Hofrat Dr. Friedrich Streitmann

Josef Friedrich Streitmann was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of office worker Josef Streitmann and his wife Maria, née Zerbst. His father was Jewish at birth, his mother non-denominational. However, Josef Friedrich Streitmann was baptized Catholic. After elementary school, he attended the state grammar school in Vienna's 2nd district [today: Bundesrealgymnasium Lessinggasse] and graduated from the state grammar school in Vienna's 12th district. In the same year, he enrolled in law at the University of Vienna and was awarded a doctorate in law in 1901. Between 1902 and 1903, he completed his military service as a one-year volunteer.

In 1904, Josef Friedrich Streitmann joined the Vienna Police Directorate. In 1908, he married Stefanie Kremser and subsequently became the father of Erich Streitmann and Bruno Streitmann. In 1921 he was appointed city captain of the Vienna-Margareten district police headquarters and in 1932 of the Vienna-Alsergrund district police headquarters. From 1924 to 1933, he was also Vice President of the Reich Association of Austrian Public Employees [today: Gewerkschaft öffentlicher Dienst]. In 1928, Josef Friedrich Streitmann officially changed his name to Friedrich Streitmann.

In 1934, the patriotic Austrian joined the Vaterländische Front and became President of the Chamber of Civil Servants for the City of Vienna, a member of the Federal Chamber of Civil Servants and Chairman of the Working Group of Academics in the Civil Service. On November 1, 1934, he became a member of the State Council and on November 27, 1934, a member of the Bundestag. In all these functions, Friedrich Streitmann advocated a free and independent Austria and strictly rejected National Socialism.

On March 12, 1938, Friedrich Streitmann witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. On March 16, 1938, the staunch Austrian was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on the so-called 'Prominent Transport'. When Dachau concentration camp was cleared for the SS at short notice after Hitler's invasion of Poland, he was transferred to Flossenbürg concentration camp on September 27, 1939. From there, he was transferred back to Dachau concentration camp on March 2, 1940. Friedrich Streitmann, who had already been dismissed from public service on July 20, 1939, was released from the concentration camp on July 20, 1940 and returned to his family in Vienna. His son Erich Streitmann, who was also deported with him to Dachau concentration camp, was only liberated from the concentration camp by the US Army in 1945.

In Vienna, Friedrich Streitmann witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic in April and May 1945. He was reinstated to the civil service in May and worked in the Federal Ministry of the Interior. He was officially rehabilitated in 1946. Between 1947 and 1949, he was Director of the Letter Censorship Office in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, after which he was Director of Censorship and Head of Department Z [Central Services] until May 31, 1954 with a special contract. He then retired for good at the age of 76. He was also the founder and chairman of the Dachau Concentration Camp Comradeship.

Friedrich Streitmann died in Vienna at the age of 78 and was laid to rest at the cemetery in Vienna-Döbling.