Robert Stricker (16 August 1879 – 28 October 1944) was a Jewish Austrian politician. Born in

Brno Brno ( , ; ) is a Statutory city (Czech Republic), city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava (river), Svitava and Svratka (river), Svratka rivers, Brno has about 403,000 inhabitants, making ...

(present-day

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

), Stricker graduated from high school at the technical college. He entered the service of the

Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways The Imperial-Royal State Railways () abbr. ''kkStB'') or Imperial-Royal Austrian State Railways (''k.k. österreichische Staatsbahnen'',The name incorporating "Austrian" appears, for example, in the 1907 official state handbook (''Staatshandbuch'' ...

, where he was active in management. He was elected at the

1919 Austrian Constitutional Assembly election Constituent Assembly elections were held in Austria on 16 February 1919. The Social Democratic Party of Austria, Social Democratic Workers' Party emerged as the largest party, winning 72 of the 170 seats. The party was largely supported by the w ...

as the only representative of the

Jewish National Party The Jewish National Party () was an Austrian political party of the Jewish minority. History A Jewish National Party () was already founded in 1892 at Lemberg (''Lviv''), then the capital of the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia, as part of the Zio ...

, founded in 1907 under the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

, which never again succeeded in sending a representative to the Austrian Parliament.On May 30, 1919, Robert Stricker married the widow Paulina (Paula) Kohn (born 1888) in Vienna and adopted her son Wilhelm (Bill) from her first marriage. In 1920, Robert and Paula Stricker's daughter Judith were born. He was a member of the Radical Zionists faction headed by

Yitzhak Gruenbaum Yitzhak Gruenbaum (, Hebrew language, Hebrew and Yiddish: ; 1879–1970) was a Polish and later Israeli politician. He was a leader of the Bloc of National Minorities and one of the top Zionist leaders in Second Polish Republic, interwar Poland. ...

and

Nahum Goldmann Nahum Goldmann (; July 10, 1895 – August 29, 1982) was a leading Zionist. He was a founder of the World Jewish Congress and its president from 1951 to 1978 and was also president of the World Zionist Organization from 1956 to 1968. Biography ...

, but left in 1930 to join the

Revisionist Zionism Revisionist Zionism is a form of Zionism characterized by territorial maximalism. Revisionist Zionism promoted expansionism and the establishment of a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan River. Developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s ...

faction. In addition, Stricker was a

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

activist, and for many years was a board member of the ''

Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien The Jewish Community of Vienna ( or IKG) is the body that represents Vienna's Orthodox Jewish community. Today, the IKG has around 10,000 members. Throughout history, it has represented almost all of Austria's Jews, whose numbers are sufficient ...

''. He was the publisher of the Jewish weekly magazine ''

Die Neue Welt ''Die Neue Welt'' ('The New World') was a newspaper issued from Alsace, France. It was founded in the end of January 1921 by Charles Hueber, a local leader of the French Communist Party in Alsace. The newspaper was merged into the ''l'Humanité d' ...

'', established in 1926 as a replacement for the defunct Zionist journal ''

Die Welt (, ) is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group and it is considered a newspaper of record in Germany. Its leading competitors are the ...

''. After 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 ...

'', Robert Stricker was sent to

Dachau 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 ...

, but was eventually released. In 1942 he was sent to

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...

, and is reported to have been killed in October 1944 in

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

. with his wife; Wilhelm and Judith fled and survived the warContrary to a New York Times Report 28 September 1978 a captured US Airman Lt Robert Stricker [Murdered while a POW
on 13 February 1945 was not Jewish and not related to Dr Robert Stricker]

Notes and sources

Bibliography

*Stricker, Robert, Jüdische Politik in Oesterreich : Tätigkeitsbericht und Auszüge aus den im österreichischen Parlamente 1919 und 1920 gehaltenen Reden / Robert Stricker, Wien : Wiener Morgen-Zeitung, 920? 39 p.
on microfilm at the Library of Congress
*Fraenkel, Josef (ed.), Robert Stricker, London, 1950, 94 p., LCCN 54031133 1879 births 1944 deaths Musicians from Brno People from the Margraviate of Moravia Czech Jews Jewish Austrian politicians Jewish National Party politicians Members of the Constituent National Assembly (Austria) Dachau concentration camp survivors Theresienstadt Ghetto prisoners Austrian civilians killed in World War II Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust Austrian people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Politicians who died in Nazi concentration camps Czech people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Czech Jews who died in the Holocaust Czech Zionists {{Austria-politician-stub