Temporary administration

Arisierungskommission der Wiener Photographeninnung

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:40:36 +0000

Arisierungskommission der Wiener Photographeninnung Leonhard Weidinger Fri, 03/05/2021 - 20:38

Arisierungskommission der Wiener Photographeninnung

Aryanization commission of the Vienna photographers' guild

other name: Arisierungskommission der Wiener Photographenzunft

After parliament was abolished in 1933/34 and in the following years of Austrofascism, (illegal) members of the NSDAP infiltrated photographer associations, committees and representative organizations. At the same time, the number of Jewish photographers in professional decision-making bodies dwindled. Immediately after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, the National Socialists active before 1938 in the committees of the Vienna photographers' guild took over leading positions in the guild. They formed an Aryanization commission to exclude Jewish photographers and started work on the basis of existing planning lists. These lists contained the names of the Jewish companies scheduled for liquidation or Aryanization. The commission was made up of an informal group of photographers within the guild consisting of the newly appointed decision-making bodies, committees and informants (Vertrauensmänner). In the following months they were to manage the Aryanization process. The commission was chaired by Egon Jelinek, the temporary guild master appointed after the annexation, who in October 1938 became regional master of the photography guild for the Ostmark. The committee consisted of the industrial photography Karl Rudolf Scherb, Silverius Frey, whom Jelinek replaced as guild master, and Josef A. Detoni, who in 1938 was to become secretary of the Ostmark regional guild. Also on the committee were Gustav Nohynek, who was to succeed Jelinek in 1940 as master of the guild, and Franz Brandstätter, who had been secretary of the guild since 1936. The informants were Roland Blumentritt, holder of the Blood Order, and Heinrich Schuhmann. The committee's tasks included selection of the businesses to be liquidated as a means, above all, of optimizing profits by reducing the amount of competition within the profession. At the same time, it was entitled to appeal or make suggestions to the higher-level Vermögensverkehrsstelle (Property Transaction Office) regarding suitable candidates for Aryanization, a right it made abundant use of. It forced Jewish photographers to give up their business licences and drew up protocols during the Aryanization processes to document the "attitudes of the Jews". Parallel to their functions in the Aryanization commission, the members functioned as treasurers during the Aryanizations and liquidation of businesses and as temporary administrators. Various sources report of their intimidation of Jewish photographers, violence, denunciation to the Gestapo and personally enrichment.

In 1938 there were around 700 registered photographers (excluding camera shops) in Vienna, many of whom worked from home on account of the enduring economic crisis. From April 1938 all of the liquidated and Aryanized businesses and those whose licence had been revoked were documented in the trade magazine Allgemeine photographische Zeitung published by Detoni. According to a list published in the magazine in July 1939, 39 Jewish businesses had been Aryanized and 145 liquidated. Valuable photo equipment and archives built up over decades disappeared as a result through theft and looting and the expropriation of assets. Of the members of the Aryanization commission, only Jelinek, Blumentritt and Nohynek were charged after 1945 before a Volksgericht under § 10 and § 11 of the Prohibition Act ("Illegality/qualified illegality"), § 3 ("Torture and maltreatment"), § 4 ("Violation of human rights and dignity") and § 6 and § 7 ("Illegal enrichment and denunciation") of the War Criminals Act. After serving prison sentences, they all continued to work as photographers.

Keywords

Aryanization

Liquidation

Photography

Temporary administration

Nazi asset expropriation

Walter Mentzel

25 November 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Kurzberichte, in: Allgemeine photographische Zeitung (1939) 7, 1, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=phz&datum=1939&page=91 (3.12.2020).

Joseph A. Detoni, Österreichisches-Photo-Adressbuch, Wien 1934–1937.

Archives

Archiv der Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Gewerbeakt, Egon Jelinek.
Archiv der Wirtschaftskammer Österreich, Gewerbeakt, Roland Blumentritt.

OeStA/AdR, BKA, Zl. 210.199/12-2N/57, Egon Jelinek.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, FLD, 40774 Maximilian Birnbaum.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Gewerbe, 1189, Franz Löwy.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Gewerbe, 1306, Willi Pollak.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Gewerbe, 4060, Nachim Chefez.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, Gewerbe, 4066, Oskar Weitzmann.
OeStA/AdR, Präsidentschaftskanzlei, Zl. 15601/55, Egon Jellinek.
OeStA/AdR, Präsidentschaftskanzlei, Zl. 1633/57, Egon Jellinek.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 7.310, Gustav Nohynek.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 12.296, Silverius Frey.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 12.281, Maximilian Kretschek.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 14.965, Josef A. Detoni.
OeStA/AdR, ZNsZ, Gauakt 59.101, Karl Scherb.

