Wilhelm Herlinger

Wilhelm Hierlinger was born the legitimate son of Otto Hierlinger and his wife Hermine Franziska, née Siegel. His mother came from a Catholic family, his father from a Jewish family. Wilhelm Hierlinger is accepted into the Jewish Community of Vienna. When Wilhelm Hierlinger was four years old, his parents' marriage broke up and he grew up with his mother.

After elementary school, Wilhelm Hierlinger attended a secondary school in Vienna, where he graduated on March 20, 1938, immediately after the occupation of Austria by the German Wehrmacht on March 12, 1938. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation was adopted and with it the 'Nuremberg Race Laws', according to which Wilhelm Herlinger was classified as a 'Mischling I.

Immediately after the occupation of his home country, Wilhelm Herlinger joined theAustrian Freedom Movement around the Augustinian canon Roman Scholz and the Christian Socialist lawyer Karl Lederer, who is also a 'Mischling I. Grades', to. Between April 20, 1939 and November 5, 1939, he did his Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) and enrolled at the Vienna University of Technology [today: Vienna University of Technology] on November 14, 1939. Although he passed six exams in a very short space of time, he was awarded a 'Mischling I. Grades', he was prohibited from continuing his studies. When the Austrian Freedom Movement was disbanded in July 1940 following the betrayal of Burgtheater actor Otto Hartmann, Wilhelm Herlinger remained unrecognized.

After this, Wilhelm Hierlinger became involved in the Antifascist Party of Austria (APÖ), which was merged with the Mischlingsliga in Wien (MLW) in 1943. He apparently managed to establish contact with the Yugoslav partisans through these resistance groups. Between August 4, 1941 and October 15, 1942, he worked as a factory assistant at the company Werner & Pfeiderer, between October 16, 1942 and September 30, 1943 as a technician at the company Wr. Hartmetall-Präzisions-Werkzeugfabrik G.m.b.H. and on October 7, 1943 as a technician at the company Ing. Alfred Lauberger.

On February 3, 1944, he received a message from the Yugoslav partisans asking for Wilhelm Hierlinger's help, as they wanted to set up a short-wave transmitter.

In order to carry out his mission, Wilhelm Herlinger fled Vienna and joined the staff of the Gorenjski Partisani (Upper Carniolan Partisans) as a technician on February 20, 1944. He was deployed there in March and April 1945 in the Görz-Trieste section and was involved in battles with the SS and the Wlassow Army. On April 4, 1945, he was trapped in a bunker in this area with nine men. Six men managed to escape, but four of the partisans, including Wilhelm Herlinger, were left behind and fell.

After the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic in April and May 1945, his mother Hermine Herlinger joined the newly founded Österreichische Volkspartei (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich. She died in May 1973, outliving her son by 28 years.