Hofrat Dr. Richard Lechner

Richard Lechner comes from Vienna-Währing and, after graduating from high school in 1932, begins his studies at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Vienna (Dr. iur. 1937), where he joins the Rudolfina student fraternity. He received additional training at the German Business School and in private courses in finance and taxation.

Richard Lechner became involved in the Austrian Students' Union (HÖ), which was established in the fall of 1933, and became head of the Lawyers' Section at the University of Vienna in early 1934 and built it up. After 1945, this function was equivalent to that of a student council leader. In September 1937, he became a trustee of the Austrian Students' Union.

During his work as head of the department, Richard Lechner attracted the opposition of the national student body and, in the winter semester of 1934/35, repeatedly received anonymous threatening calls that an attack was to be made against him from the toilet facilities below his office. As a result, this was put under surveillance. Right at the beginning of his term of office, he hinted that he was thinking of replacing the system of appointing trustees with the principle of free election.

In the course of the Anschluss in March 1938, the premises of the HÖ were occupied by the Nazis and Richard Lechner was arrested on March 13. After his release from prison in September 1939, he worked first on an hourly basis and then as a permanent office manager at Alpenmilchzentrale Putz in Vienna-Favoriten. In November 1942, he was drafted into the German Wehrmacht and was taken prisoner of war by the British, from which he returned at Christmas 1946.