Karl Münichreiter
Karl Münichreiter (born September 27, 1891 in Steinakirchen am Forst , Lower Austria ; † February 14, 1934 in Vienna ) was a member of the Republican Protection Association and Austrian resistance fighter. He is one of the nine men who were sentenced to death and executed after the February fighting in 1934 .
biography
The married shoemaker's assistant Karl Münichreiter joined the Republican Protection Association in 1927 under the impression of the Justice Palace fire . Münichreiter is often misleadingly referred to as a “Schutzbundführer”, but in fact he last held the rank of “group leader”; that meant he commanded six men.
On February 12, 1934, at the beginning of the Austrian Civil War , Münichreiter gathered with other Schutzbund members in the children's home on Goldmarkplatz in Hietzing . Weapons that were hidden in Münichreiter's allotment garden and in a nearby school were collected. The police moved in and there was an hour-long gun battle. When the Schutzbund withdrew, Münichreiter was seriously injured by several shots when he tried to help an injured comrade. He was arrested immediately.
Münichreiter was sentenced to death on February 14th . His wife was allowed to visit him briefly. His public defender filed a petition for clemency, but Justice Minister Kurt Schuschnigg did not forward this to Federal President Wilhelm Miklas because "a deterrent example is absolutely necessary". Interventions by Miklas and Cardinal Theodor Innitzer at Schuschnigg remained fruitless. Miinichreiter was despite his severe injuries on the same day on a stretcher to the execution of the Vienna Regional Court worn and the executioner Johann Lang at 16:41 am Würgegalgen hanged . Alongside Koloman Wallisch and Georg Weissel , Karl Münichreiter is the most famous victim of the February fighting . The corpses of those executed were not handed over to their relatives, but instead buried anonymously in camera: “Despite all attempts at secrecy, the underground Arbeiter-Zeitung informed its readers on April 8, 1934 about the graves of those who died in Vienna in February: 'With the help of cemetery workers succeeded in finding the graves of Weissel and Münichreiter in the central cemetery, which had been buried in fog and night after the execution. Weissel's grave is in Group 87, Row 42, Number 12; Münichreiter's grave is in group 35, row 25, number 5. ' "
Münichreiter's widow Leopoldine was finally able to have her husband's body exhumed, cremated according to his will and the ashes buried on April 9, 1934 in Department 3, Ring 3, Group 3, Number 26 of the urn grove of the Simmering fire hall . His urn grave was honored by the City of Vienna after the dictatorship .
Leopoldine Münichreiter then managed to travel with her three children Paul (then 12 years old), Karl (then 10 years old) and Lucie (then 3 years old) via Zurich, Paris and London to the Soviet Union and there in exile to live until World War II was over. Her older son was shot dead by a patrol there. In 1947 Leopoldine Münichreiter was back in Vienna. She died at the age of 83 at the end of 1976. Son Karl Nikolaus died in 2006, daughter Lucie Maria Sohr in 2011. All three are buried in the same grave as Karl Münichreiter.
Commemoration
Karl Miinichreiter 1946 in Vienna's 13th district was the Münichreiterstraße named; A memorial to the freedom fighter has been on the Goldmarkplatz in the same district since 1984. Recorded as a shoemaker, according to Lehmann , he had his last residence in 1934, not far from these two traffic areas, at Meytensgasse 18. Another street in Fischamend bears Münichreiter's name.
Although he comes from the Scheibbs district , there is no memory of Münichreiter there. That is why the local socialist youth named their meeting point / seat after Münichreiter, the "KAMÜ" (short for Karl-Münichreiter-Haus).
See also
literature
- Michael Krassnitzer: Resistance in Hietzing. The fight for freedom 1934-1938 and 1938-1945 using the example of a Viennese district . Edition Volkshochschule, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-900-799-58-X
- Karl Münichreiter: I'm dying because it has to be one. Karl Münichreiter 1891-1934 . Nevertheless publisher, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7010-0234-7 .
- Short biography Karl Münichreiter, in: Josef Fiala: The February fights 1934 in Vienna Meidling and Liesing. A civil war that wasn't . Dissertation, University of Vienna 2012 ( online ), pp. 173–177.
Individual evidence
- ^ Elisabeth Winkler, Karl Münichreiter - an example of the practice of political justice in Austrofascism, in: zeitgeschichte 11/12, 1985, p. 418
- ↑ Interview with Karl Münichreiter jun. ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the 70th anniversary of the February fighting
- ↑ Interview with Leopoldine Münichreiter from 1970
- ↑ Elisabeth Winkler, Karl Münichreiter - an example of the practice of political justice in Austrofascism, in: zeitgeschichte 11/12, 1985, p. 420
- ↑ http://othes.univie.ac.at/22757/1/2012-09-27_0248176.pdf , p. 180
- ↑ data from friedhoefewien.at
- ^ Lehmann, 1934 edition, Volume 1, p. 890
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Münichreiter, Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian resistance fighter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 27, 1891 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Steinakirchen am Forst |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 14, 1934 |
| Place of death | Vienna |