Friedrich Dirnbacher

Friedrich Dirnbacher was born in Gross near Hollabrunn, the legitimate son of the farmer Karl Dirnbacher and Anna, née Haselbauer. After eight years of elementary school, he works on his father's farm. In 1917 he is drafted into the I. World War I, but was invalided out in 1918 due to illness. He then returned to work on his parents' farm.

In 1932, Friedrich Dirnbacher set up his own business as a wine merchant in Vienna. He was not politically active during the interwar period.

On March 12, 1938, Friedrich Dirnbacher witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. In September and October 1938, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht as a driver in St. Pölten and between August 1939 and November 1939 as an anti-aircraft soldier in Stammersdorf and Sillein [today: Žilina in Slovakia]. He then returned to work as a wine merchant.

During a business trip to Dippersdorf in Lower Austria on December 24, 1941, he read a letter to farmers from a farmhand stationed with the Wehrmacht in Bavaria, which he had previously stolen from another farmer. This letter contains defeatist content.

Friedrich Dirnbacher says that he has already read this letter to several farmers. Later, when he was writing Christmas cards at a farmer's family table and was asked by a daughter of the farm that the post office was overloaded at Christmas time due to the war, he replied 'What else do they want to take away?'. Finally, he tells the daughter of the house that he has already been in the Wehrmacht and can't stand them. He described National Socialists as 'wrong people'.

The farmer denounced Friedrich Dirnbacher to the Gestapo. Friedrich Dirnbacher was arrested on 19 January 1942 and sentenced to one year in prison by the special court on 26 June 1942 for the offense of 'homophobia' and 'defeating the military'. He was released from prison on July 3, 1942. Friedrich Dirnbacher then worked as a wine merchant again. His wine shop was destroyed by bombs in the final days of the war.

In April and May 1945, Friedrich Dirnbacher witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. He subsequently rebuilds his wine business and joins the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.

Friedrich Dirnbacher dies unmarried and childless in Vienna at the age of 58 and finds his final resting place at the cemetery in Vienna-Siebenhirten.