Hofrat Dr. Josef Zwerenz

Josef Zwerenz was born in Vienna on May 13, 1902, the son of a post office director. Here he attended the Hernalser Realgymnasium, where he soon joined the Thuiskonia secondary school fraternity. As an enthusiastic Couleur student, he is also one of the founders of the middle school fraternity Guelfia. When he and some close friends were studying in Vienna (he himself was studying French and German to become a teacher), the desire arose to found a Catholic academic fraternity specifically for working students, especially in the western districts of Vienna: Thus, on 26 January 1930, the student fraternity Rhaeto-Danubia is founded. Almost all of the founders came from the middle school fraternity Thuiskonia.

After the Anschluss, Josef Zwerenz was forcibly transferred from his post at Realgynasium Simmering to Realgymnasium VII (Kandlgasse) and interrogated by the police because of his political views and his union membership or membership of the VF. The young Rhaeto-Danubia found support above all from Rudolfinas and Bajuvarias. When the National Socialists banned all fraternities in 1938, this also affected the young fraternity, which had shortly before given Josef Zwerenz the authority to make and implement resolutions without a convention if necessary in the event of the long-feared ban. Despite the personal persecution of some members by the new rulers, the Rhaeto-Danubia sticks together in times of need - there is no traitor. Josef Zwerenz, although no longer the youngest, is called up for military service. Under his leadership, the fraternity continues to operate secretly and underground during the war and even accepts new members. During this time, the fraternity cooperated closely with the Rudolfina student fraternity. Josef Zwerenz himself has contacts with the secret group Gottfried Lerch, who is a member of the K.Ö.St.V. Siegfriedia Linz and the K.Ö.St.V. Austria Wien.

After the war, Josef Zwerenz became a secondary school teacher again, and later principal of the "Haydn-Gymnasium" in Vienna-Margareten. For his close underground collaboration with the Rudolfina student fraternity, he also became a member and later a member of the Sängerschaft Waltharia.