SA member

Ecker, Karl

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:26 +0000

Ecker, Karl Leonhard Weidinger Thu, 04/01/2021 - 18:17

Karl Ecker

17 August 1882 Stockerau – 4 May 1959 Vienna

After studying law at the University of Vienna, Karl Ecker had theatre training at the k. k. Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst (Imperial Royal Academy of Music and Performing Arts) and private lessons with Burgtheater actors Ernst Arndt and Hans Siebert. He worked originally as a dramaturge and actor, from 1913 to 1917 also as director at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg under Max Grube, 1919/1920 at the Vereinigtes Deutsches Theater in Brünn / Brno under Rudolf Beer and from 1920 to 1922 at the Wanderbühne des Österreichischen Volksbildungsamtes (Travelling Theatre of the Office for Popular Education) under Friedrich Rosenthal, until he came in 1922 to the Urania in Vienna, where he was head of the administration and also deputized for the artistic director. As his influence was restricted because of financial difficulties, he left in 1934 and in 1936 became a research assistant in the National Library's Theatre Collection. He was mainly involved at the outset in exhibitions, such as the 1936 International Theatre Exhibition, and in the library, but during the Nazi era he was a member of the National Library branch of the SA dealing with the salvaging and storage of artworks and, from 1940, managing the library's administrative air raid protection agendas. It was in this connection that he was exempted from military service in 1942. Ecker's contract with the National Library ended in March 1950.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications by the person / institution

Karl Ecker, Die Theatersammlung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek in den Jahren 1932–1946, in: Joseph Gregor (Hg.), Meister und Meisterbriefe um Hermann Bahr. Aus seinen Entwürfen, Tagebüchern und seinem Briefwechsel mit Richard Strauss, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Max Reinhardt, Josef Kainz, Eleonore Duse und Anna von Mildenburg (= Museion. Veröffentlichungen der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Neue Folge, 1. Reihe, 1), Wien 1947, 5–45.

Karl Ecker, Die Sammlung Stefan Zweig, in: Josef Stummvoll (Hg.), Die Österreichische Nationalbibliothek. Festschrift. Hrsg. zum 25jährigen Dienstjubiläum des Generaldirektors Univ.-Prof. Dr. Josef Bick, Wien 1948, 321–330.

Archives

ÖTM, NL Karl Ecker, HS_Ec5 Nachlass.

ÖNB-Archiv, PA Karl Ecker.
ÖNB-Archiv, o.Zl., 13.9.1938, o.Zl., 20.4.1942, Az. P Nr. 400, 1.4.1950, Az. P Nr. 1128, 7.11.1949, Az. P Nr. 1048, 14.10.1949, Az. P Nr. 67, 18.1.1949, Zl. ad P 67, 17.1.1949.

Günther, Karl

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:41:19 +0000

Günther, Karl Leonhard Weidinger Fri, 03/05/2021 - 21:39

Karl Günther

12 February 1904 Vienna – date and place of death unknown

After completing his apprenticeship as a bookseller, Karl Günther, son of a Viennese printer, joined Alois Reichmann's company in 1922. Even in the 1920s he was a member of völkisch nationalist groups and of the Deutscher und Österreichischer Alpenverein (DÖAV), renamed Österreichischer Alpenklub in 1927, and the Sudetendeutscher Heimatbund. He was an active member of the illegal NSDAP from September 1934, keeping leaflets and arms at his home. In 1934 he also joined the SA. In August 1937 he became head of the culture department in Vienna's 4th district on behalf of the illegal NSDAP Gau cultural department. After the annexation, he was given the low NSDAP membership number 6241944. He was able to use the contacts formed while the Party was banned as a springboard for his career. He was an economic consultant in the Alte Wieden NSDAP section, from September 1938 an NSDAP culture consultant in District III and Truppführer (troop leader) of SA Standarte 10/4. On 15 April 1938 he became temporary administrator of Felix Reichmann's bookstore and in this function transferred books from there to NSDAP organizations. After the Aryanization application of the bookseller Johannes Katzler prevailed over Günther's own application and Katzler Aryanized the company, Günther resigned. He worked from summer 1938 as a consultant in the antiques group of the Reichsschrifttumskammer (Reich Literature Chamber) in Vienna and with a letter of recommendation from the Chamber and the officer in the SD and SS responsible, he was granted permission in December 1938 by the Vermögensverkehrsstelle (Property Transaction Office) to Aryanize Buchhandlung Zentralantiquariat Moritz Stern at Mariahilferstraße 1 in Vienna's 6th district. When he was conscripted in 1940, his wife continued to manage the company until April 1945. After his return from the war he moved back to Donnersbachwald in the district of Liezen, Styria.

