Amtsdirektor Julius Herbst
Personalia
Born:
Died:
Profession:
Persecution:
Imprisonment 12.03.1938,
Released 31.01.1939
Memberships
Curriculum Vitae
Julius Herbst was born in Mank in Lower Austria as the legitimate son of master blacksmith Jacob Herbst and his wife Johanna, née Aschauer. After elementary school, he transferred to the grammar school in St. Pölten, but left after the lower school.
On October 10, 1903, he joined the Post and Telegraph Directorate for Vienna and Lower Austria. After initially working in Vienna, he was appointed postmaster in Kirchberg am Walde in Lower Austria in 1915. In 1924, he married Frieda Langegger, a postal worker, who resigned after the wedding and stayed at home. Julius Herbst subsequently became the father of three sons. He then became postmaster in Pürbach. In the 1920s and 1930s, he became involved in the Christian Social Party (CSP).
In 1930, Julius Herbst became head of the post office in the town of Melk in Lower Austria. In 1934, the staunch Austrian patriot joins the Vaterländische Front and is appointed mayor of Melk in 1935. As mayor, however, he was never able to gain much popularity in Melk, especially as he was not born in the town and was seen as an outsider.
In 1935 and 1936, as mayor, he awarded honorary citizenship of Melk to Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg, Vice-Chancellor Ernst Rüdiger Fürst von Starhemberg, Governor Josef Reither and Otto von Habsburg-Lothringen. As mayor and head of the Melk post office, he took energetic and tough action against illegal National Socialists and prevented National Socialist events.
In my capacity as mayor and head of the Melk post office, because I thwarted various Nazi actions in Melk and in the Wachau region during the time of the ban, I was handed over to the assembled mob (several thousand people) by a drunken, hunched-over SA man and a fanatical Nazi gendarme during the Nazi coup on March 12, 1938 and then arrested in Melk (town hall). Following my protests, I was released from custody in the evening, but was relieved of my duties and finally dismissed without notice. I later fought for a partial pension and became an insurance officer. I was to be arrested several more times, but escaped by fleeing. I was a candidate for Dachau for years (according to the threat of the Vienna governor's office).
In order to avoid further arrest in Melk, the family hastily moves to Vienna. There, Julius Herbst finds employment at 'Ostmark" Versicherungs-AG' [later Bundesländer-Versichung, today: UNIQA Insurance Group].
In Vienna, Julius Herbst experiences the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic in April and May 1945. He joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.
On May 11, 1946, Julius Herbst is rehabilitated and becomes head of the post office for the 8th district of Vienna. On May 22, 1946, he was elected district councillor for the first district of Vienna. He held this position until February 20, 1950.
Places
Residence:
Citations
Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (WStLA)
Österreichisches Staatsarchiv (ÖStA)
Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstands (DÖW)
Archiv der Stadt Krems
Bezirksvorstehung für den 1. Bezirk
Matricula Online
