Rudolf Lonauer

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Rudolf Lonauer (born January 9, 1907 in Linz , † May 5, 1945 in Neuhofen an der Krems ) was an Austrian National Socialist and administrative director of the Niedernhart institution and the Hartheim killing institution .

Until 1938 in Austria

Lonauer's father was a member of the Greater German People's Party as an official of the Linz health authority and moved there when the NSDAP was founded . Lonauer himself joined the Styrian Homeland Security in 1924 , the NSDAP on August 1, 1931, and the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1933 . In 1925 he became a member of the Ostmark Graz fraternity . When Austria was annexed, Lonauer was already an “ old fighter ” despite his young age . His medical studies were already geared towards racial hygiene , he studied under the professor of neurology Fritz Hartmann in Graz , who had already in 1919 called for the “hereditary keeping of the German race”. Like Hartmann, Lonauer was also of the opinion that psychotherapeutic approaches should be rejected as "Jewish". As a student in a beating connection, he injured a cartel brother so seriously that he died from it. Lonauer also had a brother who, according to Nazi criteria, would have been a case for Hartheim (he suffered from severe epileptic seizures), but who died of natural causes during the war. In Graz in 1932 Lonauer married Maria Hoffer from Trieste, also a National Socialist.

Career after joining the German Empire

Shortly after the National Socialist " Anschluss of Austria " in March 1938, Lonauer took over the management of the state insane asylum Niedernhart in Linz at the age of 31 and thus also the management of the branch in Gschwendt Castle in Neuhofen an der Krems. At the same time he became Primarius of the Department of Nervous Diseases in the Linz General Public Hospital. At the age of 33 he became head of the Nazi killing center in Hartheim in Alkoven. He also ran a private practice in Linz. He also went on business trips (see Aktion 14f13 ) together with Aktion-T4 senior appraiser Hermann Paul Nitsche , Viktor Brack and Victor Ratka , searching for “ unworthy life ” in hospitals, psychiatric institutions and old people's homes and selecting them for the killing institutions. Lonauer also considered building a gas chamber and crematorium in the Solbad Hall nursing home in Tyrol, analogous to Hartheim , but this failed because of the resistance of the head of the institution there. As a " T4 expert ", he decided on the death or life of people based on the registration form without ever having seen the person concerned. He was paid monthly for these activities by Aktion T4.

Nazi killing center Hartheim

SS-Obersturmführer Christian Wirth played the leading role in the reconstruction of Hartheim Palace in early 1940 ; Erwin Lambert carried out the construction work . Lonauer himself was rarely present in Hartheim. He gave instructions in letters to his deputy Georg Renno , who represented him in all offices and in his private practice in Linz when he was in the SS division "Prinz Eugen" . The execution of the "euthanasia" killings as well as the final assessment of the victims, the determination of the alleged natural causes of death and the gassings were mostly the responsibility of Renno.

7th SS volunteer mountain division "Prinz Eugen"

In autumn 1943 Lonauer joined the SS division "Prinz Eugen" . His assignment there is unclear. Cross -links to the extermination arise because Hans Bothmann, as the commander of the Kulmhof extermination camp, was part of the division with all SS members of his command. Also Viktor Brack as chief dispatcher of the Office II in the office of the leader (KDF) and organizer of Action T4 was in this division.

Niedernhart sanatorium and nursing home

In the Niedernhart asylum in Linz, headed by Lonauer, initially only a reduction in the meat rations for the patients was set. After about a year and a half, men's ward VIII was vacated and the patients were transferred to other departments. The emptied Department VIII became the "intermediate facility" for Hartheim in the sense of a "transit station"; killings were also carried out there. As the killings increased, Department V was later directly subordinated to Lonauer, which was soon known among the staff as the "Death Department". Until April 1945 people were killed in Niedernhart and Gschwendt, in so-called wild or decentralized euthanasia, using medication. A total of an estimated 800 killings is assumed. The pre-war mortality rate rose from 6% to 70%. If the statistical length of stay of a patient was several years before, in 1943 it was only 38 days.

During the war, around 250 people were admitted to Niedernhart, who were apparently foreign civilian workers (including numerous Eastern workers ). Some of them were also murdered as part of the “euthanasia” in Niedernhart.

Sister Godefrieda, head nurse of the women's sections could indeed prevent her once inflicted by execution of killings in their departments, but not the sailings of women to Hartheim itself. After the war, two nurses from Niederhart to several years were prison convicted. Head nurse Karl Harrer and head nurse Gertrude Blanke organized transports and also worked in Hartheim.