The first impetus for criminal prosecution came in April 1946 from Heinrich Weisshappel of the Korporation der Wiener Buch-, Kunst- und Musikalienhändler (Corporation of Viennese Book Sellers and Art and Music Dealers), who wrote a report to the city council. Günther was arrested in Donnersbachwald in September 1946 and arraigned before the Vienna Landgericht (provincial court). In April 1947 he was tried before the Vienna Volksgericht for registry fraud (§ 8 of the Prohibition Act – VG), high treason §§ 10 and 11), illegal enrichment (§ 6 of the War Criminals Act – KVG) and denunciation (§ 7). The Volksgericht sentenced him in June 1947 to three and a half years' imprisonment for violations of § 11 (10) VG and und § 7 KVG and the forfeiture of his entire assets. By contrast, he was acquitted of illegal enrichment through the Aryanization of Antiquariat Moritz Stern. He obtained an early release from prison in January 1949. After his sentence was deemed to have been completed under the Amnesty Act of May 1957, he attempted unsuccessfully to have his forfeited assets returned to him.

Keywords

Aryanization

Book trade

Temporary administration

NSDAP membership

SA member

Walter Mentzel

12 July 2020

Publications about the person / institution

Katja Bertz, "Arisierung" im österreichischen Buchhandel. Auf den Spuren der Buchhandlungen Richard Lányi, Alois Reichmann, Josef Kende, Moritz Perles, M. Breitenstein, Heinrich Saar und Dr. Carl Wilhelm Stern, Diplomarbeit Universität Wien 2009.

Sigrid Buchhas, Der österreichische Buchhandel im Nationalsozialismus. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Buchhandels unter besonderer Berücksichtigung Wiens, Diplomarbeit Universität Wien 1993.

Archives

Archiv der Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Gewerbeakt, Central-Antiquariat und Buchhandlung Stern-Verlag.

OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, Hilfsfonds, Sammelstellen A und B, SSt 6238, Gisela Stern (Getreidemarkt 17).
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, Hilfsfonds, Sammelstellen A und B SSt 20001, Gisela Stern (Antiquariatsbuchhandlung Mariahilfer Straße 1).
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Handel, 2.387, Gisela Stern.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Stat. 1.890, Alois Reichmann.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, VA 34.462, Gisela Stern.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 96.585, Karl Günther.

WStLA, Handelsgericht, A47, Registerakten, 5742.
WStLA, LG für Zivilrechtssachen Wien, RK 225/1961, Gisela Stern.
WStLA, M.Abt. 119, A41, 418, Bezirk: 6, Gisela Stern.
WStLA, M.Abt. 119, A41, 110, Bezirk: 12, Gisela Stern.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 1e Vr 7370/46, Karl Günther.

Jelinek, Egon

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:41:14 +0000

Jelinek, Egon

Leonhard Weidinger Fri, 03/05/2021 - 22:08

Egon Jelinek

4 May 1904 Zurich – date and place of death unknown

Egon Jelinek, son of the photographer Paul Jelinek (1878–1940), was active in the Austrian NSDAP ("Hitler movement", Brigittenau) from 1921. In 1928 he joined the Vienna Heimatschutz and in 1929 the Styrian Heimatschutz around Walter Pfrimer. He was a member of the NSDAP and SA from 1932 and a supporting member of the SS from 1934. In April 1938, Paul Jelinek, also an NSDAP member, gave his photo studio at Wallensteinstraße 20 in the 20th district to his son, who had completed training as a photographer at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna and from 1936 was a member of the Österreichischer Photographen Verein, which was increasingly infiltrated by the NSDAP. He was already working as an informant for the NSDAP intelligence service before 1938. In April 1938 he was appointed temporary head of the ostmärkische Fotografeninnung (Ostmark Photographers' Guild). After the guild's incorporation into the Reichsinnungsverband, he was appointed regional guild master for photography in the Ostmark and then Gaufachschaftsverwalter of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (departmental administrator of the German Labour Front) and temporary head and then regional head of the film department of the NSDAP Kreisleitung II regional propaganda office. He was also chairman of the Arisierungskommission der Wiener Photographeninnung (Aryanization Commission of the Photographers' Guild), temporary administrator of Wilhelm Pollak's studio on Kriemhildplatz in the 15th district, und assessor for the Aryanization of the business belonging to Nachim Chefez and Arpad Gyarmati. Together with Gustav Nohynek he looted the photographer Wilhelm Pollak and his father Hugo Pollak and denounced both to the Gestapo, which led to the death of Hugo Pollak in Gestapo detention. After he had been enlisted in March 1940 into the Intelligence Service of the German Wehrmacht, he wrote antisemitic articles for the Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung on photography in the territories occupied by the Wehrmacht.

