Kurt Reichl

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Kurt Reichl (born August 5, 1899 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died March 1956 in Graz ) was an Austrian Freemason and anti- Freemason .

Life

Kurt Reichl was a son of the Burgenland local poet Joseph Reichl . Reichl studied theoretical philosophy in Vienna with Adolph Stöhr and was awarded a doctorate on July 12, 1922. phil. PhD . He married Stöhr's daughter Rafaela and edited writings from his father-in-law's estate. At the age of 23 he was accepted into the Masonic Lodge "Future" of the Grand Lodge of Vienna and received a paid position with it.

Reichl had in 1925 with the Jesuit Father Hermann Gruber, the versiertesten at this time critic of Freemasonry from the Catholic side, an exchange of letters. In 1928 the two met in the Jesuit community of Aachen with the Sovereign Grand Commander of the AASR Eugen Lennhoff and the Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of New York Ossian Lang for an unofficial exchange of ideas. In 1929 Reichl joined the AASR, which was founded in Austria in 1925, and held the position of general expert there as early as 1932/33. In 1930 he received the 33rd degree of the Scottish Rite .

As Reichl in the Great Depression could no longer afford his lavish lifestyle, it came into his office to financial irregularities, and he was forced to resign on February 26 1934th From then on, Reichl became an enemy of the Freemasons and wrote under the pseudonym “Dr. Gregor Cardon “denouncing articles in Catholic and national newspapers and the brochure Are Jesuits Freemasons? . He offered his knowledge to the National Socialists in the German Reich , and at the end of June 1935 there was a meeting of Reichl, Dr. Bolte from SD , Karl Friedrich Has (s) elbacher from the Secret State Police Office and lawyer Schneider in Erfurt . On July 1, 1935, another meeting followed in the Erfurt apartment of the anti-Masonic author Friedrich Has (s) elbacher , at the Haselbacher and from the SD main office , Freemason Department II 111, SS-Oberscharführer Hans Richter , SS-Scharführer Dieter Wisliceny and SS- Rottenführer Dr. Bolte attended. Reichl presented both his Freemasonry and his connection to the Catholic Church as purely tactical. The SD people and Ulrich Fleischhauer did not trust him, however, and Paul Heigl warned against him. Heinrich Himmler was informed about the meeting on July 25, 1935 .

In 1935 Reichl published the brochure Der Tempel der Freemaurer under the pseudonym Konrad Lerich in Fleischhauer's Bodung-Verlag . Reichl was now quartered in an apartment in Berlin-Charlottenburg, he received a salary from the SD and he had to undertake not to appear in public anymore, but to make his knowledge available exclusively to the SD main office for which he was in the He wrote a variety of articles on Freemasonry in Europe and overseas.

Reichl was able to gain the trust of his liaison man , SS-Obersturmführer Theodor Christensen , so that in 1937 he wrote a letter to Reinhard Heydrich to intensify his work as a specialist in the subject of Freemasonry / anti-masonry. He suggested to Heydrich to take over the management of the propaganda company Welt-Dienst and to reorganize its functions. He also asked Heydrich for assistance with his naturalization application.

Reichl's suggestions were not followed; instead, since he was in possession of his stamp for the 33rd degree of the AASR, he was supposed to get in touch with Swiss and American lodges via a post office box in Switzerland as a “former German lodge brother” in order to obtain current publications and other information. In Paris he was supposed to get in touch with Pierre Loyer. In February 1938, the SD thought of setting up an office in Vienna to be occupied by Reichl, which after the annexation of Austria was to systematically record the names of Freemasons in order to monitor and prosecute them. But when the SD confiscated the files of the Vienna Grand Lodge, it became apparent that Reichl had lied to the Freemasons in 1934 about the reasons for his resignation. On March 15, 1938, Reichl was arrested in Berlin and arrested and interrogated on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse . In mid-November 1938 Reichl wrote twice to Helmut Bone , admitting his offense, but at the same time referring to his previous impeccable work and professing his national socialist ideology. After eleven months, Reichl was released from prison in Berlin and was under police supervision for another year.

After the German occupation of France in 1940, he was delegated by the SD to the German embassy in Paris , where he was responsible for church politics - his name was mentioned frequently in the diaries of Cardinal Alfred Baudrillart .

After the end of the war, Kurt Reichl was put on the wanted list of the Vienna Police Department at the end of 1946. On the other hand, he worked in the French zone in Innsbruck and ran an ÖVP speaking school there . But when he moved to Graz in 1949 , the investigation was restarted. Reichl wrote a letter of justification in which he highlighted his Gestapo imprisonment, classified his church work as resistance activity and withheld his collaboration with the SD security service. He could pretend not to have become a party member. He found some advocates who intervened for the removal from the wanted list, including the Graz Prince-Bishop Pawlikowski . Reichl now lived unmolested in Graz and wrote a dictionary on Styrian personalities.

Fonts

  • Reflections . Ed. Strache, Vienna 1922.
  • (Ed.): The Blue Book of World Freemasonry . Mitw. D. "Quatuor coronati coetus Pragensis" v. Paul Nettl . Saturn, Vienna 1933–1934.
  • Konrad Lerich: The Temple of the Freemasons: The 1. – 33. Degree. From the seeker to the knower . U. Bodung-Verlag, Erfurt 1935.
  • Lexicon of personalities and companies. Styria . Leykam, Graz 1955.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Doctoral act of Kurt Reichl in the archive of the University of Vienna , PH RA 5337
  2. ↑ all information follows: Marcus G. Patka: Austrian Freemasons in National Socialism . 2010, Chapter: Dr. Kurt Reichl, the traitor , pp. 87–113.
  3. ^ Margit Pflagner: Josef Reichl and his broadcast in the Burgenland area. In: Burgenland homeland sheets . Issue 2, 1960, pp. 49-71, PDF on ZOBODAT
personal data
SURNAME Reichl, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian Freemason and anti-Freemason
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH March 1956
Place of death Graz