Alfred Adrowitzer

The son of Max Rossberger, a trainee notary, and Maria Andruszewicz from Galicia grew up in Salzburg with foster parents. After elementary school, Alfred Adrowitzer attended the Archbishop's Grammar School Borromäum in Salzburg. After graduating from high school in 1936, he initially wanted to study theology in order to become a priest, but then decided to study philosophy at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Salzburg. In 1936, he joined the academic student fraternity Rheno-Juvavia. In order to finance his studies, he worked as an educator and vice-prefect at the Collegium Rupertinum in Salzburg. In the fall of 1937, he moved to Vienna and studied law there for two semesters. During this time, he also worked as a journalist for the "Salzburger Chronik".

After the occupation of Austria, he was expelled from his studies and was under observation by the Gestapo due to his opposing stance towards the new regime. In order to survive, he initially worked as a secretary in the cathedral parish in Salzburg until 1939, then was employed as an accountant and manager in a wholesale business for hides and skins; in 1941 he was given a job as an accountant at the Salzburg Bankhaus Carl Spängler & Co.

At the instigation of the NSDAP local group leader of Salzburg-Lzling, Alfred Adrowitzer was arrested on February 9, 1944 and held in police custody until June 9, 1944. After his release, he was sent to Ronneburg in Thuringia for forced labor from October 1944. On January 2, 1945, he was sent to the Weimar-Buchenwald concentration camp and remained there until liberation by the US Army. He then returned to Salzburg and resumed his journalistic work at the Salzburger Volkszeitung, published by the Katholischer Pressverein. In 1947, he married Gertrude Feistauer. The marriage produced the two well-known editors Hans and Roland.

As a victim of National Socialism, Alfred Adrowitzer was a staunch advocate of a democratic new beginning and education in Austrian state consciousness, as well as reconciliation between the two major political camps. He is involved in the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich and is chairman of the Salzburg regional group from 1948 to 1968. He died in Salzburg at the age of 65.