Karl Maria Stepan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karl Maria Stepan (born June 24, 1894 in Vienna , † September 11, 1972 in Graz , Styria ) was an Austrian politician . From 1934 to 1938 he was Governor of Styria.

Life

Early life

Karl Maria Stepan was born on June 24, 1894 in Vienna-Gumpendorf. His parents Josef and Josefa came from the German populated areas of Carniola (now Slovenia) and Moravia (now the Czech Republic). Karl Maria's grandfather Anton was stationed in the federal fortress of Mainz during the revolutionary years around 1848 . Father Josef Stepan was a well-known master engraver, but died at the age of 33 around 1899. His parents were supporters of the Christian renewal movement that Heinrich Abel had founded in the capital. Josefa married a Hern Tillman at the beginning of the new century, with whom she had other children.

Stepan attended primary school in Vienna-Perchtoldsdorf and high schools in Mödling, Wiener Neustadt and Vienna-Meidling. After successfully completing his high school diploma in 1913, he began his law studies in 1914 at the law faculty of the University of Vienna. He joined the KaV connection Norica , which shared the booth with the KaV connection Franco-Bavaria of the future BK Dollfuss .

In August 1914, Stepan decided to volunteer for military service. After his draft on August 31, 1914, he registered as a one-year volunteer for the kuk infantry regiment No. 4 "Hoch und Deutschmeister". A month later he switched to Infantry Regiment No. 49 " Freiherr von Hess ". In March 1915, his unit was stationed as part of the 1st Austro-Hungarian Army on the Nida River , a tributary of the Vistula a little northeast of Krakow. On May 2, 1915, Stepan took part in the successful Gorlice-Tarnow offensive of the Central Powers, through which the Russian army could be pushed far to the east. The 1st Austro-Hungarian Army captured Lutsk and in September 1915 stood before Dubno in what is now Ukraine.

Stepan was taken prisoner by Russia on September 17, 1915 and spent five years in a gulag in Siberia (near Stretensk , east of Lake Baikal). As an officer (from July 1, 1915 ensign, from May 1, 1918 first lieutenant), the stay in the camp was less arduous than for ordinary soldiers despite all the privation, poor nutrition and numerous illnesses. A private diary reports in detail about this period. After the end of World War I, Stepan was transferred to a camp near Atschinks and decided to break out. He joined the Red Army as a drummer and withdrew from it in Orel in order to continue his escape via Moscow, Petersburg and Narva .

In July 1920 he returned to Austria via Germany and began studying law at the universities of Vienna and Graz a year later . During his student days, his opposition to the German national camp intensified. On January 24, 1924 he received his doctorate in both rights. Less later he met Maria Elisabeth Königer, whom he married a few months later on October 6, 1924 and with whom he would have 5 children.

Stepan was a member of the Catholic student associations KaV Norica Vienna and KÖHV Carolina Graz , both in the ÖCV .

Political career

Soon after, Stepan was one of the leading Christian Democrats , who in 1924 took over the management of the Styrian national organization of the Christian Social Party (CS) as General Secretary . In 1928 he entered the service of the Catholic Press Association as a directorate secretary , in which he was promoted to general director a few months later . In 1932 he resigned from CS due to differences.

Stepan was one of the first resistance fighters against the emerging National Socialism . Shortly after Engelbert Dollfuss proclaimed the corporate state in Vienna in 1933 , Stepan moved to Vienna and was instrumental in building the Fatherland Front (VF), which functioned as the Austro-Fascist unity party. On February 19, 1934 he took over the management of VF until October 29. On November 2, 1934, Stepan was elected Governor of Styria. From 1934 to 1938 he was also a member of the state council and the Bundestag .

Because of his persistent rejection of the Nazi regime, Stepan was arrested on March 12, 1938, and deported to the Dachau concentration camp in April . For the next two years he was interned in the Dachau, Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps before he was released in 1940. When he arrived in Graz, Stepan found work as a warehouse worker at a leather dealer until he was arrested again by the Gestapo in 1944 . Again we went to the concentration camp, this time to Flossenbürg and in November again to Dachau, which was liberated on April 29, 1945. His letters, which he sent to his family from captivity, symbolize his resistance to National Socialism and were published in a book in 2001 by the authors Fritz Csoklich and Matthias Opis .

Next life

After the war, Stepan was unable to continue his political career. He then devoted himself to rebuilding the Styria Medien AG , a publishing house that had emerged from the Catholic Press Association, and which he headed as general director until his retirement in 1968 . He also promoted the Catholic Action in Styria.

Karl Maria Stepan was involved in numerous social projects in schools, children's facilities and hospitals in Palestine . In 1953 he was appointed Knight of the Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem by Cardinal Grand Master Nicola Canali and invested in the order in Graz by Grand Prior Andreas Rohracher . From 1954 to 1970 he was Chancellor of the Papal Order of Knights in Austria.

After a long illness, Karl Maria Stepan died in 1972 at the age of 78. He is buried in the St. Leonhard Cemetery in Graz .

Honors and awards (excerpt)

literature

  • Fritz Csoklich, Matthias Opis: Karl Maria Stepan - Letters from the Styrian governor from prison and concentration camp. Styria Verlag, Graz et al. 2001, ISBN 3-222-12902-9 .

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Robert Kriechbaumer (Ed.): Austria! and Front Heil! (=  Series of publications by the Research Institute for Political-Historical Studies of the Dr. Wilfried Haslauer Library, Salzburg . Volume 23 ). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2005, ISBN 3-205-77324-1 , p. 86 .
  2. ↑ Irmgard Bärnthaler : The Fatherland Front. History and organization. Europa Verlag, Vienna 1971, ISBN 3-203-50379-7 , pp. 40, 71.
personal data
SURNAME Stepan, Karl Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 24, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1972
Place of death Graz