Richard Schmitz (politician, 1885)

Richard Schmitz (born December 14, 1885 in Müglitz , Moravia ; † April 27, 1954 in Vienna ) was an Austrian politician of the Christian Social Party or the Fatherland Front . From 1934 to 1938 he was mayor of Vienna.

Life

Richard Schmitz was born in Müglitz as the son of Karl Schmitz (1851–1917) and Karoline Schmitz (1855–1937). He studied law at the Universities of Vienna and Innsbruck . From 1905 he was a member of the Catholic student union KaV Norica Vienna . He worked as a journalist for various Catholic newspapers and magazines and became director of the central office of the Volksbund der Katholiken of Austria. In August 1911 he married Josefa Mlczoch (1887–1943). His political career began in 1918 as a councilor in the Vienna City Council , and in 1920 he became a member of the National Council . Richard Schmitz held this position until 1934.

The Austrian politician became Minister of Social Affairs in 1922 and Minister of Education in 1926. During this time he put an end to the school dispute with the Social Democrats and had the secondary school, the workers' secondary school and advanced school legally introduced. In 1930 Richard Schmitz became Vice Chancellor and finally in the years 1934 to 1938, after the arrest of his social democratic predecessor by the corporate state , the last mayor of Vienna before the “ Anschluss ” to the German Reich. During this time he had, among other things, the Vienna Höhenstrasse built. From May 1936 he was also the country leader of the Vienna Patriotic Front.

On the night of March 11th to 12th 1938, Vice Mayor Fritz Lahr occupied the town hall with around 160 armed men from SA Storm I / 99 "Oberland" and forced the town hall guards to lay down their weapons. Richard Schmitz was arrested, interned in the detention house on the Danube Canal and later with the celebrities transport in the Dachau concentration camp abducted.

He was in political prison during the Second World War . At the end of September 1939 he was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp and back to Dachau in March 1940. Towards the end of the war Schmitz was transferred as a member of a hostage transport of prominent concentration camp inmates and clan prisoners by the SS via the Reichenau camp to South Tyrol, where he was finally liberated by American troops in May 1945 .

After the end of the war, Richard Schmitz became general director of the Catholic Herold publishing house and worked as a journalist for Furche .

His grave is in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 35G, number 1).

Web links

• Richard Schmitz on the website of the Austrian Parliament
• Entry on Richard Schmitz (politician, 1885) in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Detailed curriculum vitae on the ÖCV website

Individual evidence

1. ^ The honorary members, old men and students of the CV Vienna 1925, p. 645.
2. ↑ Irmgard Bärnthaler : The Fatherland Front. History and organization . Europa Verlag, Vienna / Frankfurt / Zurich 1971, ISBN 3-203-50379-7  ( formally incorrect ) , p. 206 , footnote 3 .
3. ↑ Peter Koblank: The Liberation of Special Prisoners and Kinship Prisoners in South Tyrol , online edition Mythos Elser 2006.
4. ↑ Schmitz Richard. DÖW , 2018, accessed on August 6, 2018 . 
5. ↑ Richard Schmitz: Christian-social politics from the eve of the First World War. Karl von Vogelsang Institute, 2018, accessed on August 6, 2018 . 

predecessor	Office	successor
Karl Seitz	Mayor of Vienna 1934–1938	Hermann Neubacher