Anna Gabriele Bittner (geb. Prykril, gesch. Bernklau)

Personalia

Born:

January 10, 1901, Vienna

Died:

February 8, 1990, Vienna

Profession:

Vienna

Persecution:

Vienna

Memberships

ÖVP Comradeship of the politically persecuted and confessors for Austria

Curriculum Vitae

Anna Prykril was born out of wedlock to the Moravian maid Gabriele Maria Prykril and Josef Alboth. After primary and secondary school, she became a housewife and married for the first time in the 1920s. However, the marriage broke up. She later met Johann Bittner and finally married him in 1941.

Although Anna Bittner was not politically active in the 1930s, she was critical of National Socialism. On March 12, 1938, she witnessed the downfall of a free and independent Austria when the German Wehrmacht invaded. Her husband Johann Bittner is drafted into the Wehrmacht soon after the war begins. Anna Bittner finds work in the foreign letter verification office.

In Café Henny at Kaiserstraße 30, near her apartment in Vienna's 7th district, she meets Anna Bittner. Vienna's 7th district, she regularly meets up with her friends Anna Leicht, who works there, and Marie Schmahel. Anna is also critical of National Socialism, while Marie Schmahel seems to have been rather apolitical. When the three of them are alone or in an intimate circle in a coffee house, they loudly criticize the system. They also spit on the picture of Adolf Hitler.

I am well aware that Anna Bittner and Anna Leicht are hostile to the state. I repeatedly noticed that when they came to the aforementioned coffee house and no other guests were present apart from me, they would spit at the picture of the Führer in the restaurant and say: "Now he's hanging there again." Furthermore, on such occasions they indulged in the foulest insults against the Führer. They used expressions such as "mass murderer", etc.

Ferdinand and Marie Gollob to the Gestapo on December 11, 1942

Among the visitors to the coffee house were the married couple Ferdinand and Marie Gollob. They heard the statements of Anna Bittner, Anna Leicht and Marie Schmahel.

You will also cut the dog's throat once.

Anna Bittner, Anna Leicht and Marie Schmahel on Adolf Hitler

On November 23, 1942, Anna Bittner and Anna Leicht were arrested by the Gestapo, Marie Schmahel on December 11, 1942. The reason given for their arrest was that they were 'strongly suspected of having made malicious and untrue reports about the party, its branches and the Führer in Vienna in July 1942'.

Anna Bittner remained in custody until February 26, 1943. Proceedings were initiated against her before the Special Court, but no trial was held as the case was dropped. While in prison, she suffers a stomach, vertebrae and nerve disorder that will remain with her for the rest of her life. She was immediately released from the foreign letter verification office.

In 1945, she witnessed the liberation of Austria from German occupation. Afterwards, she continues to work in the household and joins the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP Comradeship of the Politically Persecuted and Confessors for Austria

Places

Residence:

Place of activity:

Café Henny (Vienna)

Citations

Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (WStLA)

Matricula Online

Friedhöfe Wien - Verstorbenensuche

Anna Bittner

Vienna
* January 10, 1901
Vienna
† February 8, 1990
Vienna
Detention