Leo Rothziegel

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Leo Rothziegel (born December 5, 1892 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary , † April 22, 1919 in Debrecen , Hungary ) was an Austrian typesetter , soldier and anarcho-syndicalist

Life

Leo Rothziegel was born as the son of a Jewish working-class family in Vienna and learned the profession of typesetter after attending the Volks- und Bürgerschule in Vienna. He joined the  Poale Zion movement and later became involved in anarcho-syndicalism . In 1911 he left the "General Trade Union Federation", became a member and first secretary of the "Free Trade Union Association" founded on November 27, 1911, to which he later went into critical opposition.

On April 28, 1913, Rothziegel was sentenced to 48 hours' arrest by the kk district court Leopoldstadt for "insulting voluntary work" . A journalistic support by Rothziegel on February 14, 1914, which ended after one and a half months, is considered likely.

In October 1913, when he was drafted into the military in the Lower Austrian infantry regiment “Freiherr von Hess” No. 49, Rothziegel attempted suicide in March 1914 by shooting himself in the right chest and seriously injuring himself. He was initially on leave, but returned when the war broke out. After several illnesses, he was declared unfit for service in 1915 and sent to the auxiliary service. In September 1917 as a nurse in the reserve hospital for skin and venereal diseases, he left the service on November 15, 1917 without permission and went into hiding in Vienna.

There he appeared at meetings of the "Karl Marx Association" around Friedrich Adler , Max Adler , Robert Danneberg  and  Therese Schlesinger  and established close contacts with the so-called left-wing radicals around  Franz Koritschoner  and Anna Ströhmer . At the same time he was involved in the "Association of Young Workers". He was able to evade another arrest on December 11th . During the so-called January strike in 1918, Rothziegel appeared in several leaflets, some of which were written together with Franz Koritschoner, and was arrested in Hungary in April 1918.

On October 23, 1918 , Rothziegel was charged with desertion and violation of subordination before the Army Division Court and sentenced to four months in prison. Although the sentence with pre-trial detention was considered to have been served, he had to remain in pre-trial detention on suspicion of high treason .

Released from custody in Vienna on October 28, 1918, he published a leaflet on November 1  calling for entry into the Red Guard founded the day before . Later, in negotiations with Undersecretary  Julius Deutsch, he achieved  their integration into the People's Army. Rothziegel took over the People's Army Battalion (VB) 41 and had its members  sworn in to the  Communist International . The establishment of the  Communist Party of German Austria (KPDÖ) on November 3, 1918, which he had initially requested, he rejected because of ideological issues and founded the “ Federation of Revolutionary Socialists - International ” (FRSI) on November 28 in the inn “Zum Feldmarschall Laudon "In Vienna- Hernals , in whose organ" Der Freie Arbeiter "he published. Rothziegel appeared as a speaker at the Vienna funeral services for  Rosa Luxemburg  and Karl Liebknecht on January 18 , 1919.

After the proclamation of the Soviet Republic in Hungary on March 21, 1919, he mobilized 1,200 volunteers who, under his leadership, went to war for Council Hungary. In a battle with Romanian troops near Debrecen on April 22nd, he was hit by a bullet, fatally injured and buried in Vámospércs .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Rothziegel, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian typesetter, anarcho-syndicalist
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1919
Place of death Debrecen , Hungary