Dr. Gebhard (Florian) Rath OCist

Florian Rath joins the Cistercian monastery in Wilhering and is given the religious name Gebhard. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1927, his additional studies at the University of Vienna from 1928-1931 focused in particular on the history of the abbey, as evidenced by his dissertation topic "Die Gründungsurkunden und die Gründungsgeschichte der Cisterze Wilhering in Oberösterreich", for which he was awarded his doctorate in 1931. In 1929, he joined the Viennese student fraternity Aargau, the secondary school fraternity Hilaria Wilhering [later Hilaria Enns] in December 1932 as an honorary member (called Ehrenphilister there). He held the position of abbey archivist and librarian at the abbey. He also carried out archaeological research on the abbey grounds, which was interrupted by the forced expropriation of the abbey by the National Socialists.

In the summer of 1939, Gebhard Rath was invited by his student friend Johann Blumenthal, a leading member of the Großösterreichische Freiheitsbewegung around Jakob Kastelic for this resistance group and tasked with setting up and leading this group in Upper Austria. Gebhard Rath recruits further members for the resistance from among his Wilhering confreres (Sylvester Birngruber, Theoderich Hofstätter, Amadeus Reisinger, Eduard Haiberger, Stefan Plohberger). With the exception of Stefan Plohberger, all Wilhering resistance fighters were members of the Hilaria middle school fraternity.

These activities, which originated in the monastery and extended into the Mühlviertel, Salzkammergut and Styria, were betrayed to the Gestapo by the confidant Otto Hartmann. Gebhard Rath is arrested on July 26, 1940, quickly followed by the other members over the next few days. On November 12, 1940, his abbot Bernhard Burgstaller (who was not involved in the resistance) was also sent to Anrath prison near Krefeld/Lower Rhine, where he died of starvation on November 1, 1941. The discovery of the Wilhering resistance group provided the National Socialists with the means to take action against the monastery itself; on November 16, 1940, Wilhering Abbey was confiscated by the National Socialists

After four years in custody, Gebhard Rath was sentenced to ten years in prison and ten years loss of honour on June 16, 1944 in a trial before the People's Court for "preparation for high treason". He remained imprisoned in Straubing prison (Lower Bavaria district) until April 29, 1945, when he was liberated by American armored troops.

After his liberation, he returned to Gramastetten/OÖ on May 22, 1945, resigned from the Order on March 1, 1946 and was forced to leave his two fraternities. Florian Rath is officially married on 28 April 1949 and starts a family. On July 9, 1946, he joined the Upper Austrian Provincial Archives. In 1947 he became deputy director and from 1951 director of the House, Court and State Archives in Vienna, from 1955 also of the General Administrative Archives and from 1956-1968 Director General of the Austrian State Archives. There he worked together with Meinrad Rohracher.

As a civil servant in the Austrian State Archives, he retired and died in Vienna in 1979.