Josef Skrabal

Josef Skrabal (born December 22, 1892 in Ottnang am Hausruck , † February 12, 1934 in Welserstollen near Eberschwang ) was the leader of the Republican Protection Association in the Hausruck coal area and as such was involved in the Austrian civil war in February 1934 . He died underground in an exchange of fire with a patrol of the armed forces .

Life

Josef Skrabal was born in Ottnang am Hausruck and attended elementary school there. He then worked in agriculture and mining, both in the lignite mining district in Hausruck and temporarily in Germany. During the First World War he was a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army and was promoted to corporal until the end of the war .

He then returned to his home region and became a miner again. He became a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) and began to get involved in politics. In 1930 he was the leader of a miners' strike and was subsequently dismissed and was unemployed from then on. When new mass layoffs were announced in the course of the global economic crisis in 1933, protests and hunger strikes by miners broke out in the coal mine. Skrabal organized a demonstration that led from Holzleithen to the Mining Directorate in Thomasroith, where the gendarmerie opposed the demonstrators with attached bayonets. According to the contemporary witness Josef Redlinger, the former mayor of Ottnang, Skrabal tried to snatch the weapons from a gendarme with the words " Stab her ", but he did not succeed. Nevertheless, these May 1933 protests ended without bloodshed.

At that time he was already a subordinate of the Republican Schutzbund and thus the leader of this paramilitary organization in Hausruck-Kohlerevier. On January 1, 1934, he also joined the officially banned Communist Party .

February 12, 1934

On February 12, 1934, on the orders of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss , the Heimwehr attempted to disarm the Schutzbund, which had been classified as illegal since March 31, 1933, whereupon armed resistance arose in Linz when the hotel ship was searched . On the morning of that day, the gendarmerie in the Hausruck had arrested the Schutzbundler Anton Hüttl from Hausruckedt , on the assumption that he would be the local leader of the organization. After the events in Linz became known, Josef Skrabal was able to mobilize the Schutzbund and block the Salzkammergutbahn at the Hausruck tunnel in Thomasroith . However, only parts of the Schutzbund had declared themselves ready to resist and so the forces gathered in Holzleithen. In the afternoon there were first skirmishes on the Innviertel side with the armed forces, which were forced to withdraw. In the evening an army unit advanced from the south to the vicinity of Holzleithen. However, since the military expected fierce resistance, an armistice was concluded with the Schutzbund in the workers' home in Holzleithen and the armed forces withdrew.

On the evening of February 12th, Josef Skrabal set out with several comrades, including the aforementioned Josef Redlinger and Kunsch Toni, to get through the tunnels of the lignite mine to the Innviertel side of the Hausruck and to make contact with the people there To include protection groups. He himself went ahead and the other two were supposed to cover him. From Ried , however, the military had advanced to Eberschwang and had occupied the tunnel exit despite the armistice. In the Welserstollen, already on the Eberschwang side, the Schutzbund met a patrol of the armed forces and there was a wild shooting in which Josef Skrabal was fatally injured. Furthermore, Josef Zeilinger and Johann Lobmaier, who had pushed into the tunnels from the Eberschwanger side, died.

The following days

The next morning there was a shooting between members of the Schutzbund and the Heimwehr in Thomasroith. The armed forces and the gendarmerie then advanced from Vöcklabruck towards Holzleithen. Further units approached on the north side of Ried. As a result, the protective collar was gripped.

White cloths were hung from the windows of the workers' home in Holzleithen as a sign of surrender. When the soldiers then approached the workers' home unprotected, fire was opened on them from an ambush and four members of the armed forces were killed. The military then stormed the workers' home, in which only women and paramedics were staying. Six men were placed on the stage and the soldiers opened fire; four Schutzbund members died and two were seriously injured. The Schutzbundler were commanded by Ferdinand Fageth , who fled with his men after the attack. The next day, February 14th, the armed resistance in the Hausruck coal area was over.

The three Schutzbündler shot in the Welsstollen (Josef Skrabal, Johann Lobmaier and Josef Zeilinger) were buried on February 16, 1934 on the Innviertel side in Eberschwang. However, the Rieder district administration had ordered that only the closest family members were allowed to attend the funeral in order to prevent a gathering of Schutzbund sympathizers. A specially parked army platoon monitored the Eberschwang cemetery with two machine gun positions.

Aftermath

The civil war-like events of February 1934 moved into the background due to the later annexation of Austria to the German Reich and the Second World War, and there was no public discussion about it for a long time during the Second Republic. The fate of Josef Skrabal was also forgotten. It was not until the local historian Peter Kammerstätter and the writer Franz Kain dealt again with the events in Hausruck in February 1934 and thus made the topic public again. However, both were more closely related to the KPÖ and mostly only reached a more left-wing regional readership.

It was not until the theater play “ Hunt or the total February ”, written in 2005 by the local writer Franzobel , which was staged at one of the original mining locations in Kohlgrube , that the events of that time - but without being able to claim historical authenticity - brought to Hausruck -Kohlerevier again in the consciousness of a broader public. Up to this point in time, scientific historical research had paid less attention to the events of February 1934 in southern Upper Austria, both in Hausruck and in Attnang-Puchheim and in the Salzkammergut . However, in the meantime, corresponding scientific documentation is available.

literature

• Franz Kain : The avalanche . Stories; Vienna, Linz, Weitra: Library of the Province, 1994, 207 pages, ISBN 3-900878-78-1
• Peter Kammerstätter: The uprising of the Republican Schutzbund on February 12, 1934 in Upper Austria . A collection of materials, documents and statements from stakeholders. Linz: 1983 (manuscript in the Upper Austrian state archive and the study library)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Province of Upper Austria, Provincial History: The Year 1933
2. ↑ KPÖ Upper Austria: Josef Skrabal (1892-1934)
3. ^ Hans von Hammerstein (1981). In the beginning there was murder. Experiences as district captain of Braunau am Inn and as security director of Upper Austria in 1933 and 1934. Munich: Oldenbourg.
4. ↑ Harry Slapnicka (1975). Upper Austria - Between the Civil War and the Anschluss (1927-1938). Linz: Upper Austrian state publisher.
5. ↑ Harry Slapnicka (1975).