After being a prisoner of war for a short time, Jelinek moved in May 1945 from Vienna to St. Johann in Tyrol and in February 1946 opened a photography gallery at Schwimmbadweg 520. His studio in Vienna, which had been destroyed in an air raid, and the premises Aryanized by him were put into public administration and liquidated in 1945. Criminal proceedings opened in June 1947 on suspicion of registration fraud and high treason pursuant to §§ 8 and 10 of the Prohibition Act ended in October 1948 with an acquittal, because his Gau file could not be found and he was described in the judgment as a "Heimatschützer" (homeland protector) on account of his membership in the Heimwehr organizations. In 1949 he was tried by the Vienna Volksgericht for wilful injury to Hugo and Wilhelm Pollak through denunciation (§ 7 War Criminals Act). In March 1950 the court sentenced him to eight months' imprisonment and forfeiture of his assets. In March 1957 his sentence was deemed to have been served in accordance with § 15 of the NS Amnesty Act after he had already been pardoned in 1955 and exempted from the restrictions for "sühnepflichtige Personen" (persons liable for atonement).

From the project Durch das NS-Regime aus Österreich vertriebene und ermordete Fotografinnen und Fotografen und der Verbleib ihrer fotografischen Sammlungen (Subsidized by the National Fund of the Republic of Austria. Conducted by Walter Mentzel).

Keywords

Aryanization

Photography

Temporary administration

12 July 2020

Publications about the person / institution

Luis Kuhn/N. N., Österreichischer Photographen Verein, in: Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung (1936) 3, 44, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1936&page=48 (3.12.2020).

N. N., Österreichischer Photographen Verein (Neue Mitglieder), in: Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung (1936) 10, 155, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1936&page=163 (3.12.2020).

N. N., Wien. Gewerbeanmeldungen, in: Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung (1937) 3, 44, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1937&page=60 (3.12.2020).

N. N., Gewerbliche Mitteilungen. Wien, in: Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung (1938) 3, 60, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1938&page=62 (3.12.2020).

N. N., Kurzberichte, in: Allgemeine photographische Zeitung (1938) 4, 65, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1938&page=67 (3.12.2020).

N. N., Kurzberichte, in: Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung (1938) 5, 81, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1938&page=83 (3.12.2020).

N. N., Kurzberichte, in: Allgemeine photographische Zeitung (1938) 11, 177, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1938&page=183 (3.12.2020).

N. N., Innungsnachrichten, in: Allgemeine photographische Zeitung (1939) 7, 106, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1939&page=108 (3.12.2020).

N. N., Innungsnachrichten, Heeresdienstleistung des Obermeisters Jelinek, in: Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung (1940) 3, 34, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1940&page=38 (3.12.2020).

Publications by the person / institution

Egon Jelinek, Einheit in der Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik, in: Allgemeine photographische Zeitung (1938) 10, 163–164, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1938&page=165 (3.12.2020).
Egon Jelinek, Rückblick und Vorschau, in: Allgemeine photographische Zeitung (1939) 2, 18–19, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1939&page=20 (3.12.2020).
Egon Jelinek, Aufgeben des Photographenhandwerks im Osten, in: Allgemeine photographische Zeitung (1942) 7, 50–51, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1942&page=78 (3.12.2020).
Egon Jelinek, Brief aus Holland. So sah ich ein holländisches Atelier und seinen Meister, in: Allgemeine photographische Zeitung (1943) 1, 3, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1943&page=5 (3.12.2020).
Egon Jelinek, Das Photographenhandwerk als Betreuer der Bindung: Front und Heimat, in: Photographische Chronik und Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung (1943) 11/12, 1, URL: (3.12.2020).

Archives

OeStA/AdR, BKA, Zl. 210.199/2-2N/57, Jelinek Egon.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Gewerbe, Zl. 1306, Willi Pollak.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Gewerbe, Zl. 4060, Nachim Chefez.
OeStA/AdR, PK, Zl. 15.601/1955, Ausnahmeansuchen gemäß § 27 VG 1947 des Egon Jellinek.
OeStA/AdR, PK, Zl. 1.633/1957 Antrag auf Nachsicht der Sühnefolgen nach dem Verbotsgesetz 1947 für Egon Jelinek. Ebenso: GZl. 15.601/1955.

