Dr. Josef Stampfl

Born in Braunau, Josef Stampfl attended grammar school in Salzburg and at the age of 17 was involved in the founding of the Almgau Salzburg secondary school fraternity in 1901. After graduating from the state grammar school in Salzburg, he began studying law in Vienna, where he became a member of the Norica student fraternity in 1904. He completed his studies in Graz. There he joined the student fraternity Carolina Graz. After gaining his doctorate, practicing in court and working as a trainee lawyer, he is entered on the list of lawyers. In 1916, he opened a law firm in Linz, which he managed until 1960.

After the First World War, he became a member of the Provisional Upper Austrian Provincial Assembly. In 1925, he became a member of the Federal Council. According to his own statements in the Norica personnel register, he was Deputy Mayor of Linz from 1918 to 1934 and City Councillor from 1934 to 1938.

After the Anschluss in 1938, he was removed from this position. He now worked as a lawyer. As a defence lawyer, he also represented defendants before the People's Court, such as the Linz Carmelite Father Paulus Wörndl OCD [1894-1944], who was sentenced to death in June 1944 and beheaded in Berlin-Plötzensee on 26 June 1944 due to his correspondence with a soldier who belonged to an Austrian-Norwegian resistance organization. Josef Stampfl also fell victim to the wave of arrests following the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. He was taken into protective custody in the police prison in Linz and repeatedly interrogated.