Eduard Hedvicek ( cs, Eduard Hedvíček; 17 March 1878 in

Kojetín Kojetín () is a town in Přerov District in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,800 inhabitants. Administrative parts Villages of Kovalovice and Popůvky are administrative parts of Kojetín. Geography Kojetín is located a ...

– 12 September 1949 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

) was the secretary of

Engelbert Dollfuß Engelbert Dollfuß (alternatively: ''Dolfuss'', ; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian clerical fascist politician who served as Chancellor of Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and Agriculture, he ...

, the Austrian Chancellor before the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

. On 25 July 1934 he unsuccessfully tried to prevent Dollfuß's assassination by

Otto Planetta Otto Planetta (2 August 1899 – 31 July 1934) was an Austrian National Socialist who assassinated the Chancellor of Austria, Engelbert Dollfuß, in 1934. Biography Planetta was born into a Catholic family in Wischau, Austria-Hungary (now Vy ...

. He testified at the trial of the murderers as a "Crown" (prosecution) witness and was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit Signum Laudis by the Austrian government for his heroic efforts. He was imprisoned by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

after Germany annexed Austria. His imprisonment was a matter of personal revenge for Ernst Kaltenbrunner, the SS-Obergruppenführer and Chef der

Reichssicherheitshauptamt The Reich Security Main Office (german: Reichssicherheitshauptamt or RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and ''Reichsführer-SS'', the head of the Nazi ...

es of the Nazi government and a famous Austrian Nazi, who himself was involved in Dollfuß's assassination and was for this and other crimes hanged after the war.

Publications

* ''Assassination in Vienna'', Walter B. Maass, published by Charles Scribners's Sons, New York * ''The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS'', by Heinz Zollin Höhne and Richard Barry * ''Dollfuss'', Gordon Brook-Shepherd, published by Macmillan&Co Ltd, London, 1961 * ''První zemřel kancléř'', Vladimír Bauman and Miroslav Hladký, Praha, 1968 * ''Na dně byla smrt'', Otakar Brožek and Jiří Horský, Praha, 1968 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hedvicek, Eduard People from Kojetín Austrian politicians Czech politicians Austrian people of Czech descent 1878 births 1947 deaths