Operation Radetzky

Operation Radetzky was the code name of an operation organized by a group of Austrian opponents of the National Socialist regime to surrender the city of Vienna to the advancing Soviet army without a fight towards the end of the Second World War in April 1945. The name was a tribute to the former Austrian army commander Josef Wenzel Radetzky von Radetz (1766-1858). After the Red Army, coming from Hungary via the area between Lake Balaton and the Danube, had advanced towards Austria, then part of the "Greater German Reich", and crossed the border at Klostermarienberg on March 29, the troops reached the outskirts of Vienna on April 6 (see Vienna Operation 1945). Adolf Hitler had declared the city a "defense area". The battle was to be fought to the end by any means necessary, regardless of the loss of life and buildings. Infrastructure facilities were to be destroyed before they could fall into the hands of the enemy ("Nero Order"). Some of these were already equipped with explosive charges and intended for destruction, particularly railroad stations, trains, bridges, signal boxes, oil tanks, electrical and gas plants, technical facilities and food supplies.

In order to prevent this, a resistance group of Austrian members of the Wehrmacht contacted the leadership of the Soviet army. The leader of the group was Major Carl Szokoll, who had already been involved in the failed assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 as a Viennese contact, but was able to remain undetected at the time. He had subsequently worked with the Resistance Group O5 and formed a group of officers within the Wehrkreiskommando XVII who were prepared to work against the regime. On April 2, 1945, Sergeant Major Ferdinand Käs and Corporal Johann Reif managed to make contact with the High Command of the 3rd Ukrainian Front under Marshal Fyodor Tolbuchin in Hochwolkersdorf.

The army leadership was interested in the plans and information was passed on about the distribution of German troops in Vienna in order to open a gap in the defensive ring and thus pave the way for the Soviets to reach Vienna. Vienna was to be surrounded in the west, as the attack was expected to come from the east and less resistance was to be expected in the western districts. It was also agreed to spare the civilian population as much as possible. After the start of the Soviet attack, flares were also to signal the start of active resistance inside the city the following day, but this was not to happen. Shortly after Käs and Reif returned to Vienna on April 4, Major Karl Biedermann, commander of the army patrol of Greater Vienna, was betrayed and arrested. As part of Operation Radetzky, which had now already been partially uncovered, his task would have been to secure the city's bridges.

In the night of April 5-6, Operation Radetzky initially went ahead as planned. However, when members of the group wanted to take over the Bisamberg transmitter on the northern outskirts of the city, an officer became aware of them, whereupon the operation had to be aborted. The plan was uncovered and the officers Captain Alfred Huth and Lieutenant Rudolf Raschke were arrested, sentenced by an SS court and, like Major Karl Biedermann, publicly hanged from street lamps in Floridsdorf on April 8. Szokoll was warned, managed to escape arrest and fled to the command post of the 9th Guards Army in Purkersdorf, where he informed the Soviets of the failure of the operation. Although the planned destruction of the city was partially prevented and the "western encirclement" was successful, the fighting continued from April 6 to 13. Around 19,000 German and 18,000 Soviet soldiers lost their lives.

Members of Operation Radetzky included:

• Otto Scholik, members of the K.Ö.L. Maximiliana and the K.Ö.L. Starhemberg
• Georg von Zimmer-Lehmann, member of the K.Ö.L. Starhemberg and K.Ö.L. Leopoldina Vienna
• Prince Willy von Thurn und Taxis, member of K.Ö.L. Starhemberg
• Ludwig Jedlicka, member of K.Ö.L. Maximiliana
• Ernst Holzinger, member of K.Ö.L. Maximiliana and K.Ö.L. Leopoldina
• Walter Barth, member of the Ottonian Academic Corps
• Niki von Maasburg
• Wilfried Gredler
• Wolfgang Igler
• Carl Szokoll
• Karl Biedermann
• Alfred Huth
• Rudolf Raschke
• Johann Reif
• Ferdinand Käs