Hofrat Dr. Karl Alfons von Portele

Karl Alfons von Portele graduated from the humanistic grammar school in Krems and began studying medicine at the University of Vienna in 1931 after completing his A-levels. In order to finance his studies, he worked as a reporter for art, sport and the courts for the two daily newspapers "Das Echo" and "Telegraph". In 1937, he joins the student fraternity Welfia in Klosterneuburg. He is active in the VF. After the annexation, he was already studying at the physiological institute of the medical faculty.

He became a member of the Hebra resistance group [resistance circle around Wilhelm von Hebra (1885-1944)], distributed flyers and hosted the conspiratorial meetings of this group in his apartment in the Minorite monastery. On April 18, 1939, he is arrested by the Gestapo together with Josef Pinzenöhler. At the trial, he was initially sentenced to death, but the execution of the sentence was postponed several times under the pretext of contracted tuberculosis, after which the sentence was reduced to several years in prison. He was then declared unworthy of military service and barred from further medical studies. He served his prison sentence until April 1, 1943. While in Gestapo custody in Regensburg, he met the co-founder of the Academic Corps der Ottonen, Karl Burian (1896-1944), among others, and became a member of the corps. After his release, he returned to Vienna in 1943.