Karl Maria Wirtl

Karl Maria Wirtl was born in Vienna, the legitimate son of factory worker Franz Wirtl and Maria, née Leitner. After finishing school, he trained as a machinist. In 1913, he joins the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) [today: SPÖ] and works for it as a workers' councillor in Vienna-Favoriten after the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the dismantling of the Dual Monarchy and the expulsion of the Habsburgs.

In 1920, he left the Catholic Church. In 1921, he left the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) and joined the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ), leaving it again in 1926 and remaining a non-party member until 1933. In the same year, he rejoins the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) for a year, but splits from it in February 1934 with the 'Red Front', which emerged from the "Left" of the SDAP, and rejoins the KPÖ.

As a member of the Central Committee of the Red Front, he is a member of the Central Committee of the KPÖ. He is responsible for building up the illegal Free Trade Unions. In the spring of 1934, he set up the metalworkers' union and became its chairman. After the merger with the Floridsdorf metalworkers in the fall of 1934 and the miners in 1935, he is a member of the seven-member committee of the new illegal large trade union and is district chairman for the 13th, 14th and 15th districts of Vienna. From 1936, he was a member of the Vienna regional leadership of the trade union.

On March 12, 1938, Karl Wirtl witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He was arrested by the Gestapo on the same day Austria was occupied and deported to Dachau concentration camp on April 2, 1938. He was released there on April 27, 1939.

Karl Wirtl returned to Vienna and then worked at the agricultural machinery company Hofherr & Schrantz. On June 26, 1944, he was seriously wounded by a bomb explosion while on air raid duty. He lost one leg and the second was seriously injured.

In Vienna in April and May 1945, the severely disabled Karl Wirtl witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. Due to his disability, he remains on disability pension.