Karl Burian (officer)

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Karl Burian (born August 4, 1896 in Vienna ; † March 13, 1944 there ) was an Austrian officer . As a legitimist resistance fighter , he lost his life fighting against National Socialism .

Life

Karl Burian graduated from the cadet school in Mährisch Weißkirchen and was retired as a lieutenant in the kuk Dragoon Regiment No. 11 . During the First World War he served as the monarchy's youngest lieutenant in the kuk Dragoon Regiment No. 8 . From 1916 to 1917 he was in Russian captivity. After the war he studied philosophy in Vienna and in 1922 co-founded the Corps der Ottonen Vienna . His Habsburg attitude was to determine his work from 1933 onwards.

In the civil war of 1934 he was a member of the Voluntary Protection Corps Regiment No. 4 . In 1936 he was reinstated as a contract employee and in 1937 as an officer in the special services in the armed forces, and was appointed first lieutenant. After Austria's "Anschluss" in 1938, he was accepted into the Wehrmacht as an electric officer , and in August 1938 he was promoted to captain . Since then he has been working at the military replacement inspection in Vienna. As a monarchist he was looking for like-minded people, but was betrayed and arrested on October 13, 1938. He remained for five years in detention and was eventually to absurd espionage accusations on 9 December 1943 for resistance against the German Reich sentenced to death and (the sixth anniversary of the German invasion of Austria) on March 13, 1944 executed .

Resistance to National Socialism

Burian did not believe that the National Socialist regime could hold out in Austria and continued to pursue legitimist efforts. Burian was commissioned by Otto von Habsburg through a brother of the Ottonen Corps who had emigrated to Paris in 1938 to set up a legitimist association and resistance group in Vienna. It was also called the Resistance Group of the Ottonen Corps after his corps , but was also called the Central Committee of the Monarchist Movements . This group recruited v. a. from legitimist like-minded comrades and corps students. Otto von Habsburg was regularly informed about the expansion of the group's activities in Brno and Prague . Burian planned an explosives attack on the Gestapo headquarters in Vienna, the former Hotel Métropole , based on the house plans from Karl Friedinger .

Burian was arrested on October 13, 1938 - after he was reported to the Gestapo by his alleged comrade Josef Materna - when he was waiting for a courier with news from Habsburg. After more than five years of pre-trial detention, a three-day main hearing against Burian and six co-defendants (four of them Viennese Ottonen ) took place before an external senate of the Berlin People's Court in the Vienna Criminal Court , which ended with his death sentence and long prison sentences for the other co-defendants. According to the indictment, he was guilty of having set up a legitimist organization which was supposed to serve the purpose of the forcible separation of the Ostmark from the German Empire and the establishment of a monarchy under Otto von Habsburg that encompassed all of the former Austrian territories . The harshness of the judgment was justified , among other things, in Burian's position as an armed forces officer and the accusation of systematically and organizationally preparing high treason and of having committed treason . The co-defendants were to multi-year prison sentences convicted (for example, 8 years in prison for Ludwig Krausz-Wienner ) Burian Corp. brother Erwin Drahozwal could evade arrest. The execution of the judgment against Burian took place on March 13, 1944 in the Regional Court of Vienna by beheading . He remained loyal to his motto Kaiser and Reich until his end.

Fellow inmates report that Burian was certain that he would be sentenced to death while he was in custody, and that this prospect did not seem to affect him. He is portrayed as a cheerful, humorous and serene prisoner. He always had two concerns, firstly the future of Austria and the Danube region and secondly the Ottonen corps as a resistance movement loyal to the emperor.

souvenir

literature

  • Christian Prosl v. Chodelbach: Karl Burian and the Corps Ottonen , in: Sebastian Sigler (ed.): Corps students in the resistance against Hitler . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2014. ISBN 978-3-428-14319-1 , pp. 375-391.
  • Hans Schafranek : Resistance and Treason. Gestapo spies in the anti-fascist underground 1938–1945. Czernin, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-7076-0622-5 , pp. 161–180.

Web links

Commons : Karl Burian  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Rabe: Austria's loyal corps of the First Republic . Einst und Jetzt , Vol. 23 (1978), pp. 11-47.
  2. ^ Karl Mellacher: The song in the Austrian resistance. Europa Verlag, Vienna 1986.
  3. ^ Gerhard Botz : Vienna, from the "connection" to the war. National Socialist takeover and political-social transformation using the example of the City of Vienna in 1938/39. Jugend & Volk, Vienna 1978, ISBN 978-3-7141-6544-9 .
  4. ↑ Peter Broucek : Military Resistance: Studies on the Austrian state sentiment and National Socialist defense . Böhlau, Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-77728-1 , p. 362 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ^ Herbert Steinböck: Austria's military potential in March 1938. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1988, ISBN 978-3-486-54851-8 .
  6. ↑ Cf. u. a. Narrated story 2 - Reports of men and women in resistance such as persecution , Ed. Documentation archive of Austrian resistance (1992), p. 285.
  7. ↑ Otto Molden : The call of conscience. The Austrian struggle for freedom 1938–1945. Herold, Vienna 1958.
  8. ^ Grounds for the judgment against Burian.
  9. ↑ Willy Klein: Adventurers Against Will - Memories of a member of the Vienna Corps Ottonen. (= ÖVfStG series Tradition and Future , Volume 9), Vienna 2006.
  10. ↑ Cf. u. a. Narrated story 2 - Reports of men and women in resistance such as persecution , Ed. Documentation archive of Austrian resistance (1992), p. 299.
  11. ↑ Thanks to resistance fighters. In: The New Reminder Call . Volume 30, No. 6 June 1977 (online at ANNO ).
personal data
SURNAME Burian, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian officer and monarchist; Resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1944
Place of death Vienna