Oberstudienrat Otto (Josef) Pinzenöhler OFMConv

Josef Pinzenöhler was born in Vienna. After primary and secondary school, he first learned the printing trade. At the age of 18, in 1927, he began to catch up on grammar school and graduated in 1933.

He then joined the Order of Friars Minor, OFM Conv., took the religious name Otto and enrolled in theology at the University of Vienna in 1933. During this time, he became active in the student fraternity Akademisches Corps Ottonen.

As a student, he witnessed the fall of Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht in March 1938. Soon afterwards, the staunch opponent of National Socialism and convinced Austrian joined the legitimist resistance group around Wilhelm Hebra and Franz Zeller. As a trained printer, he also actively produced leaflets. The group meets in the Minorite convent in Alserstraße, Vienna VIII, where discussions are held and leaflet distribution campaigns are prepared. The group is exposed in 1939 by the informer Franz Paiha, a former police officer.

Josef Pinzenöhler is arrested on April 18, 1939 together with the medical student Karl von Portele . On November 15, 1943, the People's Court sentenced him to four years in prison "for preparation for high treason".

After his release from prison on December 16, 1943, he was ordained a priest in Vienna on April 30, 1944 and served as chaplain in the Alser Vorstadt parish.

In this role, he also witnessed the liberation of Austria in May 1945. Immediately afterwards, he resumed his theological studies and graduated in 1949. In 1952, he became chaplain and teacher in Berndorf and from 1956, teacher at the BRG Vienna II. Josef Pinzenöhler finally retired in 1963.

Josef Pinzenöhler is also active in the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich and in pastoral care for displaced persons. He is a long-standing board member and later Vice President of the Documentation Archive of Austrian Resistance (DÖW). He was also an honorary member of the Greifenstein Wien secondary school fraternity and the Starhemberg student fraternity.

Josef Pinzenöhler died in Vienna in 1991 at the age of 82.