he studied part-time Austrian and Eastern European history and folklore . He completed these studies in 1976 with a doctorate in Dr. phil. with distinction. In his dissertation he dealt with the “History of the barefoot Augustinians with special consideration of the German- Bohemian province” (2 volumes). Herbert Killian is known as the " Nestor of Forest History" in Austria. From 1978 to 2000 he had a teaching position for forest history at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. In 1981 Killian took over the management of the department for forest history at the Federal Forest Research Institute (FBVA) in Vienna, which he headed until 1990. In 1989 he qualified as a lecturer with a thesis on the history of torrent and avalanche control . For the first time in Austria the university license to teach forest history was granted. With this, forest history gained its university recognition as an independent scientific subject in Austria. In May 1995, Killian was appointed associate professor for forest history at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna. The number of his scientific works is extremely extensive (30 books, more than 200 publications in total).

In 1984, Killian took his relatives with his great-aunt Natalie Bauer-Lechner as an opportunity to collect the available sources regarding their trusting relationship with Gustav Mahler and to publish the book Gustav Mahler in the memoirs of Natalie Bauer-Lechner (see references).

In connection with the personal and scientific processing of his own life story, he also worked as a freelancer at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War in Graz . In 1995, at his own request, his case was reopened by a Russian military tribunal and the original sentence was reduced from three years to one year. About 50 years after he was able to leave the Soviet Union, he was the first ex-prisoner from the West to visit Kolyma and all the places there where he spent the time, together with another employee of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War of his imprisonment and deportation.

In 2005, 2008 and 2010 Herbert Killian published his autobiography as an extensive trilogy totaling more than 850 pages (see section “Own Works”), which provides impressive and harrowing insights into the fate of those deported to the former Soviet Union. The work is to be understood as a significant contribution to contemporary history of the 20th century. More than 50 years after the event, it was only possible for Killian to create it with its various detailed descriptions because soon after his return to Austria he wrote a several hundred-page record of his experiences.

“Herbert Killian not only describes his fate in his book, but also embeds it in the overall context. To this end, he researched for decades and worked in archives in Austria and Russia. He also managed to look into the file he had prepared by the KGB . What makes the book unique is the almost psychological description of the emotional world of a young deportee in the mills of Stalinist repression . Far away from home, for a long time without contact at home. "

- Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Karner : Foreword to Herbert Killian's first volume of his autobiography Robbery Years. An Austrian kidnapped in the GULAG.

Herbert Killian lived with his wife in Vienna. He died on June 26, 2017 at the age of 90.

Own works

  • The fight against torrents and avalanches in the area of ​​tension between centralism and federalism. A historical study. Volume 1: Part I - III. Vienna 1988. (Habilitation thesis at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna)
  • The fight against torrents and avalanches in the area of ​​tension between centralism and federalism. A historical study. Volume 2: Supplements. Vienna 1988. (Habilitation thesis at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna)
  • Robbed years. An Austrian kidnapped in the GULAG. 2nd Edition. Amalthea Signum Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85002-920-4 .
  • Robbed freedom. An Austrian missing in Northeast Siberia. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-902447-39-5 .
  • Stolen youth. An Austrian returns from Siberia. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-902447-84-5 .
  • Gustav Mahler in the memories of Natalie Bauer-Lechner. Verlag der Musikalienhandlung Karl Dieter Wagner, Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-921029-92-9 .
  • Austrian Forest Biographical Lexicon. Lives and works of forest personalities from four centuries (1571–1990). Five volumes. Österreichischer Agrarverlag , Vienna 1983.
  • Further works by Herbert Killian: Herbert Killian's list of publications on the website of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War (pdf) , accessed on January 26, 2016.

