Richard Schmitz (14 December 188527 April 1954) was an Austrian politician who served as the eleventh Vice Chancellor of Austria from 30 September to 4 December 1930. As a member of the Christian Social Party, Schmitz also served as Minister of Social Affairs as well as Federal Commissioner of Vienna. On 6 April 1934, Chancellor

Engelbert Dollfuss Engelbert Dollfuss (alternatively Dollfuß; 4 October 1892 – 25 July 1934) was an Austrian politician and dictator who served as chancellor of Federal State of Austria, Austria between 1932 and 1934. Having served as Minister for Forests and ...

appointed Schmitz

Mayor of Vienna This is a list of mayors and governors of Vienna since 1282. Vienna is the capital city of Austria. Since 1920, it has also been an States of Austria, Austrian state, with its mayor doubling as the ''Landeshauptmann'' (governor or minister-pres ...

. He succeeded elected Mayor

Karl Seitz Karl Josef Seitz (; 4 September 1869 – 3 February 1950) was an Austrian politician of the Social Democratic Workers' Party. He served as member of the Imperial Council, President of the National Council and Mayor of Vienna. Early life Se ...

. Ardently anti-

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

, Schmitz was Mayor four years later when Austria was absorbed into 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 the

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 ...

. Until that point, Schmitz spoke out publicly against Nazism and its tactics. Along with thousands of other prominent Austrians, Richard Schmitz was arrested and taken to

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 ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

where he remained for the length of the war. In late April 1945 Schmitz was, together with other prominent concentration camp inmates, transferred to Tyrol where the SS left the prisoners behind. He was liberated by American troops on 5 May 1945.

References

1885 births 1954 deaths 20th-century mayors of places in Austria People from Mohelnice Vice-chancellors of Austria Mayors of Vienna Dachau concentration camp survivors Austrian people of Moravian-German descent Christian Social Party (Austria) politicians {{Austria-mayor-stub