Georg Graf von Thurn-Valsassina

Georg Graf von Thurn-Valsassina attended the Schottengymnasium in Vienna and later the Hollabrunn Gymnasium. After graduating from high school, he began studying law in Vienna in 1918, then transferred to the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Prague in 1919. After passing his diploma examination in 1922, he continued his studies at the Tharandt Forestry Academy near Dresden. A year later, he took over the management of his father’s estates in Waltsch near Karlsbad. Following his father’s death, he moved to Hagenegg Castle in 1928.

In 1929, he joined the Heimatschutz. In April 1934, he became district leader of the VF in Eisenkappel, and in May 1934, he became provincial youth leader of “Jung Vaterland” as well as district leader of the Farmers’ Union. Upon being appointed federal youth leader in the fall of 1934, he was entrusted with establishing the State Youth—the Austrian Jungvolk. In 1936, he became a member of the Ostaricia Vienna secondary school fraternity. From 1934 to 1938, he served as a member of the State Council.

After the Anschluss, he resigned as Federal Youth Leader and was imprisoned from April 23 to August 28, 1938, and again in the summer of 1944 at the Klagenfurt Regional Court, followed by transfer to the Dachau concentration camp. On April 30, 1945, he managed to escape back to Austria during the so-called “death march” from Dachau to Tyrol near Bad Tölz.

After the war, he served as Carinthia’s State Hunting Master from 1945 to 1954.