Karl Herrgöth (geb. Sautner)

Karl Sautner was born in Vienna as the illegitimate child of Anna Sautner, an unskilled worker. Nothing has been preserved about his childhood or the rest of his life, except that he took the surname of foundryman Karl Theodor Herrgöth in 1917.

In the period between the wars, he frequently changed addresses, living 'on the road', homeless, in Tyrol, Fischamend and Straßhof. In between, he is always back in Vienna. This suggests that he worked in various jobs.

On March 12, 1938, Karl Herrgöth witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. At the time, he was working as the managing director of a company in Vienna. He married Antonia Doroz on April 27, 1940, and their son was born 14 days later.

Karl Herrgöth was drafted into the German Wehrmacht and deployed to the Balkans. He was last stationed in Belgrade. In the summer of 1944, the Red Army of the Soviet Union and the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army (partisans) under Josip Broz Tito, supported by Bulgarian troops, set out to liberate Belgrade. Karl Herrgöth, a corporal in the Wehrmacht, forms a resistance group in his Wehrmacht office with the aim of handing over the office to the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army without a fight. However, the plan was betrayed.

Karl Herrgöth was arrested with Rudolf Kansky and four other members of the Wehrmacht on August 17, 1944. In a trial before the field court on September 6, 1944, he was sentenced to "death by firing squad and loss of eligibility for military service" as the main culprit for "subversion of military strength". His plea for clemency is rejected. He was executed on September 11, 1944. On the day of his murder, he writes a farewell letter to his wife. He finds his final resting place at the Wehrmacht cemetery in Belgrade.

On October 20, 1944, the 1287-day German occupation of Belgrade finally ends.

His wife Antonia Herrgöth and his son Sven Herrgöth join the Republic after the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic in April and May 1945 respectively. May 1945, they joined the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.