Josef Ahrer

Sepp Ahrer

Josef "Sepp" Ahrer (born August 30, 1908 in St. Ulrich ; † February 17, 1934 in Steyr ) was an Austrian social democrat and revolutionary who was the only person involved in the February fighting in Steyr to be sentenced to death and executed.

Life

Sepp Ahrer's trained profession was a building fitter , but he was unemployed at the time of the February fighting. At that time he was living in a barrack at Kammermayerstraße 10 in Steyr, single, politically active as a Social Democrat and a member of the Republican Protection Association .

As part of the uprising of February 12, 1934 , there were also riots and acts of violence in Steyr, including the shooting of the director of the Steyr works, Dr. Wilhelm Herbst in a moving car and the murder of Johann Zehetner and his bride Josefine Nagelseder with firearms at Kammermayerstraße 10 - the same makeshift accommodation in which Ahrer also lived. It was reported about the course of events in the barrack on Kammermayerstrasse that the fatal shots were fired in the course of an argument with the Heimwehr member Zehetner and his bride, when Ahrer and his fellow Schutzbund comrades pulled out weapons hidden under the floor of the barracks during the general strike. After the end of the fighting in Steyr, the trials against those involved began on February 17, 1934 in the district court building on the town square. Despite contradicting information about the course of the act, Ahrer was brought before a court martial , found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging .

In the transcript of the trial against Sepp Ahrer on February 17, 1934, with reference to the criminal law 1852, it says: “... about the prosecutor's request for the punishment of the accused for the crimes of sedition according to Paragraph 73, 74 StG and murder Paragraph 134, 135 StG rightly recognized ... he is sentenced according to Paragraph 136 StG Abs. 1 StPO to the punishment of death by hanging and according to Paragraph 369 StPO to reimbursement of the costs of the criminal proceedings ... the crime of rioting according to Paragraph 73 Having committed StG, acquitted according to Paragraph 259 2.3 StPO. "

Entrance of the judicial prison in Steyr (Berggasse 6)

The execution of Sepp Ahrers at the Würgegalgen was carried out - as it is also noted in the death register of the parish of Steyr - at 1/2 noon on the same day in the courtyard of the judicial prison belonging to the Steyr district court (Berggasse 6) near Lamberg Castle by Franz Wurm, a small farmer from Garsten , who volunteered to help the absent executioner Lang . From the minutes of the court martial, written on February 17, 1934 at 11:46 p.m., it emerges that “Ahrer, who was convicted of the crime of murder, was hanged by the executioner Franz Wurm at 11:23 p.m. The occurrence of death was confirmed by the forensic doctor Dr. Anton Hain detected at 11:45 p.m. The expert forensic physician Dr who was present at the execution of Ahrer Josef on February 17, 1934. Anton Hain was awarded a fee of 20 Schilling. In consideration of the night time (11.33 p.m. to 11.45 p.m.) he had asked an amount of 30 schillings. On the decision of the district court of Steyr, Dr. Anton Hain was awarded an amount of 32.40 Schilling. " The times in the log reveal that 22 minutes passed between the start of the execution at 11:23 p.m. and Ahrer's death at 11:45 p.m. In some accounts it is said that the method of execution of the temporary executioner Wurm was so inefficient that two police officers were finally ordered to hang by the legs of the convicted person to hasten his death.

Ahrer's grave in Steyr

Ahrer's body was given to his relatives for burial. His grave, which still exists today, is in the urn cemetery at Tabor in Steyr.

On the same day as Sepp Ahrer in Steyr, also in connection with the February fighting, the Schutzbund leader and metalworker unionist Josef Stanek was sentenced to death and executed in Graz . In Upper Austria a total of four death sentences were handed down after the February fighting, two of which were carried out. The second concerned the Schutzbündler Anton Bulgari , who was convicted and executed on February 22, 1934 by a court martial in Linz. A sad chapter in this context is the justification with which Justice Minister Kurt Schuschnigg refused a pardon, namely the need to make an example, although the two were by no means unequivocally convicted as the main perpetrators.

The proceedings against Sepp Ahrer are now judged to be quite arbitrary , the act itself is thought to be privately motivated , and the conviction was based on a proven false testimony from his neighbor. Overall, it is unclear whether and to what extent Ahrer was even involved in the offense against which he was charged. Ahrer's participation in the February struggles on the side of the Social Democrats, however, is undisputed.

After the Second World War, Sepp-Ahrer-Strasse in Steyr was named after him. It runs in Münichholz west of Punzerstraße.

See also

• List of people executed under Austrian law from 1933 to 1938

Web links

Commons : Josef Ahrer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Schnitzel, two bottles of beer and then the gallows
• Austrofascism and memory: Josef Ahrer
• In the shadow of the civil war of 1934

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} http://ooe.kpoe.at/news/article.php/20080211115405898 Josef Ahrer on ooe.kpoe.at
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Roman Sandgruber: In the shadow of the civil war of 1934. In: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten , February 7, 2009, website 1663 in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
3. ^ Austrofascism and memory : Josef Ahrer, accessed on August 21, 2018
4. ↑ Schnitzel, two bottles of beer and then the gallows , in: Oberösterreichische Nachrichten , accessed on August 21, 2018
5. ^ 2014 commemorative year: Prison in Berggasse , accessed on August 21, 2918
6. ↑ ^{a b} The street names in Steyr accessed on September 20, 2016
7. ↑ Erich Hackl , Evelyne Polt-Heinzl (Eds.): Im Kältefieber: February stories 1934 , Vienna 2014 ( ISBN 978-3-7117-2009-2 )
8. ^ The execution of Ahrer is also described in Erich Hackl : Abschied von Sidonie , Zurich 1989 ( ISBN 3-257-01824-X ), as paperback 1991 ( ISBN 3-257-22428-1 )
9. ↑ ^{a b} http://steyrerpioniere.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/josef-ahrer/ Josef Ahrer
10. ^ S. Nasko:  Stanek, Josef (1883–1934), trade unionist. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 90 f. (Direct links on p. 90 , p. 91 ).