WStLA, M.Abt. 119, A41, VEAV 547, 3. Bez., Willi Pollak.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 1h Vr 6587/47, Alfred Wenzl, Egon Jelinek, Gustav Nohynek.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 12 Vr 3617/47, Egon Jelinek.

Katzler, Johannes

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:40:34 +0000

Katzler, Johannes

Leonhard Weidinger Fri, 03/05/2021 - 22:19

Johannes Katzler

31 May 1900 Vienna – May 1975 Vienna

On completion of his education at commercial college, Johannes Katzler worked until 1924 in his parent's company in Vienna. After the company went bankrupt, he began training the same year as a bookseller at Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt AG in Hamburg, owned by the nationalist and antisemitic Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfen-Verband and integrated after the Nazis came to power in 1933 into the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labour Front – DAF). After being transferred to Munich in 1929, Katzler worked for Albert Lange-Georg Müller-Verlag, which had been purchased by the Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt and from 1934 to 1938 had a 50 per cent holding in the nationalist Lhotzky-Verlag. In 1934, he joined the NSDAP publishers Franz Eher-Verlag, where he worked as a representative and advertising manager in Munich and Berlin. That same year he worked for department 2 of the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung (Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment) as head of the central publicity department for anti-Comintern publications at Nibelungen-Verlag. This was part of the Gesamtverband Deutscher antikommunistischer Vereinigungen (Anti-Komintern), which conducted a propaganda campaign against the Soviet Union. In this position, he was also involved in the National Socialist propaganda against the Dollfuß/Schuschnigg regime. In January 1933, he joined the Brigade Berlin-Ost of the SA as a Rottenführer and in July of that year the Leibstandarte der SA IV/11 and 29. After the annexation of Austria in March 1938, he was transferred by Eher-Verlag to represent the publishers in Austria and organize the export of anti-Comintern propaganda to the Balkan countries. He was also local leader of NSDAP district 3 in Vienna and was one of the greatest beneficiaries of the looting of the Vienna book and antiques business. Using his contacts with the NSDAP propaganda office in Vienna, and with Wilhelm Baur, political director of Eher-Verlag, and the Gestapo, and by threatening violence to booksellers, he acquired the inventories of seven book and antiques dealerships. He Aryanized the business of Alois Reichmann at Wiedner Hauptstraße 18–20 in the 4th district and its warehouse on Karlsplatz. He also paid the Vermögensverkehrsstelle (Property Transaction Office) a token price to acquire the stocks of a further six liquidated businesses: Richard Lányi, Josef Kende, Moritz Perles, Max Breitenstein, Heinrich Saar and Carl Wilhelm Stern. He also privately appropriated Lányi's painting and print collection. He combined the looted books at the Aryanized antiques business of Alois Reichmann, which he continued to operate under the name Johannes Katzler Verlag, Buchhandlung und Antiquariat. Katzler exported books to Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. He is thought to have sold a large part of his inventory to Baldur von Schirach. During the war, books were transferred from Katzler's inventory to depots in the vicinity of Vienna to protect them from air raids. He was conscripted to the Wehrmacht in 1941, served in the Balkans and was captured by the British.

In summer 1945 the Vienna police shut down Katzler's business and the Staatsamt für Industrie, Gewerbe, Handel und Verkehr (State Office for Industry, Commerce, Trade and Transport) put it under public administration. Katzler, who was released from British captivity in November 1945, was arrested in June 1946, charged in connection with Alois Reichmann and Richard Lányi and convicted in May 1947 and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment by the Vienna Volksgericht under §§ 4 and 6 of the War Criminals Act (violation of humanity and human dignity and illegal enrichment) and §§ 11 and 10/2 of the Prohibition Act (high treason and illegality). With allowance for the time spent in custody, Katzler was released after a few months. After the conviction had been partially quashed by the Supreme Court of Justice, Katzler was retried in 1949 and the 1947 conviction was confirmed. In 1951 the case was reopened but closed again in accordance with the 1957 Amnesty Act. After the Reichmann bookstore Aryanized by him was removed from public administration in April 1949 and was forfeited to the Republic of Austria, it was restituted in April 1951 by the Finanzlandesdirektion für Wien, Niederösterreich und Burgenland (Regional Tax Office for Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland) to the heirs and testamentary beneficiaries. The extensive stock of books that Katzler had appropriated after 1938 were not the object of the case heard before the Vienna Volkgericht and their whereabouts are unknown.

