Reinhart Bachofen from Echt

The deputy Styrian leader Reinhart Bachofen-Echt (left) with the Austrian federal leader of the Heimwehr Richard Steidle (center) and the Styrian district leader Hans Pranckh (right back), photo on the Heimwehr grandstand at the Heimwehr meeting on the Neuklosterwiese during the deployment of the Heimwehr and of the Schutzbund in Wiener Neustadt on October 7, 1928

Reinhart Freiherr Bachofen von Echt (born October 7, 1877 in Nussdorf near Vienna , † October 14, 1947 in Graz ) was an Austrian castle owner and home guard leader as well as the author of several works on Styrian hunting history.

Life

Reinhart Freiherr Bachofen von Echt (after 1919: Bachofen-Echt ) came from an aristocratic family who originally lived near Maastricht in the Netherlands and who immigrated to the Danube Monarchy via the Rhineland . His family lived in Vienna , where they ran the very lucrative Nussdorf beer brewery , for example , but also owned properties in Styria , such as Murstätten Castle, acquired in 1902 in the area of today's municipality of Lebring-Sankt Margarethen .

Bachofen-Echt studied in Germany and did military service on the Eastern Front, including in Galicia , during the First World War . After the war, Bachofen-Echt was particularly committed to the Home Guard movement in Styria. As early as the summer of 1921, with the participation of the Christian Social Party, the various Styrian home guard groups united for the first time, but the Styrian Self-Protection Association founded by Walter Pfrimer split off again in April 1922 . With the participation of politicians from the Christian Social Party and the Landbund , the so-called Styrian Home Guard was founded , the leaders of which changed in relatively quick succession. Bachofen-Echt became the third leader of this organization, which, not least because of a gradual improvement in the economic situation, was hardly able to play a role in public.

After the events surrounding the fire in the Palace of Justice in Vienna , the interest of social groups in opposition to social democracy in the Home Guard movement increased rapidly across Austria. In Styria, Walter Pfrimer and the home guard units subordinate to him had violently suppressed the social democratic traffic strike in connection with the fire in the Palace of Justice and thus presented himself in public as a “savior” from the supposed “ Marxist danger”. This brought the Heimwehr movement in here too and led to its reorganization in November 1927. Pfrimer became head of the Styrian Homeland Security , as the Heimwehr was generally called in Styria, and Bachofen-Echt was his deputy. In the course of the dispute over the direction of the Styrian Homeland Security that broke out after the Pfrimer Putsch , Bachofen-Echt sided with Konstantin Kammerhofer , who had been the new regional director of the organization since May 1932. In the new management team of the Styrian Homeland Security , Bachofen-Echt exercised the function of state treasurer. Kammerhofer's course of the Styrian Homeland Security becoming ever closer to the aspiring National Socialists, who opposed Austrian statehood and fought the federal government with increasingly violent means, did not support Bachofen-Echt, which is why he ultimately turned to the "government-loyal" wing of the Heimwehr movement Ernst Rüdiger turned to Starhemberg . However, he no longer played a significant role here.

Bachofen-Echt maintained good contacts throughout his life with the German branch of the family, who had the moated castle built in Dobitschen , Thuringia , in the 17th century . In 1904 he married Alice Pfizer (1877-1959), a daughter of Charles Pfizer (1824-1906), the co-founder of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. , in the United States . Bachofen-Echt was also a passionate hunter and worked diligently as an editor and author of historical works, especially on the history of hunting in Styria. He wrote a multi-volume hunting story in Styria and in 1940 published an abridged version of the memoirs of the Austrian diplomat and orientalist Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall (1774-1856).

References and comments

^ Genealogical handbook of the nobility. Freiherrliche Häuser B. Volume V, Volume 48 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1971, p. 38.

↑ On April 3, 1919, the Parliament of the State of German Austria decided to abolish the nobility, the secular knights and ladies' orders as well as certain titles and dignities through the so-called Nobility Repeal Act , which gave the nobility its external honorary privileges and merely conferred an official position titles and dignities not related to the profession or a scientific or artistic qualification had been withdrawn.