literature

  • Alexa Gaspari: Everything survives with His help. Herbert Killian and a couple of slaps that earned him years in the Siberian gulag. In: Vision 2000. No. 3/2014, pp. 16-19.
  • Stefan Karner : In the GUPVI archipelago. Captivity and internment in the Soviet Union 1941–1956 . Oldenbourg Verlag , Vienna / Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7029-0399-2 , pp. 38 and 244.
  • Harald Knoll, Barbara Stelzl-Marx: Austrian civil convicts in the Soviet Union. An overview. In: Andreas Hilger, Mike Schmeitzner, Ute Schmidt (eds.): Soviet military tribunals. Volume 2: The conviction of German civilians 1945–1955. (= Writings of the Hannah Arendt Institute . No. 17). Böhlau Verlag , Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-412-06801-2 , p. 571ff, especially p. 574 and 576.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Herbert Killian - 85 years. from: bauernzeitung.at , accessed on June 14, 2014.
  2. ^ Library of Congress Authorities: Entry on Herbert Killian , accessed June 14, 2014.
  3. ^ Herbert Killian: Robbed youth. An Austrian returns from Siberia. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-902447-84-5 , pp. 142ff.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g page of the Kral-Verlag about Herbert Killian ( memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 13, 2014.
  5. ↑ Herbert Killian: Robbed Years. An Austrian kidnapped in the GULAG. Amalthea Signum Verlag, 2nd edition. Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85002-920-4 , p. 22 f.
  6. ↑ a b Herbert Killian: Robbed Years. An Austrian kidnapped in the GULAG. Amalthea Signum Verlag, 2nd edition. Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85002-920-4 , p. 310f.
  7. ↑ a b see also: Stefan Karner : Foreword. In: Herbert Killian: Robbed Years. An Austrian kidnapped in the GULAG. 2nd Edition. Amalthea Signum Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85002-920-4 , p. 12.
  8. ↑ Cf. the sections My Path to God and The Existence of God In: Herbert Killian: Robbery Youth. An Austrian returns from Siberia. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-902447-84-5 , p. 250ff.
  9. ↑ Herbert Killian: Robbed Years. An Austrian kidnapped in the GULAG. 2nd Edition. Amalthea Signum Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85002-920-4 .
  10. ^ Herbert Killian: Robbed freedom. An Austrian missing in Northeast Siberia. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-902447-39-5 , p. 116ff.
  11. ^ Herbert Killian: Robbed freedom. An Austrian missing in Northeast Siberia. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-902447-39-5 .
  12. ↑ a b Herbert Killian: Robbed youth. An Austrian returns from Siberia. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-902447-84-5 .
  13. ↑ a b Catalog of the German National Library: Herbert Killian, GND 123451787 , accessed on June 14, 2014.
  14. ↑ a b Information about the book Robbed Years. An Austrian kidnapped in the GULAG on the website of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War , accessed on July 20, 2017.
  15. ^ Herbert Killian: Robbed youth. An Austrian returns from Siberia. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-902447-84-5 , p. 223.
  16. ^ Herbert Killian: Robbed youth. An Austrian returns from Siberia. Kral Verlag, Berndorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-902447-84-5 , pp. 225ff.
  17. ↑ Alexa Gaspari: Everything survives with His help. Herbert Killian and a couple of slaps that earned him years in the Siberian gulag. In: Vision 2000. No. 3/2014, p. 18.
  18. ↑ a b Alexa Gaspari: Everything survived with His help. at: www.vision2000.at , accessed on June 13, 2014.
  19. ↑ see also: Harald Knoll, Barbara Stelzl-Marx: Austrian civil convicts in the Soviet Union. An overview. In: Andreas Hilger, Mike Schmeitzner, Ute Schmidt (eds.): Soviet military tribunals. Volume 2: The conviction of German civilians 1945–1955. (= Writings of the Hannah Arendt Institute. No. 17). Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2003, pp. 571ff, esp.ISBN 3-412-06801-2 , pp. 574 and 576.
  20. ^ Stefan Karner: Foreword to: Herbert Killian: Robbed Years. An Austrian kidnapped in the GULAG. 2nd Edition. Amalthea Signum Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85002-920-4 , p. 12.
  21. ↑ Alexa Gaspari: Everything survives with His help. Herbert Killian and a couple of slaps that earned him years in the Siberian gulag. In: Vision 2000. No. 3/2014, p. 16.
  22. ↑ Prof. Dr. Herbert Killian passed away , in: forstpraxis.de, July 17, 2017, accessed on April 19, 2018.
  23. ↑ Information about the book Robbed Freedom. An Austrian missing in Northeast Siberia on the website of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War , accessed on July 20, 2017.
  24. ↑ Information about the book Robbed Youth. An Austrian returns from Siberia on the website of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War , accessed on July 20, 2017.
  25. ↑ Chronicle 1975–1999. For the 125th anniversary of the Federal Forest Research Institute. Institute for Silviculture: Projects and Work 1975 to 1999. Entry Herbert Killian: Österreichisches Forstbiographisches Lexikon, accessed on June 14, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Killian, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian forest historian and victim of Stalinism
DATE OF BIRTH November 24, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Korneuburg
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 2017