Imprisonment 09.11.1939 - 25.03.1943, Imprisonment 18.07.1944 - 02.05.1945

Karl Wolf

Karl Wolf was born in Vienna. After elementary school, he attends trade school in Vienna and learns the trade of upholsterer. At the beginning of October 1915, shortly before his journeyman's examination, he was drafted into the I. He was drafted into the First World War and deployed to the Russian front. In the summer of 1916, he was wounded and taken prisoner of war in Russia, from which he did not return to Vienna until October 1918. He then worked as an upholsterer's assistant.

Karl Wolf repeatedly came into conflict with the law between 1919 and 1935 and was convicted a total of 17 times for theft, fraud and embezzlement. During this time, he married and became the father of a son and a daughter. However, his wife died in the early 1940s.

Between 1918 and 1930, Karl Wolf was a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) [today: SPÖ], but left the party and joined the Austrian Heimatschutz. Between 1933 and 1935, he is a member of the Vaterländische Front and then a member of the Reichsbund der Österreicher.

On 12 March 1938, Karl Wolf witnesses the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. Through friends from the Reichsbund der Österreicher, he came into contact with Wilhelm Zemljak on October 31, 1939. They were both united by their opposition to National Socialism and their loyalty to the Habsburgs. Wilhelm Zemljak introduces Karl Wolf to the existence of the resistance group Austrian People's Front and Karl Wolf willingly joins.

Subsequently, Karl Wolf tries to recruit more members and takes part in meetings of the Austrian People's Front. The group, which had now grown to five members, acted carelessly and attracted the attention of the Gestapo. On November 9, 1939, Karl Wolf, together with the other members, Wilhelm Zemljak, Franz Dietrich, Johann Pilliater and Johann Svoboda were arrested by the Gestapo. He was remanded in custody in Vienna and Regensburg until March 25, 1943, but on the day of his release he was called up as an auxiliary to the Landesschützenabteilung 517 in Avignon, France. [Note: As politically unreliable, he could not become a regular soldier.]

In a trial before the People's Court on July 18, 1944, Karl Wolf was sentenced to 3 years in prison for 'preparation for high treason' and sent to Straubing prison. There he is liberated by the US Army on 2 May 1945.

He returns to liberated Vienna, joins the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and works again as an upholsterer's assistant. He marries a second time. His daughter dies prematurely in 1951. At the end of December 1955, after being unemployed for several years due to ill health, he retires. His wife Theresa died in 1962, Karl Wolf died in Vienna at the age of 66 and was laid to rest at the cemetery in Vienna-Pötzleinsdorf.