Michael (Viktor Robert) Aigner CanReg

Viktor Robert Aigner was born in Klosterneuburg, the son of master locksmith Leopold Aigner and Helene, née Lüders. After elementary school, he attended the Bundesgymnasium and Bundesrealgymnasium in Klosterneuburg. The devout Catholic and staunch Austrian joined the Marian Congregation at the age of ten and wanted to become a clergyman himself at a very early age.

Shortly before the occupation of Austria on 12 March 1938, Viktor Aigner became a member of the Austrian Young People. Although he was only 14 years old, he rejected National Socialism out of deep inner conviction, which did not go unnoticed by those close to him. In autumn 1939, he was asked by Kurt Schleifer, a schoolmate whom he was tutoring, whether he would like to join the resistance group 'Austrian Freedom Movement' around the Augustinian canons Roman Karl Scholz, to which he immediately replies in the affirmative. In the presence of Josef Bauer, Kurt Schleifer takes the oath to the 'Austrian Freedom Movement' from Viktor Aigner.

In addition to the membership fee, Viktor Aigner recruits other members for the resistance group, such as Franz Martin. He also organized meetings in Vienna at which flyers were secretly distributed. On 19 January 1940, Viktor Aigner joined the underground secondary school fraternity Arminia Klosterneuburg, of which many members of the group around Roman Karl Scholz were already members.

In 1940, he managed to forge links with the resistance movement of the same name 'Austrian Freedom Movement' around Karl Lederer and with the 'Großösterreichische Freiheitsbewegung' around Jakob Kastelic.

From July 1940, a good 300 people from these resistance groups were betrayed by the castle actor Otto Hartmann, who had infiltrated the group as a Gestapo informer (Otto Hartmann was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947 and pardoned in 1957) and Viktor Aigner was arrested at school on October 1, 1940. As a 7th grade pupil, he was charged with 'preparation for high treason' by the investigating judge of the People's Court on December 20, 1940.

Viktor Aigner was transferred from the Vienna Police Detention Center to the Vienna Regional Court and then to Anrath Prison. On August 15, 1942, he was released without a sentence and drafted into the Wehrmacht. He was assigned to a punishment company, but survived there.

After the liberation of Austria in 1945, he completed his school-leaving exams, entered the Augustinian monastery of Klosterneuburg as a novice in 1946 and took the religious name Jakob. However, he left a year later and entered the Augustinian Canons' Monastery in Herzogenburg, where he took the religious name Michael.

On June 29, 1951, Michael Aigner was ordained a priest and was a curate at Herzogenburg Monastery until 1956. He then became provisional curate in St. Andrä an der Traisen. In 1958, he became parish administrator in Hain and in 1953, provisional priest in Reidling.