Dr. Gerald Grinschgl

Gerald Grinschgl attended the Realgymnasium in Graz until 1940. Due to his opposition to the Nazis, he was temporarily taken into police custody after the Anschluss on March 12, 1938, as well as for ten days in September.

After graduating from high school in 1940, he began studying at the Faculty of Medicine in Graz. Here, Gerald Grinschgl came into contact with the Carolina senior Gerd Stepantschitz, who recruited him for the Carolina, where he was accepted on June 3, 1941. He had to interrupt his studies because he was drafted into the German Wehrmacht; he was temporarily deployed in Finland. However, he was able to continue his studies as part of a student company, first in Graz and then later in Innsbruck.

In the fall of 1943, Gerald Grinschgl was elected Suburban President (VOP) of the ÖCV (representative of all ÖCV associations) in the underground; he remained VOP until February 1946.

After the fall of Stalingrad (31.1/2.2.1943), an event occurred in Graz that Gerald Grinschgl describes as follows:

"Three illegal Carolinians, Dr. Stepantschitz, Dr. Liegl and I had decided to saw down the 6 m high auxiliary oak tree planted on the Opernring in Graz on an April night in 1943. All three of us were in German Wehrmacht uniform; while I was sawing, the other two kept watch. The operation, which would have cost us our heads if discovered, was a complete success and our goal was achieved: the whole city knew about the event in the early hours of the morning, people whispered the news to each other and talked about a symbol falling, about the fact that trees should not grow into the sky and that it would be a long time before this war came to an end."

After the university in Graz closed, Gerald Grinschgl was transferred to the Innsbruck student company. Here he continued his studies and was actively involved in the resistance struggle during the last days of the war in Innsbruck and in the liberation of the city from Nazi terror. In 1947, he was able to complete his medical studies and was awarded a doctorate in medicine.

After the war, he was awarded the VOP ribbon at the 5th foundation festival of the underground student fraternity Alpinia Innsbruck for his great services to the admission of Alpinia to the ÖCV.