WStLA, Gauakten, A1, Personalakten des Gaues Wien, Josef A. Detoni.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 12 Vr 3617/47, Jelinek Egon.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 1h Vr 6587/47, Alfred Wenzl, Egon Jelinek, Gustav Nohynek.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 1 Vr 4635/45, Gustav Nohynek, Johann Poppovic.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg Vr 2537/47, Gustav Nohynek, Johann Poppovic.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 1h Vr 6587/47, Alfred Wenzl, Egon Jelinek, Gustav Nohynek.
WStLA, Volksgericht, A1, Vg 5a Vr, 7275/48 Roland Blumentritt.

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.

Kauftheil, Hermann

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:37 +0000

Kauftheil, Hermann Leonhard Weidinger Thu, 03/11/2021 - 08:38

Hermann Kauftheil

31 October 1887 Neu Sandez, Galicia (now Nowy Sącz, Poland) – 15 February 1941 deported to Opole ghetto

until 1932 Hirsch Isaac Kauftheil

Hirsch Isaac Kauftheil moved with his parents in 1899 from Neu Sandez, Galicia, to Vienna. He became an independent jeweller in 1919 and married Olga Esriel in 1922. Two years later with Sigmund Müller he registered the offene Handelsgesellschaft Kauftheil & Müller, Bijouteriewaren aus Gold und Silber at Siebensterngasse 16 in the 7th district and from 1933 was its sole proprietor. The previous year he had changed is first name to Hermann. After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, he was persecuted as a Jew. In autumn 1938, his company was put under the temporary administration of the watchmaker Rudolf Maier, and a few months later it was liquidated by the Prokurist Andreas Käs from the Abwicklungsstelle für die Liquidierung und Arisierung des Uhren- und Juwelenfaches (Office for the Liquidation and Aryanization of the Watch and Jewellery Sector) and deleted from the register of companies in October 1941. The inventory was transferred to the professional group responsible. Already in 1938 Kauftheil had met Ferdinand Spany, temporary administrator Maier's deputy. When his landlord gave him notice in 1939, Kauftheil appealed to Spany, who took advantage of the desperate situation to pay his own debts to his cousin Alexander Sauer. Kauftheil had to pay Sauer 500 Reichsmarks for the illegal acquisition of a new apartment through Spany, some of the amount being used by Sauer to bribe an official at the Housing Department. Kauftheil and his family moved into the apartment at Heinzelmanngasse 13 in the 20th district in November 1939. A few weeks later he was arrested with Spany and charged with incitement to abuse of office. On 4 June 1940, Kauftheil was registered with the Gestapo and sentenced to three months' imprisonment, compared with six months for Spany. In August 1940 he was still registered at Porzellangasse 39 in the 9th district. Although planning to escape since 1938, he was no longer able to do so. On 15 February 1941 he, his wife Olga and their son Kurt were deported to Opole ghetto where he and his wife are thought to have died. Their son returned to Vienna after the Second World War but died there on 29 October 1945 of tuberculosis. According to Sammelstelle A in 1961, no claims for restitution of the property of Olga and Hermann Kauftheil were made after 1945. It would appear that no investigations have been carried out to date regarding the inventory transferred to the professional group.

Keywords

Temporary administration

Nazi persecutee

Clocks and jewellery

Konstantin Ferihumer

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

N. N., Vermählungen und Verlobungen, in: Wiener Salonblatt, 2.12.1922, S. 6, URL: anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=wsb&datum=19221202&seite=7 (3.12.2020).

Wilhelm Schischa/Johanna Schischa/Gustav Freudmann (Hg.), Was mit uns sein wird, wissen wir nicht: Briefe aus dem Ghetto, Wien-Graz-Klagenfurt 2015.

Archives

Archiv der IKG Wien, Bestand Jerusalem, A/W 2589,56.
Archiv der IKG, Matriken, A/Vie/IKG Wien/II/FH/Buch/Beerdigungsprotokoll/528; A/Vie/IKG/I/Buch/MA/Geburtsbuch/91; A/Vie/IKG/I/Buch/MA/Geburtsbuch/82; A/Vie/IKG/I/Buch/MA/Sterbebuch/176; A/Vie/IKG/I/Buch/MA/Trauungsbuch/I. Bezirk (Innere Stadt)/229.

DÖW, Opferdatenbank des Dokumentationsarchives des österreichischen Widerstandes, Abfrage Hermann und Olga Kauftheil, Stand 26.1.2017.

IKG Wien, Friedhofskartei, Karteikarte zu Kurt Kauftheil.

OeStA/AdR, Sammelstelle A & B-N-H. N-234, K. 3841, Hermann Kauftheil.
OeStA/AdR, E-uReang, VVSt, VA 40518, Hermann Kauftheil.

WStLA, Handelsgericht Wien, A43 A Registerakten, A 17, 169a, Kauftheil & Müller.
WStLA, Historische Wiener Meldeunterlagen, Meldeauskunft Hermann Kauftheil.
WStLA, LG für Strafsachen, A11, Vr-Strafakten, Vr 2142-40, Ferdinand Spany, Hermann Kauftheil.
WStLA, LG für Strafsachen, A11, Vr-Strafakten, Vr 4861-39, Heinrich Mayer u.a.

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.