Karl Toman (2 January 1884 – 5 February 1950) was an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

n politician and

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist. Toman hailed from a

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family. He went on to become a metal industry worker.Starch, Roland.
„Die KPÖ und die Komintern“
' Toman joined the Social Democratic Labour Party of Austria in 1898. In the run-up to the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Toman served as secretary of the Goldsmiths' Trade Union. He was taken as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, and went on to fight on the Soviet side in the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

. Toman becoming a leading figure in the

Communist Party of Austria 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� ...

. He served as general secretary of the party for a brief period in 1920. He belonged to the party leadership until 1924.
Berör ytterligheterna varandra? Om renegater/överlöpare från kommunism/socialism till fascismAollaboration 1920-1945: En jämförande analys
'' Toman represented the Communist Party of Austria at the second (1920) and third congresses (1921) of the

Communist International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internationa ...

. He took part in the fifth congress of the Communist International in 1924 as a non-voting delegate, representing of the inner-party minority in Austria. He was expelled from the party on August 31, 1924. In August 1925 he was readmitted to the Communist Party as a member. He worked with the

Red International of Labour Unions The Red International of Labor Unions (, RILU), commonly known as the Profintern (), was an international body established by the Communist International (Comintern) with the aim of coordinating communist activities within trade unions. Formally ...

(Profintern), having been appointed secretary of the Trade Union Sector of the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1928. At the Profintern congress of 1930, held in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, Toman was elected to the central council of the international body. He moved to Moscow, working as instructor at the Organizational Department of Profintern. Toman relocation to the Soviet Union was seen as a way of resolving the fractional frictions inside the Austrian Communist Party. In the Soviet Union, Toman was accused of mismanagement of funds. In September 1931 he was sacked from Profintern. He was given a new employment at a sailor's club in

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, politically demoted. Having returned to Austria in 1932, Toman was finally stripped of his Communist Party membership. Toman joined the

Revolutionary Socialists The Revolutionary Socialists (; ) (RS) are a Trotskyist organisation in Egypt originating in the tradition of ' Socialism from Below'. Leading RS members include sociologist Sameh Naguib. The organisation produces a newspaper called ''The Social ...

in 1934. He was detained at the Wöllersdorf prison camp, but was released in 1935. After ''

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 ...

'' (German annexation of Austria in 1938) Toman was threatened with imprisonment at the

Dachau concentration camp Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

. He was however able to negotiate a release from captivity, citing his expulsion from the Communist Party. He undertook a loyalty oath to the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. In April 1938 German authorities appointed him as a member of the local administration of

Eichgraben Eichgraben is a town in the district of Sankt Pölten-Land in the Austrian state of Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities ...

. In January 1940 he joined the

National Socialist German Workers Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Worker ...

(NSDAP) and SA. Toman was captured by Soviet troops in May 1945. He died in a Soviet

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

prison camp on February 5, 1950. There are very few documented cases of former Austrian communists having joined the NSDAP, Toman being the most prominent amongst them. There is little written about Toman's political journey, but speculation points towards blunt opportunism.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toman, Karl 1884 births 1950 deaths People from Sankt Pölten-Land District Communist Party of Austria politicians Austrian trade unionists Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war held by Russia in World War I Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War Austrian expatriates in Russia Austrian communists Prisoners and detainees of Austria Austrian Nazis Mayors of places in Austria Austrian people who died in Soviet detention Foreign Gulag detainees Sturmabteilung personnel Nazis who died in prison custody