Stephan Franz Weindl

Stephan Franz Weindl was born in Vienna as the illegitimate son of Anna Weindl, a needlewoman. There is no record of a father. After finishing school, he becomes an unskilled worker in various companies. He leaves the Catholic Church in 1926.

In the 1930s, Stephan Weindl joins the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) [today: SPÖ] and the Republikanischer Schutzbund. In July and August 1934, he was involved in the production of the illegal pamphlets 'O C Nachrichten' and 'Der Rote Instruktor'. He was imprisoned for this from August 23, 1934 to May 20, 1935. Released from prison, he joins the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ) and is held in the Wöllersdorf detention camp from 29 October 1936 to 10 October 1937 and in a prison in Vienna from 10 October 1937 to 19 February 1938 for illegal communist activities. He was released on the basis of an amnesty.

Shortly after his release, Stephan Weindl witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He was arrested by the Gestapo on the same day as the occupation of his home country and deported to the Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938 on the so-called 'Prominent Transport'. He was released from the concentration camp on March 14, 1939 and returned to Vienna.

In Vienna, he worked again as an unskilled laborer until he was called up to the Wehrmacht on August 13, 1941. Between summer 1942 and summer 1944, he was assigned to a punishment company. After that, he was again a soldier in the Wehrmacht.