Austrian Freedom Movement - Eder Group Österreichische Freiheitsbewegung – Gruppe Eder

Immediately after the occupation of Austria, in the summer of 1938, the resistance fighter Josef Eder joined the Hebra resistance group led by the writer Wilhelm Hebra. In contrast to Wilhelm Hebra, who strove for a conservative, liberal form of government, Josef Eder pursued the idea of a corporative, authoritarian form of government. Hebra and Eder were united in their strict rejection of National Socialism.

Josef Eder actively recruited new members for the Hebra group and organized regular meetings in inns. He formed a cell within the Hebra group, in which individual functions were also assigned. The cell organized the production and distribution of various flyers.At the end of 1938, Eder and Hebra fell out because, in Eder's opinion, Wilhelm Hebra was too careless in expressing his political views and plans to third parties. Josef Eder's cell followed him and called itself the Austrian Freedom Movement - Gruppe Eder.

Josef Eder then sought to join Bavarian monarchist resistance groups, as he was now striving for a joint Bavarian-Austrian monarchist state. However, this never came to pass, as the members were successively arrested by the Gestapo from March 23, 1939 onwards.

The Austrian Freedom Movement - Eder Group included:

Maria Demel, Josef Eder, Johnna Hanke, Ludwig Kitzinger, Hugo Kosch, Johann Meier, Friedrich Polcar, Josef Reininger, Friederike Schneider,