Resistance group Kirchl-Trauttmansdorff

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Date of the murder at the memorial in Hammerpark, St. Pölten

The Kirchl-Trauttmansdorff resistance group was a resistance group against National Socialism in St. Pölten consisting of police officers, workers, farmers and landowners . In order to avoid personal injury and damage to buildings when the city was captured, the group, founded in 1945, tried to hand over the St. Pölten urban area to the advancing Red Army without a fight . The group was betrayed in April 1945, 13 leading members were arrested, sentenced to death and shot on the same day.

The resistance group

The group only formed in the spring of 1945 consisted of about 400 members. Most of them were farmers and workers from the Glanzstoff factory , and numerous officers from the police force followed the group. In contrast to most of the other resistance groups of the time, the members were recruited from all political camps. The main organizers were the deputy city police director Otto Kirchl and Josef Trauttmansdorff- Weinberg, owner of the Pottenbrunn Palace .

The group planned the non-violent surrender of the city to the approaching Red Army. To do this, they planned to disarm the Gestapo , detain its members and hand them over to the Soviets.

Arrest and execution

Pottenbrunn Castle

On April 7, 1945, the Gestapo spy Franz Brandtner (code name "Adam") overheard a conversation between three members of the group and reported what he had heard to the head of the St. Pölten Gestapo, Johann Reichel. In the next few days, after further investigation, a total of 14 people were arrested. Many of them were taken prisoner during a meeting at Pottenbrunn Palace . On April 11, Reichel had the castle surrounded by SS troops and arrested all people inside. The arrested were:

  • Otto Kirchl (* 1902 in Vienna), deputy city police director
  • Hedwig Kirchl, his wife
  • Josef Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg (* 1894 at Fridau Castle ), landowner in Pottenbrunn
  • Helene (Ellie) Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg (* 1908 in London , niece of Constantin Freiherr Economo von San Serff ), his wife
  • Johann Schuster, Lieutenant Police
  • Anton Klarl, lathe operator in the Glanzstoff factory
  • Marie (also Maria) Klarl, his wife
  • Johann Dürauer (* 1897 in Karlstetten ), police chief
  • Josef Heidmeyer (* 1902 in Vienna), police chief
  • Felix Faux (* 1912 in St. Pölten), police assistant
  • Johann Klapper (* 1903 in Brandeben ), police administration officer
  • Josef Böhm, farmer
  • Konrad Gerstl, farmer (14th was arrested on April 13th and shot later on the same day)
  • Josef Koller, farmer (he was the only one acquitted and released)
The place of the "interrogation" with torture: today's Federal Police Directorate

The prisoners were interrogated on site before they were brought to the police headquarters in St. Pölten. The brutal interrogations continued there, and the prisoners were tortured in order to investigate other conspirators and to obtain confessions. So Dr. Kirchl broke both arms, others had broken fingers. Johann Schuster could not withstand the torture and hanged himself in his cell.

In the morning of April 13 found one standing legal hearing before a five-member court martial held, except for Josef Koller all defendants were after a short negotiation sentenced to death . The mass grave in Hammerpark had already been dug at the beginning of the trial. Immediately after the trial, the convicts were brought to today's Hammerpark, chained and accompanied by about ten Gestapo members. The twelve SS members waiting there forced the police to turn their outerwear, presumably so as not to “dishonor” the uniform. Afterwards they were murdered in three groups, each with several shots in the neck, robbed of their valuables and buried in the prepared mass grave. Konrad Gerstl was arrested shortly afterwards and shot in the same place. On the same day the first Soviet tanks reached Pottenbrunn, and on April 15 the city was captured by the Red Army.

The bodies of the murdered were later exhumed and given to the families for regular burial, some of the victims were buried in an honorary grave at the main cemetery with other freedom fighters.

Proceedings against the stand trial

In 1948 charges were brought against the judge Viktor Reindl, the public prosecutor Johann Karl Stich and the assessor of the court martial Franz Dobravsky. The indictment for Reindl and Stich extended to further convictions under standing law in the last days of the war in connection with the massacres in the Stein prison .

Reindl was sentenced to five years, Stich to eight years and Franz Dobravsky to two years of heavy imprisonment; all three of them lost their entire property.

Tributes to the victims

The victims of the Kirchl-Trauttmansdorff group are remembered in various places in the city of St. Pölten and beyond. In addition to honoring individuals, Otto Kirchl is listed on a commemorative plaque in the Vienna Federal Police Directorate with other murdered police officers, the street names and the memorial in Hammerpark are the most obvious memories.

Street names

In the urban area of ​​St. Pölten, seven streets were named after the murdered. After the street names, there is the district and the date of the decision to name it.