↑ On ancestry cf. u. a. Erika von Watzdorf-Bachoff: In the change and in the transformation of time . From the estate, ed. by Reinhard R. Doerries, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07062-1 , p. xii .

↑ Murstätten Castle . (PDF file; 1040 kB)

↑ Watzdorf-Bachoff (1997), p. 224 .

^ Walter Wiltschegg: The home guard. An irresistible popular movement? (= Studies and Sources on Austrian Contemporary History, Volume 7), Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7028-0221-5 , p. 173.

↑ In the propaganda of their opponents, especially those of the Heimwehr, the Austrian Social Democrats were always referred to as “Marxists”, against whose “overthrowing plans” state and church as well as the private property of “civil society” had to be protected.

↑ Wiltschegg (1985), pp. 174f. and 181.

↑ Watzdorf-Bachoff (1997), p. 383 , according to Bachofen-Echt sympathized with Starhemberg as early as 1929/30, of whose home guard organization he was "an ardent member with body and soul ".

↑ See also Watzdorf-Bachoff (1997), pp. 224 and 380 .

↑ See Brooklyn Girl a Baroness . In: Special to The New York Times, Tuesday, September 6, 1904, p. 7. - Bachofen-Echt, who was also an honorary citizen of the Lebring community, and his wife always tried to support the community in social and cultural projects. Murstätten Castle (PDF; 1.1 MB).

↑ To do this, he had typed the 6,000 pages of the original manuscript, which still resulted in 2,500 typewritten pages. For this and for further details cf. Sibylle Wentker: Hammer-Purgstall as Homo Politicus in the mirror of his memories from my life. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Lecture given on September 26, 2004.@1@ 2

Web links

Literature by and about Reinhart Bachofen von Echt in the catalog of the German National Library

personal data
SURNAME	Bachofen from Echt, Reinhart
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bachofen-Echt, Reinhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian nobleman, home guard leader and author
DATE OF BIRTH	October 7, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nussdorf near Vienna
DATE OF DEATH	October 14, 1947
Place of death	Graz

[1] Genealogical handbook of the nobility. Freiherrliche Häuser B. Volume V, Volume 48 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1971, p. 38.

[2] On April 3, 1919, the Parliament of the State of German Austria decided to abolish the nobility, the secular knights and ladies' orders as well as certain titles and dignities through the so-called Nobility Repeal Act , which gave the nobility its external honorary privileges and merely conferred an official position titles and dignities not related to the profession or a scientific or artistic qualification had been withdrawn.

[3] On ancestry cf. u. a. Erika von Watzdorf-Bachoff: In the change and in the transformation of time . From the estate, ed. by Reinhard R. Doerries, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07062-1 , p. xii .

[4] Murstätten Castle . (PDF file; 1040 kB)

[5] Watzdorf-Bachoff (1997), p. 224 .

[6] Walter Wiltschegg: The home guard. An irresistible popular movement? (= Studies and Sources on Austrian Contemporary History, Volume 7), Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-7028-0221-5 , p. 173.

[7] In the propaganda of their opponents, especially those of the Heimwehr, the Austrian Social Democrats were always referred to as “Marxists”, against whose “overthrowing plans” state and church as well as the private property of “civil society” had to be protected.

[8] Wiltschegg (1985), pp. 174f. and 181.

[9] Watzdorf-Bachoff (1997), p. 383 , according to Bachofen-Echt sympathized with Starhemberg as early as 1929/30, of whose home guard organization he was "an ardent member with body and soul ".

[10] See also Watzdorf-Bachoff (1997), pp. 224 and 380 .

[11] See Brooklyn Girl a Baroness . In: Special to The New York Times, Tuesday, September 6, 1904, p. 7. - Bachofen-Echt, who was also an honorary citizen of the Lebring community, and his wife always tried to support the community in social and cultural projects. Murstätten Castle (PDF; 1.1 MB).