Ludwig readers

Ludwig Readers (born August 11, 1890 in Neufeld an der Leitha ; † October 30, 1946 ) was an Austrian politician ( SPÖ ) and governor of Burgenland .

Ludwig Readers was already politically active in German-West Hungary during the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and was posted to the provincial administration after Burgenland was annexed to Austria in 1922. From 1922 to 1934 he held the post of Deputy Governor and was a member of the Burgenland State Parliament. In 1931 he received an honorary doctorate from Heidelberg University . With the establishment of the Austro-Fascist corporate state , he fled to Czechoslovakia .

Reader was arrested by the Gestapo in Prague in August 1939 , deported to Vienna and released there after six weeks in prison. From October 11, 1939, he worked with the Gestapo as an undercover agent under the code name “Lederer”. It is not known whether this was done voluntarily or under duress. He became an informant about many of his former social democratic companions and his radius of action as a well-paid informant (400 Reichsmarks in the first month , then 200 RM) extended to several countries, including Sweden , where he had contact with Vilmos Böhm , who was living in exile . Confident reports also referred to Ignaz Till and Julius Deutsch .

During the Nazi era , the state was divided between the Reichsgauen Niederdonau and Styria . In 1945, readers played a major role in the rebuilding of Burgenland. From October 1, 1945 to January 4, 1946, Leser was the first (provisional) Governor of Burgenland in the Second Republic . He was then again Deputy Governor until his death in October 1946.

In 1972 the Lesergasse in Vienna- Simmering (11th district) was named after him.

literature

• Johann Kriegler: Political manual of Burgenland. Volume 1: (1921-1938). Rötzer, Eisenstadt 1972.
• Johann Kriegler: Political manual of Burgenland. Volume 2: (1945–1995) (= Burgenland Research. 76). Burgenland State Archives, Eisenstadt 1996, ISBN 3-901517-07-3 .

Web links

• Reader:  Reader Ludwig. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 5, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1972, p. 154 f. (Direct links on p. 154 , p. 155 ).
• Entry on Ludwig Readers in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Literature by and about Ludwig readers in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ludwig Readers on the website of the Austrian Parliament

Individual evidence

1. ^ Österreich-Bild - 80 years Burgenland, January 26th 2001 12:00, designer: Günter Unger
2. ^ Street names in Vienna since 1860 as “Political Places of Remembrance” (PDF; 4.4 MB), p. 172, final research project report, Vienna, July 2013