Josef Fleischhacker

Josef Fleischhacker is born in Vienna, the legitimate son of the laborer Anton Fleischhacker and Josefa, née Hunzik. His father died before he was born. His mother then marries the factory worker Anton Daxböck and places her son in the care of Anton Fleischhacker's parents. In 1900, the 8-year-old Josef Fleischhacker was placed in the Hartl orphanage in Mödling. There he attended primary and secondary school and in 1906, at the age of 14, began an apprenticeship as a master binder. After three years of training, he left his apprenticeship on his own authority and went on a journey.

In 1911, Josef Fleischhacker wanted to emigrate to the United States of America, but was stopped at the border to Passau and sent back because he had not completed his military service. He then worked as a laborer in Traisental and Hainfeld, where he came into contact with the Social Democrats. Between 1912 and 1913, he is a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) [today: SPÖ].

In autumn 1913, he joins the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment No. 13. Infantry Regiment No. 13 'Jung-Starhemberg' in Brünn [today: Brno in the Czech Republic] and was sent to the Russian front after the outbreak of the First World War, but had to return home to Vienna in October 1915 due to a laryngeal complaint and joint inflammation and was invalided out of the army in 1916. He then worked in a steelworks in St. Aegyd.

After the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the collapse of the Dual Monarchy and the expulsion of the House of Habsburg, he moved to Vienna and found work as an aquisiteur at the cremation society 'Die Flamme'. He marries and, after the marriage is childless, takes in an adopted son.

In 1918, Josef Fleischhacker joins the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) again. Between 1922 and 1924, he was a member of the Freidenkerbund. In February 1934, he resigned from the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP).

Since his youth, Josef Fleischhacker has been concerned about the prevailing social order and developed the idea of a free, social, private world economic order. He set out his thoughts in a 210-page manuscript called 'The Solstice and New Year's World - Peace Writing', which he sent to the Paneuropean Movement led by Richard Nikolaus Count Coudenhove-Kalergi in May 1934. However, they did not take up his ideas.

On March 12, 1938, Josef Fleischhacker witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. His idea of a new world order stands in absolute opposition to National Socialism, which he firmly rejects.

Josef Fleischhacker is identified by the Gestapo as the author of the manuscripts and arrested on January 15, 1940. In a trial before the Vienna Higher Regional Court on November 6, 1940, he is sentenced to one year in prison for 'preparation for high treason'. The pre-trial detention is largely credited. He is finally released from prison on February 22, 1941.

After his release, he finds work as a canvasser at Ostmark-Versicherung, which is absorbed into Bundesländer-Versicherung after the liberation of Austria. [In 1999, Bundesländer-Versicherung merged with Austria-Collegialität to form UNIQA Versicherung.

In April and May 1945, Josef Fleischhacker witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. He joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP Comradeship of the Politically Persecuted and Confessors for Austria. Professionally, he remained a canvasser at Bundesländer-Versicherung.