Josef Maria Lukesch

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Josef Maria Lukesch - Gendarme
Original memorial for Josef Maria Lukesch in Laakirchen
New monument in honor of Josef Maria Lukesch in Laakirchen
Memorial at the Barbarafriedhof in Linz / Danube to commemorate the gendarmerie officers who fell in 1934

Josef Maria Lukesch (born March 6, 1908 in Zwettl an der Rodl , † July 27, 1934 in Laakirchen ) was a gendarme and a victim of National Socialism .

Life

Lukesch was the second oldest of the five children of the senior teacher Franz Xaver Lukesch (1879-1949) and his wife Katharina (née Voigt; 1881-1962).

From the school year 1914/15 he attended the elementary school in Zwettl an der Rodl. After graduating in 1922, he began an apprenticeship as a carpenter , which he successfully completed in 1925. In the same year he acquired the journeyman's certificate . From 1927 to 1930 Lukesch did his military service in the Austrian Armed Forces. He then entered the service of the gendarmerie .

assassination

In July 1934, an ultimately unsuccessful National Socialist coup took place in Austria , in which Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was also murdered. The fighting in Vienna was particularly difficult, but individual federal states were not spared from the uprising. As part of this uprising, an incident occurred on the moonlit night of July 26th to 27th, 1934 in Laakirchen . The SA leader of Laakirchen, Alois Zeller, had given the order to the SA members to assemble armed at the cemetery. About 40 people followed this request, of whom the gendarmerie later identified 25 by name. Shortly after midnight, the gendarmerie post there was under fire by the insurgents. Lukesch, who was on patrol at the time and wanted to return to his quarters in the gendarmerie post, was hit by a dumdum bullet and fatally injured.

Initially, the case seemed to be clearing up quickly. The arrest of a total of 44 people who were involved in the attack on the post was reported in the press, including the alleged murderer of Lukesch. On August 27, 1934, the Linzer Volksblatt reported that seven of those arrested had been found guilty of high treason. The court imposed both life-long prison sentences and long prison terms. Some of the convicted were later given amnesty because of the July 1936 agreement between Austria and Germany .

As the evidence was insufficient, the murder charge itself did not result in a conviction, although the suspicion of murder against one of the main suspects, Leopold Mitterbauer, could not be completely dispelled. Obviously Mitterbauer blackmailed his accomplices with the threat that he would also name other people who were not caught by the police; this is also confirmed by the statement made by Ludwig Bernaschek after the war , who was imprisoned in a cell in Garsten together with the second Nazi convicted as the main culprit, Josef Tischler . Attempts were made to investigate further traces that emerged later; but legal proceedings were not opened after World War II . So the gendarme murder of Laakirchen is still unresolved.

Honors

A large part of the population of Laakirchen and the surrounding area came to Lukesch's funeral on July 29, 1934. The event received a lot of attention in the local press. Lukesch was buried in his home village of Zwettl. On August 6, 1934, Federal President Miklas posthumously awarded him the gold medal for services to the federal state of Austria. In 1935 a memorial was erected to him in Laakirchen. On October 31, 1970, the memorial was rebuilt on the area of ​​the war memorial, the old memorial stone was removed. In addition, a memorial was erected at the Barbarafriedhof in Linz on May 23, 1935 for members of the armed forces, gendarmerie officers and Schutzkorpsmen who fell in February 1934 ( Austrian civil war ) and July 1934 (July coup ) , with which gendarme Josef Lukesch was also commemorated. The monument was renovated in 2010.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ OÖLA Linz, Ur 1926/47, H v 21/54, Vg10 Vr 291 of March 21, 1947.
  2. ↑ Der Gendarmeriebeamte , volume 199, p. 4.
  3. ^ Salzkammergut newspaper, August 16, 1934.
  4. ↑ Linzer Volksblatt of August 27, 1934, No. 196, p. 2.
  5. ↑ Kurt Bauer: Elementary event: the Austrian National Socialists and the July Putsch 1934 , Verlag Czernin, 2003, ISBN 3-7076-0164-1 , page 305 [1]
  6. ^ Salzkammergut newspaper, August 2, 1934.
  7. ↑ Linzer Wochenblatt, August 17, 1934 No. 33, p. 8.
  8. ↑ Linzer Volksblatt, October 22, 1934, No. 244.
  9. ↑ Gendarmerieposten Laakirchen (ed.). (2001). 100 years of the Laakirchen gendarmerie post 1901–2001. Laakirchen: H + S Druck.
personal data
SURNAME Lukesch, Joseph Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian gendarme
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Zwettl on the Rodl
DATE OF DEATH July 27, 1934
Place of death Laakirchen