Purgleitnergasse 46 (laid in 2011)
Franz Winkelmann
Member of a resistance group
Franz Winkelmann, born on 6 September 1901 in Wiener Neustadt, married.
On 2 June 1943 he was sentenced to death for preparing high treason and aiding the enemy and executed on 8 October 1943 at the regional court in Vienna.
Franz Winkelmann was a member of the large resistance group organized by Alois Czipek from Zillingdorf-Bergwerk at the Rax works and the Werk II of the aircraft factories (WNF). The cell system of this organization extended from Wiener Neustadt into Burgenland. Leaflets calling for resistance against Nazi rule were produced and distributed by group members.
In a night operation in November 1941, houses inhabited by Nazi officials in Ebenfurth were marked with slogans such as “Down with the Nazis” and “Heil Stalin” (in contrast to the obligatory “Heil Hitler”). The Ebenfurth SA was immediately mobilized but could only clean the marked houses.
In another action, as reported in a Gestapo memo, the group applied various communist and other anti-state slogans with lime on the main street over a length of some 500 meters in December 1941. Weeks later, on the night of 14/15 February 1942 (anniversary of the February fighting 1934), the resistance group distributed nearly 2,000 leaflets throughout Ebenfurth’s streets, carrying slogans like: “Overthrow Hitler,” “Heil Stalin,” “Drive the Nazis to the front,” “Soldiers die, Nazis profit,” “Hitler’s downfall is our rise to freedom.”
After long efforts, the organization was finally uncovered and with sudden arrests, destroyed—including its leader Alois Czipek and Franz Winkelmann.
The arrested men were interrogated for hours, beaten, hung by chains and held in the dark dungeon of the Wiener Neustadt Gestapo house (now Europahaus in the city park).
On 1 and 2 June 1943, the trial against Alois Czipek and his companions took place in Vienna. The charges: preparing high treason and aiding the enemy. The sentences were terrible: Alois Czipek, Franz Winkelmann, and five others were sentenced to death. Franz Winkelmann was beheaded on 8 October 1943.
In Winkelmann’s case, the Nazis’ particular hatred against a defector may have played a role. He was a member of the NSDAP since 1932 and had been actively involved in illegal activity from 1933 to 1938. After Hitler’s rise to power, Winkelmann lost all illusions and became a determined opponent and fighter against the Nazi regime.
Anton Blaha (After “Resistance in the Wiener Neustadt area 1938-1945” by Karl Flanner.)
Photo: Franz Winkelmann (© StAWN, Photo Collection IVM