Ministerialrat Dr. Friedrich Adalbert Lang

Personalia

Born:

July 1, 1899, Vienna

Died:

October 17, 1986, Vienna

Profession:

Civil servant

Persecution:

Imprisonment March 17, 1938 – April 2, 1938,
Dachau Concentration Camp April 2, 1938 – September 27, 1939,
Flossenbürg Concentration Camp September 27, 1939 – March 2, 1940,
Dachau Concentration Camp March 2, 1940 – January 30, 1942,
Release February 1, 1939

KZ Number:

13851, 818

Memberships

Austrian People's Party, ÖVP Fellowship of the Politically Persecuted and Advocates for Austria

Curriculum Vitae

Friedrich Adalbert Lang was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of Friedrich Lang, a Vienna municipal official, and his wife Karoline, née Perihle. After elementary school, he attended the State Gymnasium in Vienna’s 8th district [today: Piaristengymnasium], where he graduated in 1917. He was then drafted into World War I and returned home in November 1918.

In the winter semester of 1918–19, he enrolled in law at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in law in 1922. In 1930, he began working as a staff officer at the Federal Chancellery. A staunch opponent of National Socialism, he was transferred in 1934 to the State Police Office within the General Directorate for Public Security at the Federal Chancellery, where he investigated National Socialist officials in the civil service. His uncompromising stance against National Socialists within the civil service earned him many enemies.

Ideologically, Dr. Lang was opposed to National Socialism and never made a secret of this stance, even in public. For example, Dr. Lang referred to the Führer and Reich Chancellor […] as a mass murderer.
[…]
Dr. Lang was a staunch patriot and an unconditional supporter of the government in power at the time. For this reason, he was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, and his continued employment in the civil service is untenable.

Report from the Vienna Staffing Office to Otto Wächter, State Commissioner for Personnel Affairs

On March 12, 1938, Friedrich Lang witnessed the downfall of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. On March 17, 1938, he was arrested and, on April 2, 1938, deported to the Dachau concentration camp as part of the so-called “prominent figures transport.” He was officially dismissed from public service on February 1, 1939. Following Hitler’s Germany’s invasion of Poland, the Dachau concentration camp was temporarily cleared for the SS, and Friedrich Lang was transferred to the Flossenbürg concentration camp on September 27, 1939. He was transferred back to the Dachau concentration camp on March 2, 1940. He was released from the concentration camp on January 30, 1942, returned to Vienna, and was drafted into the Wehrmacht on April 28, 1943.

While a prisoner of war, Friedrich Lang witnessed the liberation of Austria and the reestablishment of the Republic in April and May 1945, respectively. On September 25, 1945, he returned to Vienna, was rehabilitated, and reinstated to public service. He joined the newly founded Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP Association of the Politically Persecuted and Defenders of Austria. After working briefly in various ministries, he was appointed in 1951 as head of the Department of Victim Welfare at the Federal Ministry of Social Administration. In 1962, he married Christina Rudolf, née Pürrerfelner.

Friedrich Lang retired as head of department on December 31, 1964, and died childless at the age of 87 in Vienna. He was laid to rest at the cemetery in Vienna-Neustift.

Skip map