Karl Schall

Karl Schall was born in Puch, the son of a winegrower. After attending elementary school, he joined the Imperial and Royal Army in 1912. Army and took part in the First World War. In the interwar period, he first worked as a musician and later as a bank employee before being employed by a Viennese company as a debt collector in 1934.

He was also a member of the Heimatschutz and the Vaterländische Front. Initially, he was probably still positive about the occupation of Austria by the Third Reich, especially as he joined the NSDAP.

However, this attitude is likely to have changed, especially as he listens to the radio station BBC, in Nazi jargon the "enemy station", together with Vinzenz Hauser and others, in Hauser's apartment. Through Vinzenz Hauser, he also made contact with the Lamberti-Runde, the regulars' table around the lawyer Karl Wanner. Discussions are held there on how to actively work towards the overthrow of the Nazi leadership and possibilities for a time afterwards are explained. The group had already joined the Antifascist Freedom Movement of Austria (AFÖ) in mid-1942. However, his activities did not remain hidden from the Gestapo.

Karl Schall was arrested by the Gestapo on February 13, 1943 and sentenced to 5 years in prison by the People's Court in Vienna on August 15, 1944 for "broadcasting crimes" and "failure to report a crime". He was imprisoned until the end of the war.