Dr. Max von Kurz zum Thurn und Goldenstein

After graduating from high school, Max von Kurz zum Thurn und Goldenstein studied medicine in Graz and became a member of the student fraternity Carolina in 1901. After completing his specialist training in neurology and psychiatry, he worked at the "Landesirrenanstalt" in Ybbs/NÖ, Valduna/Vbg. and Niedernhart near Linz. During the First World War, he was deployed as a military doctor in Galicia, Poland and South Tyrol. From 1927, he worked as the primary physician at the provincial hospital and then as a specialist in neurology and psychiatry in Niedernhart. Between 1931 and 1935, he moved to Graz.

Max von Kurz zum Thurn und Goldenstein had contacts with the Carolines Gerd Stepanschitz and Alois Dorfbauer in Graz and their meetings as the "Barbaragemeinde", from which Carolina was able to take her "illegal" offspring. After the fall of Stalingrad, he was involved in the spring of 1943 when four Carolines felled the six-metre-high "Hitler Oak" in the Opernringkurve. He maintained contacts with Father Kapistran Pieller OFM and the "Antifascist Freedom Movement of Austria (AFÖ)", which led to him being targeted by the Gestapo.

When Fr. Kapistran Pieller OFM was arrested in August 1943, letters from Max von Kurz zum Thurn und Goldenstein were found, which referred to the "Graz Circle of Friends" - but meant the activities of the Carolina. The Gestapo then searched Max von Kurz zum Thurn und Goldenstein's house because they considered him to be the head of this "conspiratorial group". However, because he was warned in good time, he was able to secretly get some material out of the way.

After the Second World War, he worked to re-establish the Carolina and was elected its senior philistine.