Dr. Johann Ott

Johann Ott came from the now defunct Bohemian town of Duppau in the Eger Valley [now a military training area]. After graduating from high school, he studied theology in Prague and became a member of the student fraternity Ferdinandea Prague in 1907. After his ordination in 1909, he initially worked as a chaplain in Treunitz [Di'enice] near Eger [Cheb] I Krs. Karlsbad [Karlovarsky kraj]. After the First World War, he worked as a pastor and archdean in Cheb until his death.

From 1938, the Nazi authorities also carried out so-called morality trials against disagreeable priests in the "annexed" territories, as here in Bohemia, as a "cover for murders in cases where other means had failed". This was also the case here: Johann Ott is charged. He was then sentenced to death by a special court in Cheb on September 16, 1943 on the grounds that "as a religious teacher, he had committed crimes of immorality against pupils and young people."