Niedernhart as an intermediate facility served as a buffer for the Hartheim killing facility. Lonauer often had to slow down overzealous offers to bring patients in because he first had to deal with “backlogs” in Linz, as the correspondence with Oskar Begusch shows, the medical director of the Feldhof sanatorium in Graz, who wanted to remove his “excess”.

Branch of Schloss Gschwendt

Gschwendt Castle in Neuhofen an der Krems was also under the management of Lonauer as a branch of Niedernhart. Initially, transfers to Hartheim were carried out here to kill those affected. Until April 1945, malnutrition and medication were used to kill people on site. There was also the residence of the Lonauer family, where Lonauer first killed his wife at the end of the war, one hour before the arrival of the US Army, then his two daughters (born in 1938 and 1943) and finally himself.

literature

  • Simone Loistl: "... politically and characteristically excellent aptitude ..." Rudolf Lonauer - a biographical sketch . In: Philipp Rohrbach, Florian Schwanninger (Eds.): Beyond Hartheim. Perpetrators in the context of 'Aktion T4' and 'Aktion Reinhard' . Studienverlag, Innsbruck et al. 2019, ISBN 978-3-7065-5604-0 , pp. 89–116
  • Walter Kohl : "I don't feel guilty": Georg Renno, euthanasia doctor . 1st edition, Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-552-04973-8 .
  • Tom Matzek : The Murder Castle: on the trail of Nazi crimes in Hartheim Castle . 1st edition, Kremayr & Scheriau Verlag, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-218-00710-0 .
  • Christina Altenstrasser, Peter Eigelsberger, Lydia Thanner, Konstantin Putz: “Niedernhart. June 1946. A report “ 2003.
  • Wolfgang Freidl, W. Sauer (Hrsg.): Nazi science as an instrument of destruction. Racial hygiene, forced sterilization, human experiments and Nazi euthanasia in Styria , Facultas Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-85076-656-X .
  • Kurt Wolfgang Leininger: Ordered dying - repressed memories. Nazi euthanasia in Hartheim . Verlagshaus der Ärzte, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-901488-82-0 .
  • Brigitte Kepplinger , Gerhart Marckhgott , Hartmut Reese (eds.): Hartheim Killing Institution , Linz 2008, ISBN 978-3-900313-89-0
  • Petra Scheiblechner: "... politically he is impeccable ... short biographies of the female scientists working at the Medical Faculty of the University of Graz from 1938 to 1945 (= publications from the archive of the University of Graz, vol. 39), Graz 2002.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Volume 8: Supplement L – Z. Winter, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-8253-6051-1 , pp. 40-42.
  2. ↑ Kurt Wolfgang Leininger: Ordinary death - repressed memories. Nazi euthanasia in Hartheim , page 120ff.
  3. ↑ Kurt Wolfgang Leininger: Ordinary death - repressed memories. Nazi euthanasia in Hartheim , page 124f.
  4. ↑ Tom Matzek: Das Mordschloss: on the trail of Nazi crimes in Hartheim Castle , page 61.
  5. ↑ Kurt Wolfgang Leininger: Ordinary death - repressed memories. Nazi euthanasia in Hartheim , page 123.
  6. ↑ Walter Kohl: "I don't feel guilty": Georg Renno, euthanasia doctor .
  7. ^ Gerhard Marckhgott: Euthanasia in Upper Danube. Zeitgeschichte magazine, Erika Weinzierl (ed.), Vienna 1994, issue 5/6.
  8. ↑ Markus Rachbauer: The murder of mentally and physically ill foreign civilian workers as part of the Nazi "euthanasia" - with a focus on the Upper Danube region . Diploma thesis at the Faculty of Culture and Social Sciences at the University of Salzburg, 2009. S. 134, 140ff.
  9. ↑ Austrian Health and Nursing Association ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 77 kB) Gerhard Fürstler, Peter Malina: The Catholic nun, Sister Godefrieda (Anna Lindner) , ÖGKV , Österr. Care magazine 8–9 / 2003. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.oegkv.at
  10. ↑ Tom Matzek: Das Mordschloss: on the trail of Nazi crimes in Hartheim Castle , page 65.
  11. ↑ Online magazine for Styria KORSO estate of Dr. Ernst Arlt: Letter documents between Lonauer and Oskar Begusch, the medical director of the Feldhof in Graz.
  12. ↑ Kurt Wolfgang Leininger: Ordinary death - repressed memories. Nazi euthanasia in Hartheim , page 125.
  13. ↑ Justice and Remembrance website in October 2003 (PDF; 194 kB) Testimony of the staff, pages 6 to 13
personal data
SURNAME Lonauer, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian doctor, expert for Aktion T4r, head of the Nazi killing center in Hartheim
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Linz
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1945
Place of death Neuhofen an der Krems