  • Dr.-Kirchl-Gasse, St. Pölten, Provisional Community Committee (Prov.GA), April 8, 1946
  • Dürauergasse, Spratzern , Prov. GA, April 8, 1946
  • Felix-Faux-Strasse, Stattersdorf , Prov. GA, April 8, 1946
  • Gerstlgasse, Stattersdorf, City Council , July 27, 1974
  • Heidmeyerstraße, Wagram , Prov. GA, April 8, 1946
  • Johann-Klapper-Strasse, Stattersdorf, Prov. GA, April 8, 1946
  • Josef-Trauttmansdorff-Straße, Pottenbrunn , municipal council, July 27, 1974 (according to Heinz Arnberger, p. 396: "July 27, 1969" (Sunday, therefore doubtful))

Memorial stone and memorial in Hammerpark

The memorial in Hammerpark (location: 48 ° 11 ′ 49.5 ″  N , 15 ° 37 ′ 50.2 ″  E ) near the entrance building of the shooting range consists of a memorial stone erected in 1968 and the memorial built in 1988 and under Demlal protection since at least 2013 . An information column of the cultural-tourist guidance system is set up near the memorial .

The granite memorial stone contains the inscription "ON APRIL 13, 1945 DIE HERE FOR AUSTRIA" and the names of the 13 deceased.

Shortly after 1945, the Trauttmannsdorff family erected a simple stone cross on the same spot. In the course of the reconstruction and renovation of the Hammerpark shooting range of the Privileged Rifle Company 1540 , only about 20 m to the east, built in 1903/1906 , this cross was removed by about June 1965.

The memorial was designed by Hans Kupelwieser and consists of an accessible steel hemisphere with a diameter of 4 m, open at the top. The date of the execution is written on the outside of the 50 cm narrow entrance opening of the 2 m high sculpture. On the inside you can find the words "YOU DIE HIER FÜR ÖSTERREICH" and the names of the 13 people who died all around. Above each name, at a height of about 1.70 m, a hole with a diameter of about 7 cm runs through the approximately 2 cm thick spherical shell, so that a certain narrow view is granted. The letters are made of bronze , some are missing.

  • The marble tablet from 1968

  • Steel hemisphere as a memorial from 1988

  • Entrance with lettering and two holes with names

  • One of the 13 victim names

Honorary grave at the main cemetery

After the exhumation, some of the victims were buried together with other freedom fighters in a grave of honor at the St. Pölten main cemetery (location: 48 ° 13 ′ 2.6 ″  N , 15 ° 36 ′ 44.9 ″  E ). These are:

  • Anton Klarl
  • Maria Klarl
  • Josef Heidmeyer
  • Johann Dürauer (together with his widow, who died in 1986)
  • Johann Klapper
  • Felix Faux (together with his widow, who died in 1997)
  • Otto Kirchl
  • Hedwig Kirchl

  • The honor grave

  • Plaque

  • Grave plaque from Otto and Hedwig Kirchl

literature

Resistance group Kirchl-Trauttmansdorff

Memorial in the Hammerpark

  • Thomas Karl u. a .: The art monuments of the city of St. Pölten and its incorporated localities. Berger, Horn 1999, ISBN 3-85028-310-0 ( Austrian Art Topography 54). Entry Hammerpark , p. 316.
  • Bundesdenkmalamt (Ed.): The art monuments of Austria - Lower Austria south of the Danube, in two parts. Part 2: M – Z. Verlag Berger, Horn 2003 ISBN 3-85028-365-8 . Entry Hammerpark , p. 2032.

Web links

Commons : Memorial for the Kirchl-Trauttmansdorff resistance group  - collection of pictures
Commons : Honorary grave for eight of the victims and other freedom fighters  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Vienna People's Court proceedings against Viktor Reindl and Johann Karl Stich on nachkriegsjustiz.at
  2. ↑ indictment of the Vienna public prosecutor against former Landgerichtsdirektor Viktor Reindl and others for treason and other crimes, 23. 2. 1948 , DÖW - Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance
  3. ↑ Hellmut Butterweck: Mercy for the murderer? The press , June 13, 2008
  4. ↑ Stich and Reindl condemned . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 19, 1948, p. 2 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  5. ↑ Memorial plaque (Federal Police Directorate Vienna) on nachkriegsjustiz.at
  6. ^ Heinz Arnberger / Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider (eds.): Commemoration and dunning in Lower Austria. Commemorative signs of resistance, persecution, exile and liberation, Mandelbaum Verlag 2011, pp. 396–458. - Online at doew.at of the DÖW : State capital Sankt Pölten (p. 394–461)
  7. ↑ Weekday calculator on rechner24.com
  8. ^ Lower Austria - immovable and archaeological monuments under monument protection. ( Memento of March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) . Federal Monuments Office , as of June 28, 2013 (PDF).
  9. ↑ https://www.stpoeltentourismus.at/kultur-touristisches-leitsystem
  10. ↑ Memorial for resistance fighters in Sankt Pölten. In:  The new reminder call . Journal for Freedom, Law and Democracy , Issue 9/1966, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dnm
  11. ↑ History schuetzen1540.at, Privileged Schützenkompagnie to St. Pölten - Union NE, accessed 6 February 2020 - Opening June 1965th
  12. ↑ memorial at Hammer Park iehi.eu, Institute for Historical intervention, accessed January 4, 2014. Not available February 6, 2020.