Karl Strobl

Karl Strobl was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of Friedrich Strobl and Emilie, née Harmer. After elementary school, he attended the grammar school in Vienna-Hernals. He also played a leading role in the parish youth and in the Austrian Young People in Vienna's 17th district of the Vaterländische Front.

After the invasion of Austria by the German Wehrmacht, he led the underground Gruppe Calvarienberg, which came into contact with the Gruppe Eisen via Alfred Kostelecky and was active in leafleting, smearing and sabotage campaigns. Above all, they distributed the sermons of the Bishop of Münster, Clemens August Graf von Galen. At the beginning of July 1938, the Gruppe Eisen was exposed and Karl Strobl with it. He was imprisoned for the first time from July 8, 1938 to August 10, 1938 and expelled from secondary school on May 31, 1939. The boys of the Gruppe Calvarienberg joined the German Red Cross to better disguise themselves.

In spring 1940, Karl Strobl came into contact with the resistance group Haan, which was uncovered by the Gestapo on October 16, 1940. Karl Strobl was arrested again on October 21, 1940 and detained until November 18, 1941. On November 19, 1941, a special court sentenced him to six months in prison for secret association and from January 1, 1942, he was sent to the Arctic Ocean front as a marine for 'parole'.

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He is deployed as a combat swimmer against the Russian fleet in the Arctic Ocean. On such missions, to which opponents of the regime were deliberately sent, the chance of survival was almost zero. He survived and was taken prisoner by the Russians, from which he was only released in 1946.

After the liberation of Austria in May 1945, Karl Strobl completed his A-levels as an external student and then studied theology in Vienna. On 2 June 1947, he joined the student fraternity Rudolfina because he had found the Rudolfinen Wilfried Daim, Helmut Gnambs and Hubert Jurasek in the resistance groups. He also became a member of the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1952, he first worked as a cooperator (chaplain) in Brunn am Gebirge, Gerasdorf-Süßenbrunn and Schwechat and then as a parish priest in Schleinbach (1959-1989) in the Lower Austrian Weinviertel. Weinviertel. In 1972, he was also assigned the parish of Kronberg.