Keywords

29 May 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Archives

OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, FLD, Zl. 19685, Alois Reichmann.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Statistik, 1890, Alois Reichmann.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 50484, Johannes Katzler.

WStLA, Handelsgericht Wien, A 13, 75a, Alois Reichmann.
WStLA, M.Abt 119, A41, VEAV 160, 4. Bez., Felix Reichmann.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A 1, Vg Vr 5194/46, Johannes Katzler.

Maier, Rudolf

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:44 +0000

Maier, Rudolf Leonhard Weidinger Thu, 04/01/2021 - 07:09

Rudolf Maier

23 January 1895 Vienna – 22 June 1979 Vienna

Rudolf Maier trained as a watchmaker with Ludwig Löwenstein at Gumpendorferstraße 20 in Vienna's 6th district. After his journeyman's examination in 1913, he started a business in 1921 as a watchmaker, goldsmith and silversmith at Hütteldorferstraße 190 in the 13th district (from 1938 the 14th district) and married Anna Sailer that same year. Maier, who claimed to have been active since 1910 in Social Democratic youth organizations, joined the NSDAP in 1924 and on 15 September 1926 was co-founder of the NSDAP Hietzing local group, with membership number 51.660. The following year he joined the SA and rose within its organization structure by 1938 to the rank of Obersturmführer. He passed the master craftsman's examination on 8 February 1930. After the annexation of Austria to the Nazi German Reich, he became a temporary administrator of the estate of Jakob Futterweit (Vienna 15, Reindorfgasse 42–44) and the businesses of Siegmund Hamburg (Reindorfgasse 39), Franz Kohn (Vienna 14, Linzer Straße 54), Samuel Schutzmann and Norbert Futterweit's Wwe. (Vienna 12, Meidlinger Hauptstraße 17/19) and Kauftheil & Müller (Vienna 7, Siebensterngasse 16). In June 1938 Maier wrote to the "Arisierungsstelle" bei der Zunft der Uhrmacher, Juweliere, Gold- und Silberschmiede (Aryanization Office for the Watch and Clockmakers and Jewellers Guild and the Guild of the Clock and Jewellery Trade) to bear him in mind when considering the Aryanization of Jewish businesses. Shortly afterwards he applied to take over Norbert Futterweit's Wwe. On 11 November 1938 approval was given by the Vermögensverkehrsstelle (Property Transaction Office), and ten days later the business was transferred to him. On 25 August 1938, Maier also joined the Einkaufs- und Treuhandgenossenschaft für die Uhren- und Juwelenbranche at Schwedenplatz 2 in the 1st district, where stocks from temporarily administered businesses were sent and sold at much reduced prices to its members. Until 31 December 1939, Maier purchased goods worth around 28,000 Reichsmarks. After completed various courses at the SA Reich schools in Vienna and Dresden in 1940 and 1941, he was employed as an SA leader in the police, while his wife looked after the business in Meidlinger Hauptstraße. In 1944 he applied for promotion to the rank of SA-Hauptsturmführer but was rejected because of the poor report on his leadership qualities. After the Second World War the Vienna Volksgericht sentenced Maier to two years' imprisonment in 1947 under § 6 (illegal enrichment) of the War Criminals Act and §§ 10/1, 11 (treason) of the Prohibition Act. In the framework of the 1957 amnesty, the Landesgericht für Strafsachen (provincial court for criminal matters) in Vienna waived all unpaid court costs and quashed his conviction. Maier, who had been registered since 1943 as inactive as a watchmaker and jeweller, resumed his activities in 1950 first at Anton-Langer-Gasse 29 in the 13th district, and then at Hietzinger Hauptstraße 62/64, also in the 13th district. He finally cancelled his business licence in September 1966.

Keywords

Aryanization

Temporary administration

6 January 2019

Archives

Archiv der Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Gewerbeakt, Rudolf Maier.

WStLA, A1 - Gauakten, Personalakten des Gaues Wien, Rudolf Maier.
WStLA, M.Abt 119, A41, VEAV 118, 12. Bez., Rudolf Maier.
WStLA, M.Abt. 119, A42 - NS-Registrierung, Rudolf Maier.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 11 Vr 6357/46, Maier Rudolf.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 7a Vr 273/46, Andreas Käs.