Peter Strauss (day laborer)
Peter Strauss (born June 9, 1900 ; † January 12, 1934 ) was an Austrian day laborer who, after the reintroduction of the death penalty in Austria under Dollfuss, was the first to be executed on the basis of a court martial . He is therefore also referred to as "the first victim of the Austro-Fascist stand courts".
Life
Strauss was the son of an alcoholic maid. He had never met his birth father. With his low mental abilities and a height of 1.45 m he was exposed to the ridicule of his fellow men. There was also a limp as a result of surviving rickets . Strauss kept afloat doing odd jobs, wore tattered clothes and had been in prison several times for theft.
The fact
On Sunday, January 7th, 1934, a fire broke out on the farm of farmer Anton Tischler in Aflenz near Leibnitz between four and five in the morning. The hay barn, built entirely of wood, burned down completely. The farmer and his sons were barely able to prevent the fire from spreading to the house. Not only hay but also corn and tools were stored in the barn. The damage amounted to around 2,500 schillings, but Tischler was insured. He himself filed a complaint against Strauss.
Strauss had been a guest at the carpenter's farm the previous evening. There was an argument between him and another guest, whereupon Strauss was expelled from the court. As he walked, he said that people would still think of him.
Legal proceedings
Interview and trial
At the interrogation, Strauss initially protested his innocence and stated that he had been with his foster father, who lived nearby, on the night in question. This alibi turned out to be false, as the said foster father hadn't even been there. Finally, on January 8th, Strauss confessed to the gendarmerie, allegedly he was mistreated during the questioning.
On January 10, 1934, his trial began before the court martial in Graz. The defense attorney requested a psychiatric report and thus the transfer of the case to a proper jury , which the judges refused.
Legal basis
The then court jurisdiction had to either impose the death penalty or announce an acquittal within three days ; If the proceedings were expected to last more than three days, a case had to be heard by a regular jury, which, however, could not pass death sentences.
It is true that in Austria the death penalty was abolished in the ordinary process with the Federal Constitution of 1920 . But in the course of the establishment of the Austro-Fascist dictatorship, the Austrian federal government under Engelbert Dollfuss had introduced martial law and the death penalty on November 11, 1933 for the crimes of murder, arson and the crime of public violence. The first stand trial took place on December 14, 1933 in Wels against the farmer's son Johann Breitwieser . The proceedings were conducted by a “flying senate” consisting of four judges and a public prosecutor, who had its seat at the Higher Regional Court of Vienna and, if necessary, traveled to the responsible regional court, and lasted a maximum of three days. If the question of guilt was unanimously affirmed, it resulted in a death sentence, which had to be carried out after three hours at the latest. No legal remedy was permitted against the judgment, only a pardon by the Federal President was possible.
Verdict and execution
Strauss was found guilty of having set fire to part of the Tischler family's yard and sentenced to " death by hanging " due to the legal situation. The four members of the court martial, however, advocated an act of grace by the Federal President. This could only have happened if the Minister of Justice (at that time Kurt Schuschnigg ) had made a corresponding petition for clemency, as in the case of Johann Breitwieser. In the case of Peter Strauss, however, the Minister of Justice made no such recommendation to the Federal President. On January 12, 1934, Strauss was therefore executed in the courtyard of the Graz Regional Court by the executioner Johann Lang am Würgegalgen (see also the list of people executed in Austria 1933–1938 ). In June 1934, a change in the law reintroduced the death penalty to include due process.
literature
- Thomas Karny: The day laborer's death. Why Peter Strauss had to go to the gallows . Franz Stein Maßl, Grünbach 1999, ISBN 3-900943-72-9 .
Web links
- Descriptions of criminal offenses and executions, as they were printed in the current reporting at the time, can also be read via ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online (search term “Peter Strauss”, year 1934).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Edith Gagern: Peter Strauss. The first victim of the stand courts. In: Stephan Neuhäuser (Ed.): We'll do a great job. BoD, Norderstedt 2004, ISBN 3-8334-0873-1 , p. 29.
- ↑ a b Martin F. Polaschek : In the mills of justice. The standing trial against Peter Strauss and the reintroduction of the death penalty in 1933. In: Michele Luminati, Ulrich Falk, Mathias Schmoeckel (eds.): With the eyes of legal history: legal cases - commented self-critically. Lit-Verlag, Vienna et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-0370-4 , p. 399.
- ↑ The then 26-year-old Breitwieser had stabbed the 19-year-old maid Hilde Strasser, who was pregnant by him, so badly on his parents' farm in Mitterfils, Pennewang municipality , that she died of it shortly after fleeing to a neighbor. The death sentence against Breitwieser for murder was made the day after the trial began, what justice minister Kurt Schuschnigg said at that time in Mallnitz , who remained President submitted a pardon and the death penalty five minutes before the scheduled execution Breitwieser by the executioner Johann Lang in a life sentence was converted. At the time, the stand trial was reported in detail in all of the major Austrian newspapers - see ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online for 1933.
- ↑ Federal Law Gazette No. 77/1934
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Strauss, Peter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian day laborer, victim of Austrofascism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 9, 1900 |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 12, 1934 |
| Place of death | Vienna |