Hauptmann Felix Rescheneder

Felix Rescheneder was born in Steyr as the legitimate son of postal clerk Johann Rescheneder and Maria, née Franco. After elementary school, he attended two classes at the Military Lower Secondary School in Eisenstadt and then two classes at the Military Lower Secondary School in Straß. He then transferred to the military secondary school in Mährisch-Weißenkirchen, where he graduated in 1909. In the same year he went to the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt, from which he graduated in 1912 and joined the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment No. 55. Infantry Regiment No. 55 'Nikolaus I. King of Montenegro'. With the outbreak of the First World War, he was sent to the Russian front and was taken prisoner of war by the Russians near Tarnopol [today: Ternopil in the Ukraine] in 1914 after suffering a serious injury. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1915. In 1916, he was released from captivity as an 'exchange invalid'. However, as he was no longer fit for war, he trained as a teacher and then became a teacher and adjutant at the military secondary school in Enns.

In Enns, Felix Rescheneder witnessed the fall of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the collapse of the dual monarchy and the expulsion of the Habsburgs from Austria. He is disarmed as a captain in the reserve and marries Maria Schagerl, with whom he subsequently has three children. In 1920, he entered the service of the tax authorities. He was briefly released from duty and set up the Invaliendenamt in Grieskirchen. In 1925, he returned to the tax authorities.

The staunch Austrian patriot was involved in the legitimist Reichsbund der Österreicher in the 1920s and 1930s and campaigned vehemently against the rise of National Socialism. He became the local chairman of the Reichsbund der Österreicher in Steyr.

On March 12, 1938, Felix Rescheneder witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the occupation by the German Wehrmacht. One day after the occupation of his home country, he was arrested by the Gestapo 'for leading activities in the legitimist camp'. Thanks to the efforts of German officers from the I. He is released a day later as a severely disabled comrade-in-arms. He returns to the financial administration. Due to his disability, he is not drafted into World War II.