Ing. Johann Rudolf (Hans) Hammerschmied

Johann Rudolf Hammerschmied, known as 'Hans', was born in Laa an der Thaya as the legitimate son of Johann Hammerschmied, Prince Reuss's administrator, and his wife Emma, née Lester. After elementary school, he attended the lower secondary school in Korneuburg and then transferred to the Technisches Gewerbemuseum (TGM) in Vienna, where he graduated in 1915. In the same year, he was drafted into the First World War.

On December 7, 1943, Hans Hammerschmied travels in a crowded train compartment with Elvira Maihart, head of the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV) and local women's administrator of the German Labor Front (DAF). Having known Elvira Maihart and Hans Hammerschmied for a long time, he told her about a visit from a Yugoslavian the week before. He was a partisan and told her that German soldiers and police officers in occupied Yugoslavia were defecting to the partisans. The partisans would treat the defectors very well. Hans Hammerschmied then explained that the Allies were not waging war against the German people, but against the German government and that the workers had fared better under the chancellor dictatorship of Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt von Schuschnigg. He also portrays the regime's announcements about reconstruction after the 'final victory' as exaggerated.

Elvira Maihart recounts her experiences to her husband, who is also an NSDAP official. He encouraged her to report the events on the train to the Gestapo.

Hans Hammerschmied was arrested by the Gestapo on December 13, 1943. His wooden goods factory in Vienna's 20th district was confiscated and smashed. During the prosecution, the public prosecutor requested the death penalty. Thanks to a sympathetic psychiatrist, a favorable psychiatric report and the testimony of family members and acquaintances, Hans Hammerschmied was certified as suffering from 'psychosis', which is why he was sentenced to three years in a psychiatric institution in a trial before the People's Court on February 19, 1945. There he was liberated by Allied soldiers on April 6, 1945.

In Ernstbrunn, Hans Hammerschmied witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. He immediately began to rebuild his company. First in Vienna and finally back in his hometown of Ernstbrunn. He joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP Comradeship of the Politically Persecuted and Confessors for Austria.