Dr. Eduard Chaloupka

Eduard Chaloupka was born in Vienna, the son of a customs inspector. He attends grammar school in the III. Viennese district. Together with some of his classmates and with the help of the student fraternity Franco-Bavaria, he founded the secondary school fraternity Frankonia in 1919.

After graduating from high school, he began studying law at the University of Vienna in 1920. There he played a leading role in the founding of the university fraternity Bajuvaria in 1920. In 1927, he joined the Lower Austrian provincial government and was assigned to the Mistelbach district administration. In 1934 he moved to the Federal Chancellery. In 1938, Ministerialrat Eduard Chaloupka was briefly arrested during the invasion of Adolf Hitler's troops and removed from office without notice on July 30, 1938. He now earned his living as an insurance agent, accountant and concept developer until he was drafted into the Wehrmacht. Through his brothers Felix Romanik and Max Gererstorfer, he came into contact with the Meithner resistance group, which was founded in autumn 1938. By intervening with well-known Nazi functionaries, he and Felix Romanik succeeded in securing the release of a prisoner from the Buchenwald concentration camp. Eduard Chaloupka is able to obtain his UK position (exemption from military service) and works in the military district command XVII in Vienna. He wins the trust and goodwill of his superior for himself and his brother Hans Dorrek. Through well-known doctors, Eduard Chaloupka was able to obtain medical reports for civilians and soldiers, which saved them from being called up or deployed to the front.

In December 1943, Eduard Chaloupka made contact with the socialist group around Dr. Alfred Migsch. Alfred Migsch, as well as the group around Karl Gruber and Walter de Comtes. In Dr. Migsch's socialist underground newspaper "Die Wahrheit", Eduard Chaloupka publishes an appeal to Austrian academics to resist. "Die Wahrheit" is repeatedly used as a news organ by Catholic academics. Eduard Chaloupka is a member of the Meithner resistance group and also maintains contacts with the resistance group "O5" and the military resistance in Vienna.

After the liberation of Austria, Eduard Chaloupka is involved in the founding of the ÖVP and joins the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich. Under Federal Chancellor Leopold Figl, he returned to the Federal Chancellery and became Head of the Presidential Section. He held this position under four chancellors (Figl, Raab, Gorbach and Klaus) until his death.