Stefanie Engler

Identification photo of the Vienna Gestapo

Stefanie Engler (born November 18, 1910 - † June 25, 1943 in Plötzensee prison , Berlin ) was an Austro-German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism and a victim of Nazi war justice. 

Life and activity

Stefanie Engler was a member of the workers gymnastics club from 1924 to 1926. From 1929 she belonged to the social democratic tourist association "The Friends of Nature".

Activity in the resistance during the Second World War

Engler worked as a welder during the Second World War . In 1940 she met the commercial clerk Leopold Fritzsche , to whom she became engaged . Through him, Engler became an employee of the “Proko”, the “Provincial Commission of the Communist Party of Austria ”, the head of which was her fiancé at the time. This underground organization ensured the connection between the Viennese party headquarters and the individual communist cells in the federal states in order to organize the party's struggle against National Socialist rule.

In the following time she mainly took on tasks as a courier, helping to distribute the leaflet Weg und Ziel , which appears periodically, as well as copies of the communist daily newspaper Die Rote Fahne . Engler took over the transport of matrices , typewriter paper and duplicating machines for the production of the writings, which could only be produced in small numbers of around 50 copies. Both publications were directed against National Socialism and the imperialist war and called for the war to be converted into a civil war to bring about communist rule.

In an appeal by the Red Flag on May 1st, it was said, for example:

“On this l. May the workers of Austria groan under the yoke of unheard-of exploitation and tyranny. Thousands upon thousands of alien parasites from the blood-drenched realm of Hitler's fascism came to steal what they could only steal. Percentages of overtime and eight-hour days were stolen, social security was turned into a tool of deception and exploitation, the workers were driven to the harshest hatred, wages were lowered directly and indirectly, the prices of consumer goods were increased immeasurably ...

Marx and Engels, Lenin and Stalin, are our teachers. The Russian Revolution is our model. From them we learned how to fight for the working people, how to keep the victory of the working class in our own country, how to bring about the liberation of the world from capitalism, imperialism and fascism. And so we call out our slogan to the Austrian working people on May 1st:

workers and peasants. Working people of all classes.
Unite!
We want peace!
Down with the war!
We do not want any capitalist or dynastic foreign rule!
Down with Hitler! Down with Habsburg!
We demand freedom of conscience and belief!
We demand work for peaceful construction and prosperity for the people!
We demand · higher wages for a humane existence!
Long live the revolutionary Austrian people!
Long live the independence of all peoples subjugated by German fascism!
Long live the workers of the whole world!
Long live the Soviet Union, the bulwark of peace! "

Arrest, trial, execution

At the end of 1940 the Secret State Police succeeded in smuggling a spy named Kurt Koppel into the communist underground organization in Austria. After spying on the communist network for several months, the secret police took action in early 1941: In the course of an extensive wave of arrests, the most important and largest communist underground organization in the territory of the former Austrian state that remained after 1934 was smashed. More than 500 members of the underground KPD were arrested, including the head of the illegal party leadership Erwin Puschmann as well as Engler and her fiancé Fritsche.

The appeals that Engler helped propagate led to her being guilty of the degradation of military strength , treason , treasonous enemy favoring and preparation for high treason in February 1943 before the 6th Senate of the Berlin People's Court under the chairmanship of the People's Court Councilor Robert Hartmann and the Higher Regional Court Councilor Vladimir alias Waldemar Fikeis was charged. The SS-Brigadführer Friedemann Goetze , the SA-Brigadführer Daniel Hauer , the Police President Heinrich von Dolega-Kozierowski and the Public Prosecutor Karl Figge as the representative of the Attorney General took part in the proceedings.

Although the Reich Attorney General was unable to provide evidence of Engler's participation in the distribution of the pamphlet "Weg und Ziel Nr. 4" and, due to their defense, succeeded in creating the impression that they only worked in the communist organization out of love for their fiancé Fritzsche The court ruled against her in accordance with the rigid guilty practice of the Nazi judiciary during the Second World War: In the judgment of February 26, 1943, she was found guilty and sentenced to death . In the reasoning for the judgment formulated by the District Court Judge Hartmann, which is typically pervaded by numerous disparaging remarks in relation to the convicted, it was also declared dishonorable. In the judgment it said u. a .:

“Your participation in the distribution of numerous leaflets over several districts of the Danube and Alpine regions and in the preparation for the production of leaflets in general, and all this during the war, stamps your activity as particularly dangerous. A less serious case of preparation for high treason is therefore out of the question. Rather, the act and the fault of the accused weigh so heavily that the harshness of the times, which imperatively requires the extermination of all enemies of the state, in accordance with Section 83 (3) of the Criminal Code. the penalty to be assessed does not allow a choice other than the death penalty. It was imposed, and the defendants' civil rights are forever denied because of the dishonorable behavior (Section 32 of the Criminal Code). As a convicted person, the defendant bears the costs (§ 465 StPO). "

The execution was finally on June 25, 1943 in the prison Berlin-Plötzensee with the guillotine enforced. Engler's fiancé Fritzsche had already been sentenced to death on September 21, 1942.

Most of the lawyers involved in the proceedings against Engler were able to continue their careers after 1945 in the FRG: The People's Judge Robert Hartmann became head of the Koenigswinter District Court . The prosecuting attorney Karl Figge worked as a lawyer and notary at the Schwelm District Court until his death in 1972. After the war, a preliminary investigation into Sections 101, 102a StG (abusive judgments of the Senate for high and state treason matters) was initiated against the Higher Regional Court Councilor Fikeis. However, the main proceedings could not be opened and were broken off due to § 412 StPO , as he had died in 1945. The whereabouts of lay judges Hauer and Kozierowski after 1945 is unclear. Goetze died in Stade in 1946.

swell

literature

• Wolfgang Neugebauer: The Austrian Resistance 1938-1945 , 2008, p. 87.
• Documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance: Resistance and Persecution in Vienna, 1934-1945: 1938-1945 , 1984, pp. 210f.

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of the KPÖ. www.kpoe-steiermark.at, p. 299 ff. , accessed on August 22, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Soldier of the Just Cause. www.klahrgesellschaft.at, accessed on August 22, 2017 . 
3. ^ New Germany, edition dated February 25, 1969. www.nd-archiv.de, accessed on August 22, 2017 . 

Indictment and verdict

Indictment and judgment of the People's Court of February 26, 1943 against Stefanie Engler (PDF, 4.87 MB)

Web links

• Entry on Engler in the digitization of the "ID card index of the Gestapo Vienna"