Dr. Josef Eberle

Born in Ailigen in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Josef Eberle studied in Freiburg after graduating from high school in 1904 and joined the Arminia Freiburg student fraternity there. He changed his place of study several times and obtained his doctorate in Strasbourg. Josef Eberle moved to Vienna in 1913 and received Austrian citizenship there after his marriage in 1916.

After the First World War, he took over the management of the Catholic magazine "Das Neue Reich" in Vienna (1918-1925) and then founded his own magazine "Schönere Zukunft" in 1926; the two magazines were merged in 1932. From 1935, individual issues were confiscated in the German Reich and at the beginning of 1937, a quarter-year ban on distribution was imposed. He is also active as a writer under the pseudonym Edgar Mühlen.

After the Anschluss, Josef Eberle is summoned to the Gestapo. As the interrogations were repeated, he lived in constant fear of "protective custody" or subsequent imprisonment. In addition, the Reich Ministry of Propaganda issued him with written warnings. However, in order to save the magazine, he sold it to the Schwabenverlag publishing house.

On February 5/6, 1941, the "Schönere Zukunft" publishing house was searched by the Vienna SD for anti-state material and in particular for correspondence with foreign countries on behalf of the RSHA. As the editor-in-chief Josef Eberle is suspected of having passed on news about the situation in the Reich to foreign intelligence offices, he is arrested on the grounds of "disturbing and subverting the Führer's educational work".

After just three months in prison, he falls ill and is therefore committed to the prison hospital of the Vienna Regional Court from May 5, 1941 to October 13, 1941, from where he is released after his condition deteriorates further. He is removed from the list of professional writers. He experiences the end of the war in Bezau, where he finally retired to.