Rudolf Karl Hofmeister

Rudolf Karl Hofmeister was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of the housekeeper Josef Hofmeister and his wife Theresia, née Spanitsch. Nothing has been preserved about his childhood and youth. After leaving school, he trained as a butcher and opened a butcher's shop in Vienna's 21st district.

After the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the break-up of the dual monarchy and the expulsion of the House of Habsburg in 1918, he married Anna Österreicher in 1919. However, the marriage remained childless.

In 1934, he may have briefly sympathized with National Socialism, joined the NSDAP, but left in the same year and joined the Vaterländische Front.

In the Vaterländische Front, he became a group leader and thus an official in the 21st district of Vienna. A staunch Austrian, he vehemently campaigned for a free and independent Austria.

On March 12, 1938, Rudolf Hofmeister witnessed the downfall of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He was arrested by the Gestapo on March 13, 1938 due to his Austrian sentiments. At this time, he was already suffering from stomach cancer. He is denied treatment or a saving operation in prison. On September 25, 1938, he was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp. Due to the lack of treatment, his stomach cancer worsened considerably. He was also severely abused in the concentration camp. SS men kicked him several times in the abdomen and stomach area with their nailed shoes.

On January 18, 1939, Rudolf Hofmeister was released from prison, terminally ill. Back in Vienna, his attending physician could only diagnose that the stomach cancer had spread due to the delayed operation and that an operation was no longer possible.

On October 13, 1939, Rudolf Hofmeister died in agony as a result of the unoperated stomach cancer and the abuse in the concentration camp. He finds his final resting place at the cemetery in Vienna-Stammersdorf.

His wife Anna Hofmeister survives the occupation of Austria and experiences liberation in 1945. She joins the newly founded Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich. She died in 1976.