Heinrich Summereder

Heinrich Summereder attends the Petrinum in Salzburg. He gives up his initial wish to join the Capuchin order. He completed his theological training at the seminary in Salzburg and was ordained a priest in Salzburg Cathedral in 1923. He then took up pastoral ministry as a cooperator (chaplain) in several parishes, including Aigen, Obertrum, Eugendorf, St. Martin bei Lofer and Mühlbach am Hochkönig. In addition to his pastoral duties, he studied art history. In 1930, he joined the student fraternity Aargau in Vienna. From July 1935, he took up the post of co-operator (chaplain) in Mattsee. He also worked as a religion teacher. Outside of school, he devoted himself to youth work.

After the Anschluss, as a convinced monarchist, he made no secret of his rejection of and opposition to National Socialism. His sermons were not enough to get him out of Mattsee. The Gestapo resorted to a smear campaign, which many priests and religious also had to endure: he was arrested in Mattsee on October 28, 1938 on the trumped-up charge of moral misconduct. When asked by the monastery priest Anton Strasser about the reasons for his arrest, he was told that he could enquire about the reasons at the Gestapo in Salzburg after about 10 days. After his detention in Salzburg, he was transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp on January 27, 1940 and from there to Dachau concentration camp on December 14, 1940. He died there on February 21, 1943, with abdominal typhus given as the cause of death. However, contemporary witnesses report that he died of starvation after physical abuse - he was murdered there. The camp administration informed his father that his son Heinrich had reported sick on February 16, 1943.

He "was then admitted to the hospital for medical treatment. He was given the best possible medical and nursing treatment. Despite all medical efforts, it was not possible to get the disease under control."

On February 25, 1943, Heinrich Summereder's body was taken to the crematorium. The urn was buried in his parents' grave in Pötting on Passion Sunday 1943.

The name "Summender" has different spellings: In the Lit. and KZ Dachau with double "m". In the certificate of the Pötting parish office and on the gravestone only with "m".