Hermann Lichtenegger (born September 14, 1900 in Knittelfeld, Styria, † March 11, 1984 in Vienna) was an Austrian socialist trade unionist,

KPÖ The Communist Party of Austria (, KPÖ) is a communist party in Austria. Established in 1918 as the Communist Party of Republic of German-Austria, German-Austria (KPDÖ), it is one of the world's oldest Communist party, communist parties. The KP� ...

politician, and an Under-Secretary of State for Industry, Commerce, Trade, and Traffic in the post-war provisional Renner government.Gertrude Enderle-Burcel (Hrsg.): Protokolle des Kabinettsrates der Provisorischen Regierung Karl Renner 1945. Band 2: „Right or wrong - my country!“ Österreichische Gesellschaft für Historische Quellenstudien, Verlag Österreich, Wien 1999, , S. 528 For his early work as a unionist and wartime KPÖ activities he was considered a ''Widerstandskämpfer'', resistance fighter.

Life

Lichtenegger was a trained locksmith and in 1921 he was hired by the

Austrian Federal Railways The Austrian Federal Railways ( , formally or () and formerly the or ''BBÖ'' ), now commonly known as ÖBB (), is the national railway company of Austria, and the administrator of Liechtenstein's railways. The ÖBB group i ...

. From 1918 to 1934 he was a member of the SDAPÖ, and after the

February Uprising The February Uprising () was an anti-Bolshevik rebellion by the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation which started on February 13 and was suppressed on April 2, 1921, by the recapture of Yerevan by Bolshevik forces. Background After t ...

in 1934 he joined the KPÖ, consequently in 1934 he was jailed because of his work for the Imperial Trade Union Commission ( Reichsgewerkschaftskommission). In early 1938, he again spent time in prison for his activities with the KPÖ. At the end of August 1937, he participated in the last Communist Party Conference before the German invasion (

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

) near Prague. After Anschluss the Austrian Federal Railway (

BBÖ The Austrian Federal Railways ( , formally or () and formerly the or ''BBÖ'' ), now commonly known as ÖBB (), is the national railway company of Austria, and the administrator of Liechtenstein's railways. The ÖBB group i ...

) was taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn. Litchenegger's employment was then discontinued by the railway in 1938. In 1942 he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

and suspended from opportunities of further services. During the

Vienna Offensive The Vienna offensive was an offensive launched by the Soviet 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts in order to capture Vienna, Austria, during World War II. The offensive lasted from 16 March to 15 April 1945. After several days of street-to-street figh ...

in 1945 Lichtenegger lead a communist resistance group out of the boiler house at Vienna's East Train Station.

Post-War

At the third cabinet council meeting of the party leaders on May 4, 1945 in the KPÖ house in Schottenfeldgasse, where Lichtenegger had previously organized a meeting of the railway workers, he was nominated for the provisional government; from May 4 to December 20, 1945, Lichtenegger served as the Under-Secretary of State for Industry, Commerce, Trade, and Traffic in the provisional Renner Government. Lichtenegger later became the Vice President of the General Directorate of the Austrian State Railways, and from April 22, 1946 he was a member of the Central Committee of the KPÖ.Winfried R. Garscha, Hans Hautmann: Februar 1934 in Österreich. Dietz, Berlin 1984, S. 202. He played a leading role in the reconstruction of the railway system in Austria.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lichtenegger, Hermann 1900 births 1984 deaths People from Knittelfeld Austrian trade unionists Communist Party of Austria politicians Austrian resistance members