Rudolf Anton Haunschmied (born 1966) is 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 ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

and

local historian Local history is the study of history in a geographically local context, often concentrating on a relatively small local community. It incorporates cultural history, cultural and social history, social aspects of history. Local history is not mer ...

Life and achievements

Rudolf A. Haunschmied grew up and lived in

Sankt Georgen an der Gusen Sankt Georgen an der Gusen (also ''St. Georgen an der Gusen'' and ''St. Georgen/Gusen''; lit.: "Saint George's town on the Gusen River") is a small market town in Upper Austria, Austria, between the municipalities of Luftenberg and Langenste ...

, Austria. Even as a youngster, before his education as a mechanical engineer, he researched the "lost" history of the St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen area with its four Nazi concentration camps and focused as a pioneer on the history of the KZ Gusen I & II & III Concentration Camps. In 1986 he became a founding member of ''Arbeitskreis für Heimat-, Denkmal- und Geschichtspflege St. Georgen (AHDG)'' which gave the ''Gusen Memorial Committee (GMC)'' a home until January 2008, when he was again among the founding members of the then independent ''Gusen Memorial Committee''. In 1989 he published the first history of the St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen complex upon request of the municipality of his hometown St. Georgen/Gusen. He led excursions to the remnants of the camps as well as study circles for years and advises students and researchers. With Pierre Serge Choumoff of Amicale Francaise de Mauthausen (Paris) and others he organized the first local-international commemoration at Gusen in 1995 and founded the Mauthausen-Gusen Info-Pages in 1997. In 1996 and 1997 he founded two city-partnerships and was member of ''Reforminitiative Mauthausen'' (Federal Initiative to Modernize the Mauthausen Memorial) at the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior in 2000 that led to the opening of a new visitors´ center at KZ Gusen in 2004. In 2007 he contributed to Audiowalk Gusen and to many publications and documentations on radio and TV in the last 25 years. In 2009 he requested successfully the opening of the "Bergkristall" tunnels of KZ Gusen II for the public and an adequate monumental protection of KZ Gusen I & II remnants. From 2019 to 2021, Rudolf Haunschmied contributed as scientific advisor to the creation of virtual guides for the Mauthausen Memorial on the former Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp complex and the associated inter-spaces. He resides in

Traun Traun () is an Austrian municipality located on the north bank of the Traun (river), river Traun and borders Linz, the capital of Upper Austria, to the east. The name ''Traun'' is derived from the Celtic word for river (). Traun is the fifth la ...

Key Publications

*
Zum Gedenken 1938 bis 1945
', in: 300 Jahre erweitertes Marktrecht St. Georgen/Gusen, St. Georgen a.d. Gusen, 1989 *
KZ Mauthausen-Gusen Info-Pages
' ww.gusen.org 1997 - today * ''Geschichtespaziergang in St. Georgen und Gusen'', Volkshochschule der Arbeiterkammer, St. Georgen/Gusen, 1993-2005 * ''Konzentrationslager Gusen'', in: Unsere Heimat der Bezirk Perg, Verein zur Herausgabe eines Bezirksheimatbuches, Perg 1995 * ''Gusen - Eine Manifestation österreichischen Vergessens?'', in: Christoph Mayer, Das unsichtbare Lager - Audioweg Gusen, Berlin 2007 * Co-author with Alfred Grau: ''Der Zusammenbruch 1945 wie wir ihn erlebten'', in: St. Georgener Heimatblätter (2007) * Co-author with Jan-Ruth Mills, Siegi Witzany-Durda: ''St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen - Concentration Camp Mauthausen Reconsidered'', BoD, Norderstedt 2008, , available via Google-Book
St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen
* ''Getta la pietra! Il lager di Gusen-Mauthausen'', Mimesis Edizioni, Milano 2008 * Bundesministerium für Inneres: ''Zur aktuellen Diskussion um Bergkristall'', Dokumentation, Wien 2009 * B8 Bergkristall - Historical Visit of the International Mauthausen Committee, May 7, 2010, Gusen Memorial Committee, 2010 * ''NS-Geschichte 1938-1945'', in: 400 Jahre Markt St. Georgen an der Gusen, St. Georgen a.d. Gusen, 2011 * Editor for Karl Littner: Life Hanging on a Spider Web - From Auschwitz-Zasole to Gusen II, BoD, Norderstedt 2011, available via Google-Book
Life Hanging on a Spider Web
* ''Zur Geschichte des Lagerteiles Gusen im ehemaligen KZ-Doppellager Mauthausen-Gusen'', In: Ueberleben durch Kunst - Zwangsarbeit im Konzentrationslager Gusen für das Messerschmittwerk Regensburg, Dr. Peter Morsbach Verlag, Regensburg 2012, * ''Die Bevoelkerung von St. Georgen/Gusen und Langenstein. Umgang mit der Lagergeschichte, Ablehnung und Initiativen zur Bewahrung'', in: Gedenkstaetten fuer die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus in Polen und Oesterreich - Bestandsaufnahme und Entwicklungsperspektiven (Proceedings to conference at Scientific Center of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

