Hofrat Dr. Rudolf Dechant

Rudolf Dechant was born in Vienna, the son of a postman in the 9th district. After elementary school, he attended grammar school in Vienna and Hollabrunn, where he graduated in 1911. At this time, he was very active in the Catholic Youth. He then enrolled in philosophy, psychology and education at the University of Vienna. He interrupted his studies in 1915 as he was drafted into the First World War. After returning home from the war, he had to go to work for financial reasons and therefore began working in the book trade in 1920, but remained a working student. In the same year, he married Margarete Gerhard and subsequently had six children with her. In 1926, he finally received his doctorate from the University of Vienna.

In early 1927, he began working as a research assistant at the Psychotechnical Institute, but moved to Burgenland on January 1, 1928 as an education officer. He subsequently joins the Christian trade union and the Patriotic Front and becomes the latter's press and culture officer for the province of Burgenland. In 1936, he became an honorary member of the Forchtenstein Eisenstadt secondary school fraternity.

As a staunch opponent of National Socialism, he was taken into protective custody for four weeks after the occupation of Austria by the Third Reich on March 12, 1938 and released on April 30, 1939 through forced retirement. After having to support his wife and six children, he ekes out a living in various jobs. He worked as an insurance agent, an employee in an ironmonger's shop and finally began working in the "Ringbuchhandlung", where he became an authorized signatory.

After Austria's liberation in May 1945, he was immediately rehabilitated and began working as a department head in the Federal Ministry of Education, where he took over the department for books and publishing. He left this position on 1 December 1945 and took over the management of the Austrian Federal Publishing House, which he reorganized and rebuilt as director from the ruins of the war.