Otto Hartmann (actor)
Otto Hartmann (born January 22, 1904 in Vienna ; † March 14, 1994 there ) was an Austrian actor and informant for the Secret State Police (Gestapo) during the National Socialist era .
Life and career before the time of National Socialism
Otto Hartmann came from a Protestant family in Vienna and had become an actor against his parents' wishes. He found an engagement at the Vienna Burgtheater and also appeared in films. He joined the Schutzkorps and the Ostmärkische Sturmscharen (OSS), where he held the rank of corporal. In the Austro-Fascist corporate state he was entrusted by the Vienna management of the OSS with spying on members of the opposition. He was supposed to track down illegal Social Democrats and National Socialists among the actors and other staff at the Burgtheater. After the OSS was transformed into the Front Militia , he continued his Confident activities there. He also joined the Storm Corps .
In 1937, however, he made contacts with an illegal Nazi factory cell at the Burgtheater, which he supplied with confidential messages from his clients. On March 11, 1938 , to everyone's surprise, he made himself available in complete SA uniform as a guard for the Gau leadership of the Vienna NSDAP ( Am Hof ). On this day he also applied for admission to the NSDAP, although he was only admitted on January 1, 1941 (membership no. 9.027.697)
Betrayal of the resistance
Perhaps it was disappointment about not being considered a party member and the associated loss of career opportunities was the reason that Hartmann contacted an opposition group of actors at the Burgtheater in the spring of 1939. However, it cannot be ruled out that he was already determined then to hand over this group to the Gestapo. By referring to his longstanding membership in "patriotic" defense formations, he was able to credibly pass himself off as a loyal supporter of the corporate state. One of these colleagues, the castle actor Fritz Lehmann , brought Hartmann into contact with the Austrian freedom movement of the Augustinian canon Roman Karl Scholz . This non-violent, conservative-Catholic resistance group had the goal of liberation from National Socialism and the separation of Austria from the German Reich . Hartmann became an active member of the group and rose to its management committee by the end of 1939 and took part in its management meetings. Hartmann's tasks lay in recruiting new members and in the area of internal organization. He was also present at meetings on merger negotiations with the resistance groups around Karl Lederer and Jacob Kastelic . On comrades in his group, as well as on representatives of cooperating groups, he always gave the impression of an energetic, convinced resistance fighter.
In May 1940, Hartmann decided to (self) advertise. He asked his colleague Lilly Walter, whose husband was a Gestapo officer in a department for economic affairs, to order her husband into her cloakroom in the theater. There he met Hartmann, who gave him detailed information about the Scholz group. In the end, Hartmann volunteered to be Confident. This was welcomed by the Gestapo man and he made a comprehensive report to his superior. The matter was forwarded to the responsible units. Thanks to Hartmann's comprehensive information, it was easy for the Gestapo to quickly conclude the investigations against the Scholz group and the two other groups. In June 1940, they smuggled more Confederates into the groups. Hartmann helped organize lists of members and shorthand meetings for the Gestapo. As an agent provocateur , Hartmann also presented a number of “action plans”, such as acid attacks on mailboxes, explosive attacks on telephone boxes, the Leopoldau gasometer , the Gestapo headquarters on Morzinplatz or the Linz radio station. Sometimes even Gestapo offices were involved in drafting these plans. Within the group, Scholz tried to take a more moderate line and focus on propaganda measures and a cadre organization.
On July 22 and 23, 1940, the Gestapo struck and arrested the leading functionaries of the three groups. Another wave of arrests began in September, a third in the winter of 1940/41. Hedwig Leitner, a member of the resistance group, described Hartmann's betrayal as follows:
“This is how it is with a resistance movement that you only know three, in case that if you are captured, the whole group is not immediately taken over. But there was one, this actor [Otto] Hartmann, who strangely had a list of all the members. […] The traitor, this Hartmann, was a Gestapo spy and he gave all the names. As a result, we were all arrested almost at the same time, all in August [1940], all at once, hopp, hopp, hopp, and were brought to the Gestapo at Morzinplatz. And then the interrogation started. "
In total, the Gestapo researched around 450 activists, 143 of whom remained in custody and were tried before the People's Court . Many of them received long prison terms , twelve were sentenced to death and executed , including Roman Karl Scholz, Jacob Kastelic and Karl Lederer. Hartmann received a reward of 30,000 Reichsmarks for this .
In the following years , Hartmann worked as an undercover Gestapo informant in circles around former KPÖ officials. He gained the trust of Josef Kallisch , the leader of a communist resistance group, whereupon their meetings often took place in Hartmann's apartment on Reichsratsstrasse . In the spring of 1941, the Kallisch movement was finally broken up by the Secret State Police, and around 30 people were arrested. Kallisch was found guilty of high treason and executed, while other members received long prison terms.
After Hartmann had publicly admitted his activity as an informant, the Burgtheater management banned him from performing and staying indoors. On August 1, 1941, he enlisted in the military for basic training in Hainburg an der Donau . He then performed security duty at various locations in the Vienna city area. When he was assigned to a marching company in December 1941 , he insisted on a medical examination, which only certified him fitness GVH (Garrison Use Heimat) . Therefore he was transferred back to the Albrecht barracks.
From March 1942 to April 1944 Hartmann was employed in the disciplinary department of the Wehrmacht Commandantur Vienna. His job there was to research deserters and "front-shy" soldiers and report them to the army patrol. In doing so, he also carried out investigations outside of office hours that had not been asked of him. For a while he was also active in the army patrol. Hartmann came to the hospital at the end of 1944 and then stayed for a long time on various cures in Tyrol and Lower Austria . Another military medical examination in October 1944 found it to be unsuitable.
From January 1945 to the beginning of April 1945 he was employed by the Vienna Criminal Police Office (Property Offenses Department).
After the end of the war
When Vienna was conquered by the Red Army , Hartmann withdrew from Vienna to Innsbruck on April 4, 1945 by marching order with around 200 detectives and then worked for the police in Schwaz for a short time . Through contacts with the Austrian resistance, he succeeded in joining the Austrian criminal police, but was finally arrested by the French occupying forces on September 28, 1945 and transferred to Vienna in January 1946.
After a brief escape and re-arrest in May 1947, charges were brought against him in August 1947 on the basis of Section 7 of the War Crimes Act (KVG) “ denunciation resulting in death”. The main hearing before the People's Court began on November 3, 1947 . After twelve days of trial, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on November 22, 1947 .
Pardon and further life
In the period that followed, he repeatedly tried to obtain a retrial or a pardon, but this was rejected. In the course of an amnesty , however, he was finally pardoned on July 11, 1957 by Federal President Adolf Schärf for a probationary period of five years. Hartmann then worked as a salesman and commercial clerk at various Viennese companies. He was buried at the Hernalser Friedhof (group 40A, number 61).
literature
- Hans Schafranek : Resistance and Treason. Gestapo spies in the anti-fascist underground 1938–1945 . Czernin, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-7076-0622-5 , p. 211-218, 407-412 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Otto Hartmann. In: IMDb . Retrieved November 5, 2018 .
- ^ A b c d e f Diana Carmen Albu: The working method of the informers of the news department of the Vienna Gestapo control center using the example of three biographies. In: Jewish cultural magazine DAVID . Retrieved November 5, 2018 .
- ↑ a b Hedwig Leitner (née Bodenstein): They won't hurt us. DÖW , accessed on November 5, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hartmann, Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian National Socialist and informer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 22, 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 14, 1994 |
| Place of death | Vienna |