Dr. Josef Schlegel

Born in Schönlinde/Bohemia, Josef Schlegel graduated from grammar school in Leitmeritz and came to Vienna in 1888 to study law. In 1888, he joined the Norica student fraternity. After graduating in 1893, he became a one-year volunteer and then a judge in Upper Austria. As early as 1901, he became a member of the Reichsrat and in 1902 a member of the Upper Austrian state parliament.

After the First World War, which he took part in as a captain-auditor, he became deputy governor of Upper Austria in 1919 and after the death of the governor, Prelate Johann Hauser, he became governor in 1927. However, he had to resign due to his conciliatory attitude towards the socialists who staged a coup in February 1934 and was retired.

After the Anschluss, he was summoned to Linz for questioning by the Gestapo and arrested. His son Alfred Schlegl writes about the reason for his arrest in his biography of his father:

"There was an act in the Landhaus about how Hitler had evaded conscription during the First World War. Hitler ordered this file to be retrieved and presented to him personally. When a search was made for the document, an insert with the name Dr. Schlegel was found instead of the file."

Josef Schlegel was interrogated together with his presidential chief Josef Sommer about the whereabouts of this file. As it turned out after the war, the military file relating to Adolf Hitler, which the Upper Austrian Gauleiter August Eigruber had searched for in the provincial chancellery in Linz on March 12, 1938 on orders, could not be found as it had been "dug up by an unknown person". The former Upper Austrian socialist member of parliament and deputy governor and later librarian Franz Jetzinger reported on this in his 1956 book about Hitler's youth. According to this, Franz Jetzinger received these explosive files, which were "unpleasant" for Hitler, back from Josef Schlegel after studying them and filed them under "unfinished business". When Franz Jetzinger was arrested during the events of February 1934, these files were deposited in a box, which Franz Jetzinger later found on his floor. This "military file", ordered by Adolf Hitler, consists of three fascicles: the so-called military file (1913/14), deportation file (1924) and expatriation file (1925).