Josef Rudolf Brodnicek

Josef Rudolf Brodnicek was born in Vienna as the legitimate son of the magistrate Rudolf Brodnicek and Maria, née Smera. His father was killed in World War I in 1916. After primary and secondary school, he trained as a hotel clerk. In 1937, he married Johanna Holzweber and had a daughter and a son with her.

Josef Brodnicek was completely politically inconspicuous in the 1930s. After the outbreak of World War II, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and assigned to Division 188. No records of the exact incidents have been preserved. Josef Brodnicek was arrested on August 1, 1942 for 'deterioration of the armed forces'. He had campaigned 'illegally propagandistically' for a free and independent Austria. In a trial before the field court of Division 188, Graz branch, on May 15, 1943, he was sentenced to one year's imprisonment, with credit for pre-trial detention. He served his sentence in the Wehrmacht prisons in Freiburg, Breisgau, Silvretta, Heidebräk and Glatz.

In prison, Josef Brodnicek suffered a serious back injury in an accident, rendering him unable to work. He was finally released from prison on August 1, 1943. His imprisonment also left him with severe psychological damage from which he would never recover.

In Vienna, Josef Brodnicek experienced the liberation of Austria in May 1945 and the re-establishment of the Republic. He joins the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich. The psychological consequences of his imprisonment led to a stay in the Vienna-Rosenhügel nursing and sanatorium. His marriage also broke up.

Josef Brodnicek, who always remained unable to work after his imprisonment, died in Melk at the age of 59.