Johanna Aloisia Josefa Hancke (geb. Kager)

Johanna Kager was born in Vienna, the daughter of postal clerk Johann Kager and Rosa, née Kreibich. After elementary school, she attended secondary school and from 1927 worked as a commercial clerk at Österreichische Saurerwerke GmbH in Simmering. In 1927, she married the telephone worker Anton Hancke and became the mother of a son.

In 1933, the Austrian patriot joined the Vaterländische Front. In 1934, she changed her profession and worked as a materials manager at the Patriotic Front district office in Vienna's 12th district. In April 1935, she separated from Anton Hancke, but did not divorce him.

On March 12, 1938, Johanna Hancke witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the forced dissolution and banning of the Vaterländische Front, she becomes unemployed.

In July 1938, she learns from Josef Eder, whom she knows from the Vaterländische Front, that he is setting up a resistance group together with Wilhelm Hebra. The goal of the Gruppe Hebra is to regain Austria's independence.

Johanna Hancke joins the resistance group and actively participates in the meetings of Josef Eder's cell. She became the group's treasurer and helped with the procurement of materials and the production of flyers. When Josef Eder's cell split from the Gruppe Hebra at the end of 1938 and formed the Austrian Freedom Movement - Group Eder, she joined it.

At the end of January 1939, Johanna Hancke found a job in the Air Intelligence Department 4 in Vienna-Mauer. However, the Austrian Freedom Movement - Eder Group was uncovered and the members of the resistance group were successively arrested by the Gestapo from March 23, 1939. Johanna Hancke was arrested on April 5, 1939 and taken into custody in Vienna and Regensburg. While in custody, she falls ill with a severe bladder infection, which is why she is released on February 9, 1943 as unfit for detention.