Lorenz window lintel

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The Lorenz window lintel is the name given to the violent events that took place on May 8, 1921 in Sankt Lorenzen im Mürz Valley . In tumultuous arguments during a political gathering, several prominent Christian social politicians - including Governor Anton Rintelen - were thrown out of a window and threatened with death.

procedure

On Sunday, May 8th, a meeting of Christian social farmer representatives took place in the Gasthaus Pesl, a local inn. Soon, however, social democratic workers entered the hall and called Governor Rintelen a “worker murderer”. In this context, reference was made to events in Graz about four weeks earlier, during which the police shot at looting workers' women. There were physical attacks on the politicians present, until finally Rintelen, Provincial Councilor Franz Prisching and the MP Josef Pichler were thrown out of a window in the hall from a height of about 2.30 meters.

The guests of honor fled on the road to the west and were threatened several times by the attackers who followed. Finally, an attempt was made to drown the governor in the pond of the nearby Nechelheim Castle , but this was prevented by a passerby, the local evangelical senior Karl Eckhardt. In the meantime, Josef Pichler had alerted the gendarmerie in nearby Sankt Marein in the Mürz valley , which arrived shortly afterwards at Nechelheim Castle. Accompanied by representatives of the workers, Governor Rintelen and Provincial Councilor Prisching returned to Sankt Lorenzen, from where they left shortly afterwards.

consequences

Several of those involved were arrested in the following days. However, they were soon released again because the military associations of the Kapfenberg and Bruck workers blocked all traffic connections and passports so that the arrested could not be brought to Graz or Leoben . Several people involved had to answer in court, five men were sentenced to prison terms of up to two months.

Memorial for the three dead on August 18, 1929 at the Bruck ad Mur cemetery

The political climate in Upper Styria worsened in the following years; On August 18, 1929 - again in Sankt Lorenzen im Mürz valley - there was a firefight between members of the Styrian Homeland Security and the Republican Protection Association , in which three people (Karl Hauer, Franz Hübl, Johann Schifkovits) were killed.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stefan Karner: Styria in the 20th century. Vienna-Cologne-Weimar, 2000 p. 136
  2. ^ Gerhard Botz: Violence in Politics. Assassinations, clashes, coup attempts, unrest in Austria 1918 to 1938. Munich, 1983, p. 87
  3. ↑ Otto Fraydenegg-Monzello: St. Lorenzen - from old and new times . Sankt Lorenzen im Mürz Valley, 2004, p. 101f.
  4. ^ Bruce F. Pauley: Cocktail and Swastika. Styrian Homeland Security and Austrian National Socialism 1918-34 . Vienna-Munich-Zurich, 1971, p. 57ff.