Johann Staud

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Johann Staud (born May 22, 1882 in Rohosna , Bohemia , † October 2, 1939 in Flossenbürg concentration camp , Germany ) was a Christian-Social Austrian politician and, during the period of the corporate state dictatorship, president of the trade union federation she initiated .

Monument to Johann Staud on Johann-Staud-Strasse in Vienna-Ottakring

Life

Johann Staud, illegitimate son of the East Bohemian farm girl Johanna Staud, grew up in Nursch near Großmugl , Lower Austria , in very simple circumstances. For financial reasons, he was unable to study at the university. He learned the shoemaking trade in Vienna- Leopoldstadt . After completing his apprenticeship, Staud joined the Catholic Journeyman's Association and based his life on the rules of Adolph Kolping .

At the turn of the century he went on a journey, especially along the Rhine , and used the time for self-taught training. He found work in Duisburg and was given a position in the local Christian leather workers' association. There he gained organizational experience, which he was able to use in the Association of Christian Shoe Workers after his return to Vienna in 1908 . From 1909 to 1934 he was its chairman and introduced tight association work as he had got to know in Germany. In 1912 he married Sophie Kratzel from Freiwaldau , with whom he had their son Alfred († 1945).

In 1915 Staud was drafted to the Russian front during World War I. After a serious leg injury, he was no longer available for combat. After the war he tried to rebuild the Christian leather workers' union, but with around 400 members it remained comparatively small. Of greater importance was the textile workers' union, whose chairman Staud was elected in 1922.

Staud became a close associate of the Christian labor leader Leopold Kunschak and in 1927 secretary of the central commission of the Christian trade unions .

In the corporate state dictatorship in 1934 Staud was appointed head of the newly formed unified trade union , the trade union federation of Austrian workers and employees . From 1930 to 1936 he also acted as a federal leader of the Freedom League, which was active against the “left” . In the corporate state, the Freedom Association worked closely with the unified trade union and thus had considerable influence on the allocation of functionaries.

The programmatic goal of the Freedom League was primarily one directed against social democracy . The Freedom Association saw itself as an instrument of the fight against the "left". In contrast to the Heimwehr , he also saw himself as a means of fighting for democracy. Staud was the politician who most strongly determined the Christian social workers' movement during the years of the authoritarian corporate state.

In 1934 Staud was also appointed head of the largest and most important Chamber of Labor , the one for Lower Austria and Vienna .

The state-decreed unified union under Staud could not prevent the progressive cuts in social services and the curtailment of the rights of workers and employees. Nevertheless, the union, forced accordingly by the dictatorship, grew to over 400,000 members and was recognized as legitimate by the other European unions in 1935.

Staud and his colleagues, including the later Federal Chancellor Josef Klaus , took on the role of a “loyal opposition” within the political system that was brought into line and tried to campaign for workers' rights and more democracy. The Christian-dominated trade union acted behind the scenes against decisions of the Austrofascist government within the system boundaries, but could not and did not want to represent an opposition to the political system as such. According to Anton Pelinka, the Christian labor movement “opposed certain tendencies in the system within the system. However, it refused to accept any direction that represented an opposition to the system ”. In 1936 Staud was appointed to the short-lived leadership council of the Fatherland Front .

Staud was seen as a staunch opponent of National Socialism . Nevertheless, in 1936 he received "not insignificant secret donations" from the German ambassador in Vienna, Franz von Papen . The ambassador reported to Hitler that he had been able to win over “the prominent functionary of the corporate state for his policy of connecting small steps”. "Papen thus financed a group of the government camp whose strengthening should indirectly lead to the weakening of his (then) main opponent, namely Starhembergs ." A week before the "Anschluss", Schuschnigg promised a committee of works councils from 14 of the largest Viennese companies that they should be given functions in a free trade union movement again and commissioned Staud to negotiate the modalities. However, these negotiations did not lead to any result. Staud was of the opinion that it would be possible to preserve Austria's independence without the socialists.

Registration card of Johann Staud as a prisoner in the National Socialist concentration camp Dachau

Staud was arrested on the morning of March 12, 1938, when Austria was "annexed" to the German Reich , and at the end of March he was taken to the Dachau concentration camp on the first Austrian transport . The Viennese public prosecutor's office rejected the release because of alleged “communist activities”.

In autumn 1939 he was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp, where he died on October 2, 1939 “as a result of the exertion of the concentration camp”. After a strenuous walk, his heart, weakened by his imprisonment, failed. In the morning fellow inmates found him dead in his bed.

In 1949 Steinhofstrasse in Vienna- Ottakring was renamed Johann-Staud-Strasse in his honor .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Cristl Kluwick-Muckenhuber: Johann Staud. A life for the workforce. Herold Verlag, Vienna / Munich 1969, p. 11f.
  2. ↑ Cristl Kluwick-Muckenhuber: Johann Staud. A life for the workforce. Herold Verlag, Vienna / Munich 1969, p. 13ff.
  3. ↑ Cristl Kluwick-Muckenhuber: Johann Staud. A life for the workforce. Herold Verlag, Vienna / Munich 1969, p. 36 and 127.
  4. ↑ Cristl Kluwick-Muckenhuber: Johann Staud. A life for the workforce. Herold Verlag, Vienna / Munich 1969, pp. 25 and 29.
  5. ^ Anton Pelinka : Christian workers' movement and Austrofascism. In: Emmerich Talos , Wolfgang Neugebauer (Ed.): Austrofaschismus, Politik-Ökonomie-Kultur 1933-1938. Verlag Lit, Vienna 2005, ISBN 978-3-8258-7712-5 , pp. 88–99, here: p. 90.
  6. ↑ Paul Bernhard Wodrazka: The Christian Workers movement from its beginnings to the present in the context of economic, political and social developments in Austria. Vienna 2007, p. 27.
  7. ^ Anton Pelinka: Christian workers' movement and Austrofascism . In: Emmerich Talos, Wolfgang Neugebauer (Ed.): Austrofaschismus, Politik-Ökonomie-Kultur 1933-1938. Verlag Lit, Vienna 2005, ISBN 978-3-8258-7712-5 , pp. 88–99, here: p. 93.
  8. ^ Weekly review: Austria. In:  Alpenländische Rundschau , July 25, 1936, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / alp
  9. ^ Anton Pelinka: After the calm. A political autobiography. Lesethek Verlag / Braumüller, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-99100-006-8 , pp. 75f.
  10. ↑ GER Gedye : When the bastions fell. Junius Verlag, Vienna 1981, p. 260.
  11. ↑ Cristl Kluwick-Muckenhuber: Johann Staud. A life for the workforce. Herold Verlag, Vienna / Munich 1969, p. 147f.
  12. ↑ Heinz Arnberger (Ed.): “Anschluss” 1938. A documentation. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-215-06824-9 , p. 39.
  13. ↑ Cristl Kluwick-Muckenhuber: Johann Staud. A life for the workforce. Herold Verlag, Vienna / Munich 1969, p. 148.

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Staud, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian trade unionist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1882
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 2, 1939
Place of death Flossenbürg concentration camp