Walter Koch

Walter Koch was born in Vienna, the son of a railroad official. He attended primary school, secondary school and commercial college in the former capital of the Reich. After graduating from commercial school, he joined an insurance company in 1922, where he eventually worked his way up to head of department.

In the interwar period, Walter Koch was a member of the Reich League of Catholic-German Youth, the "Black-Yellow Legitimist Party", the Front Fighters Association, the Christian Social Party and the Patriotic Front.

Walter Koch was a regular at Franz Lambert's inn [today: Pürstner]. There he met the lawyer Karl Wanner and through him, as a staunch opponent of National Socialism, joined the Lamberti Circle. He attended the meetings at irregular intervals and was also aware of the plans for the collapse of the Third Reich.

In January 1942, when the Lamberti Round Table joined the Antifascist Freedom Movement of Austria (AFÖ) around the pastor Anton Granig and the former member of parliament Karl Krumpl, Walter Koch is present at the talks with Karl Wanner.

When the AFÖ was exposed in 1943, Walter Koch was immediately arrested and sentenced to three years in prison in the trial before the People's Court on August 15, 1944 for "failure to report a highly treasonous enterprise". He remained in prison until the end of the war and was released on April 17, 1945.