26 Facts About Heinrich Maier

1.

Heinrich Maier was an Austrian Roman Catholic priest, pedagogue, philosopher and a member of the Austrian resistance, who was executed as the last victim of Hitler's regime in Vienna.

2.

Heinrich Maier's father, named Heinrich Maier, was an official on the Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways.

3.

Heinrich Maier's mother Katharina Maier, born Giugno, was the daughter of a policeman.

4.

Heinrich Maier's sister was educated by his grandmother and his aunt in Moravia.

5.

Heinrich Maier received strong financial support from his relative Gabriele Maier.

6.

Heinrich Maier then was sent to a Gymnasium in Sankt Polten between 1918 and 1923.

7.

Heinrich Maier did his theological degree at the University of Vienna.

8.

Heinrich Maier worked as a priest in Schwarzau, Reichenau, Modling and later in Gersthof, a part of Wahring in Vienna.

9.

Heinrich Maier was chaplain of a Scout group of the Osterreichisches Pfadfinderkorps StGeorg, the Catholic Austrian Scout association between 1926 and 1938 in Austria, in Vienna.

10.

Heinrich Maier was a chaplain of the altar boys and the Prases of the Marianischen Kinderkongregation, a youth group of the Christian life community.

11.

Heinrich Maier "impressed" with charisma and enthusiasm, he had a high level of intelligence and scientifically sound training, was interested in art and politics and felt deeply connected to his home country.

12.

Heinrich Maier then violated the orders of his ecclesiastical authorities in that he not only acted "purely as a pastoral" but politically.

13.

Heinrich Maier was very involved in the resistance against the Nazi Party.

14.

Heinrich Maier had been actively involved in the idea of resistance since 1940 and saw himself as a priest committed to it.

15.

Heinrich Maier founded the resistance group Maier-Messner-Caldonazzi together with the Tyrolean Catholic-monarchist resistance fighter Walter Caldonazzi from Mals in South Tyrol and later from Kramsach in North Tyrol, who already led a resistance group with a few hundred members in Tyrol with the policeman Andreas Hofer, and Franz Josef Messner, the tyrolean director of the Semperit works.

16.

Heinrich Maier's saying, based on Shakespeare's Richard III, "A kingdom for a ball bearing" has come down to us in this regard.

17.

In some cases, Heinrich Maier had received information from front-line soldiers on leave about the industrial facilities.

18.

Since Heinrich Maier grew up in poor circumstances, he was very open to social issues.

19.

Heinrich Maier had to pay hush money to influence some people around him so that they would not betray him to the Gestapo.

20.

The group around Heinrich Maier was the special focus of the Gestapo and the Nazi judiciary, especially since the goal of the resistance group, on the one hand the overthrow of the NS regime and on the other hand the restoration of an independent Austria under Habsburg leadership, was a special provocation for the NS regime.

21.

Heinrich Maier was arrested on 28 March 1944 by the Gestapo in his parish in Vienna-Gersthof in the sacristy after the holy mass and taken to the prison in the former Hotel Metropole on Morzinplatz.

22.

Heinrich Maier was later transferred to the police prison house on the Elisabethpromenade or on 16 September 1944 to the prison of the Landesgericht I in cell number E 307.

23.

The judgment of the Volksgerichtshof states that, on the one hand, according to credible statements by the Gestapo officials, no illegal means of force of any kind were used to obtain statements against any inmate, and on the other hand, all attempts by Heinrich Maier to take the full blame were completely unbelievable.

24.

Heinrich Maier was severely tortured for months before his execution to get more information about the group.

25.

On 18 March 1945 Heinrich Maier was brought back to Vienna together with Leopold Figl, Felix Hurdes and Lois Weinberger.

26.

Alfred Missong reports that Heinrich Maier approached death with a deeply impressive composure.