Dkfm. Gerhard Fischer von Ledenice

Photo by Gerhard Fischer from Ledenice — Gerhard Fischer from Ledenice
Image: DÖW

Personalia

Born:

March 5, 1919, Vienna

Died:

July 5, 1944, Vienna

Profession:

Student

Persecution:

Imprisoned 22.10.1940 - 05.07.1944,
Murdered on 05.07.1944

Memberships

Austrian freedom movements

Curriculum Vitae

Gerhard Fischer von Ledenice was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of Colonel of the General Staff Moritz Fischer von Ledenice and Maximiliane, née Baroness Heine von Geldern. After elementary school, he attended the Theresianum in Vienna's 4th district and then the Elisabethgymnasium [today: Rainergymnasium], where he graduated in 1937. He then enrolled at the University of World Trade in Vienna.

At the age of 19, Gerhard Fischer von Ledenice, a devout Catholic and staunch Austrian, witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. Unwilling to accept this, he joins forces with his friend and former classmate from the Theresianum, Georg Heintschel von Heinegg, who Austrian Freedom Movement around the Augustinian canon Roman Karl Scholz.

He recruits a number of new members for the circle and holds training courses for its supporters. He also produced anti-Nazi pamphlets, including the broadcast times and wavelengths of foreign stations, which he distributed. He was promoted to the executive committee of the Austrian Freedom Movement.

In 1940, Roman Karl Scholz succeeded in joining the Austrian Freedom Movement around Karl Lederer and the Großösterreichische Freiheitsbewegung around Jakob Kastelic.

From July 1940, a good 300 people from these resistance groups were betrayed by the castle actor Otto Hartmann (Otto Hartmann was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947 and pardoned in 1957) and Gerhard Fischer von Ledenice was arrested on October 22, 1940. While in custody, he completes his studies on November 22, 1940. In a trial before the People's Court, he was sentenced to death on December 2, 1943 for 'preparation for high treason'

From the verdict of the People's Court of December 2, 1943

From death row, he writes letters to his family after his family's verdict to cheer them up before his imminent execution.

Dear father, dear brothers!
The judgment that was passed on me was perhaps harsher for you than it was for me; you were not prepared for it. It may sound strange, even a little superficial, when I say don't take it so hard. Look, Father, everything has a purpose in this world, but it is often not recognizable to us. And if you believe in the one who gives everything in this world its meaning, then you are prepared for anything, no matter how difficult it may be. I am prepared and I hope that you are too.
[...]
And so these few lines are just a silent glance like the greeting you sent me once through the open door and with which you said much more than with the longest letter.
[...]
And I pass the time [...] with Latin and reading [...] namely the whole New Testament in Latin. It's not classical, but some of it is quite difficult. [...] I can [...] safely say that I haven't read as much Latin in my entire school career as I have here.

From the letters to his family from death row

Gerhard Fischer von Ledenice was murdered by beheading by the National Socialists on July 5, 1944 in the Vienna Provincial Court. His body was then buried anonymously in Group 40 at the Vienna Central Cemetery.

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