Hofrat Otto Hans Franz Richard von Neumann

Otto Hanns Franz Richard von Neumann was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of bank employee Otto Richard Ritter von Neumann and Anna Rosalia, née Müller. After elementary school, he attended a grammar school in Vienna, where he graduated in 1907. In 1908, he enlisted as a one-year volunteer in the Imperial and Royal Army. After the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the collapse of the dual monarchy and the expulsion of the House of Habsburg, he joined the police force of the Vienna Police Directorate on February 14, 1919. In 1920, he married Elvira Frieda von Jenny.

The staunch Austrian patriot Otto von Neumann advanced in the Vienna police force and joined the Vaterländische Front in 1933. From November 16, 1933 to February 12, 1934, he was commander of the Wöllersdorf detention camp, where both Socialists and National Socialists were detained after the February 1934 Socialist uprisings and the National Socialist coup attempt on July 25, 1934.

On March 12, 1938, Otto von Neumann witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He was arrested by the Gestapo on March 13, 1938 and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938 on the so-called 'Prominent Transport'. He was formally released from the civil service on December 16, 1938 and from the concentration camp on September 3, 1939. During the war, he worked as an employee in the private sector.

In April and May 1945, Otto von Neumann witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. He re-enlisted in the police force and was rehabilitated in January 1946. He joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.