Leo Gabler

Leo Gabler , called Heini (born May 11, 1908 in Vienna ; † June 7, 1944 there ) was an Austrian politician ( KPÖ ) and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

After finishing his school career, Gabler completed an apprenticeship as a bag maker , which he finished in 1926. Gabler did not find a job in his job and then worked as a laborer, interrupted by periods of unemployment. From 1922 Gabler was a member of the Communist Youth Association (KJV) and the Friends of Nature . In July 1927 he moved from the Republican Protection Association to the Red Front Fighters Association . Gabler was also involved in the workers' sports club and took part in the 1st International Spartakiade of the “Red Sport International” (RSI) in Moscow from August 12 to 24, 1928 , as well as at the 6th Congress of the Communist Youth International (KJI) during this period . Gabler was briefly imprisoned twice in 1929 for participating in unemployment hunger demonstrations. From 1929 he was a member of the Vienna management of the KJV. Gabler was co-opted into the Central Committee of the KPÖ in 1929 and elected to this body in 1931. Later he was a member of the Central Committee's secretariat. After additional work in the secretariat of the KJV, he became head of the KJV in 1935. At the time of the Austro-Fascist corporate state under Engelbert Dollfuss , Gabler was arrested on August 26, 1934. The reason for Gabler's arrest was the book An die revolutionary Jugend Wien found on him , which called for resistance and demonstrations against Austrofascism. After a year in prison, Gabler was transferred to the Wöllersdorf detention camp, from which he was released in the summer of 1936. He then moved to Prague , where the leadership of the Communist Party in exile was, and from there traveled several times to the Soviet Union. He later worked as a photo reporter for the USSR newspaper in the construction phase .

In Moscow he attended the International Lenin School and was one of the leading Austrian communists in exile in Moscow. In January 1941 he left the Soviet Union and traveled back to Austria by plane via Sofia , Belgrade and Agram under a false name . Gabler had received the order from Johann Koplenig , the head of the Austria section of the Central European Office of the Comintern in Moscow , to reorganize the KPÖ in Austria. Gabler arrived in Vienna at the end of February 1941, after the illegal party leadership of the KPÖ around Erwin Puschmann had been removed by the Gestapo a month earlier . Gabler managed to continue the illegal party work underground. Gabler developed the so-called "soldier work" a. he was responsible for issues of the Rote Fahne and Weg und Ziel for soldiers of the Eastern Front . Furthermore, he made contact with the Czech group of the KPÖ, but rejected their planned acts of sabotage and advocated strikes.

Gabler was also arrested on October 20, 1941 and was then imprisoned by the Gestapo for 17 months. After interrogations, which were accompanied by severe abuse, he was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp in the spring of 1943 . In Mauthausen concentration camp he was a member of the illegal camp resistance. On April 14, 1944, he was taken to Vienna, where he was sentenced to death on April 15, 1944. On June 7, 1944, Gabler was beheaded in the Vienna Regional Court. Gabler is buried in Group 40 at the Vienna Central Cemetery. After the end of the war, a memorial stone was erected there in his honor.

Gabler's name is listed on the memorial plaque for the twelve central committee members of the KPÖ who were murdered by the National Socialists, which is now in the house of the KPÖ Vienna 10 (Wieland School).

literature

• Willi Weinert: "I want you to always stay close to you all ..." Biographies of communist resistance fighters in Austria. With comments on the resistance struggle of the Communist Party of Austria and a list of victims , ed. from the Alfred Klahr Society and the KPÖ Steiermark. Vienna: Verlag der Alfred Klahr Gesellschaft 2005, ISBN 978-3-9501204-2-4

Web links

• Leo Gabler at www.klahrgesellschaft.at
• Willi Weinert: Leo Gabler on his 100th birthday