Günther Franz Hermann Benedikt

Günther Benedikt was born the legitimate son of the Catholic ironmonger Franz Benedikt and the Jewish actress Melanie, née Baso, who had converted to the Catholic faith. His father dies young. After elementary school, he attended grammar school, where he graduated in 1941.

After the occupation of Austria by the German Wehrmacht on March 12, 1938, German legislation and thus also the 'Nuremberg Race Laws' were introduced, Günther Benedikt was considered a 'Mischling I. Grades' or 'Halbjude'.

Günther Benedikt wanted to study at the Hochschule für Welthandel. At the time, admission to the course required a permit from the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and National Education (Berlin). This was linked to his service as a soldier in the Wehrmacht. Although the ministry acknowledged that the assessment of his deployment as a Wehrmacht soldier was "not unfavorable", he was refused permission in June and again in November 1942. As a result, he was not drafted into the Wehrmacht, but was retroactively denied the right to study and the winter semester of 1941/42 and the summer semester of 1942 were retroactively declared invalid. Benedikt's registration book was confiscated and destroyed, and in January 1943 he was 'officially exmatriculated'.

During the war, Günther Benedikt managed the iron wholesale business founded by his great-grandfather Franz Xaver Benedikt in 1866 and named after his father in St. Pölten as 'Betriebsführer', the National Socialist term for the owner or managing director of a company. Pölten.

Shortly after the Red Army captured his home town, Günther Benedikt was appointed mayor of St. Pölten by the commander in charge on April 16, 1945. One month later, however, he had to relinquish the office to Franz Käfer, a member of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ), in accordance with the instructions of the Soviet occupying power. In professional terms, Günther Benedikt initially followed in his father's footsteps by completing an apprenticeship as an ironmonger. However, he later became head trustee of the savings bank, was active in the giro association and was a member of the board of directors in the retail sector.