in September 2010 in Vienna), Peter Lang Edition, Frankfurt am Main 2013, * ''Zur Bedeutung des Pfarrgebietes von St. Georgen/Gusen als Schluesselregion zur Ausbeutung von KZ-Haeftlingen durch die Schutzstaffel'', in: Denk.Statt Johann Gruber - Neue Wege der Erinnerungskultur, Wagner Verlag, Linz/Donau 2014, *''Zur Landnahme der Schutzstaffel im Raum St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen'', in: Oberösterreichische Heimatblätter, 69. Jahrgang, Heft 3/4, Amt der OÖ. Landesregierung, Direktion Kultur, Linz/Donau 2015, * ''The Gusen II Jew Camp and the Messerschmitt Bergkristall underground plane factory in St. Georgen on the Gusen''. In: Joseph Fisher: ''The Heavens were Walled In'', New Academic Press, Vienna 2017, p. 175 ff.

Awards

* Cultural Award of the Municipality of St. Georgen/Gusen for extraordinary achievements in researching the lost history of Complex St. Georgen-Gusen-Mauthausen (1990). * Medal of Merit to the State Government of

Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria, and Salzburg (state), Salzbur ...

for year-long commemorative activities within "Arbeitskreis für Heimat-, Denkmal- und Geschichtspflege St. Georgen/Gusen" (2008) * "Consultant for Science" of State Government of Upper Austria (2013) * Złoty Medal Opiekuna Miejsc Pamięci Narodowej - Golden medal for preservers of Polish national memorial sites (2014) * Decoration of Merit in Gold to the Republic of

(2015) * Medal of Merit in Gold to the Municipality of Langenstein (2016) * :pl:Odznaka honorowa „Zasłużony dla Kultury Polskiej” - Medal for Achievements for Polish Culture (2017) * :pl:Złota Sowa Polonii - Golden Owl (2019) * Professional title "Professor" by appointment of Austrian Federal President

Alexander Van der Bellen Alexander "Sascha" Van der Bellen (; born 18 January 1944), also referred to by the abbreviation VdB, is an Austrian politician serving as the president of Austria since 2017. He previously served as a professor of economics at the University ...

(2021) * Roll of Honor Engraved in Metal to Klub Mauthausen-Gusen, Warsaw (2022) * Virtus et Fraternitas Medal by the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda (2024)

References

External links

Biographical notes at Amazon.com
*
Mauthausen-Gusen Info-Pages

Audiowalk Gusen

Interview with Rudolf A. Haunschmied and Martha Gammer at Gusen I & II remnants (English and Spanish)

Interview with Rudolf A. Haunschmied by Polish Pilecky Institute about his decade-long commemorational endeavours on the former KL Gusen complex of concentration camps (2020)

Lecture given by Rudolf A. Haunschmied at Wielkopolskie Forum Pamięci Narodowej in Poznan 2019 (English and Polish)

Interview with Rudolf A. Haunschmied by the Estrin family on the struggle for an adequate reminder of the Gusen complex of concentration camps (2015)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haunschmied, Rudolf Anton 1966 births Austrian male writers Living people Recipients of the Virtus et Fraternitas Medal