Dr. Leopold Gartner

Leopold Gartner was born the son of a railroad employee. After attending a five-class elementary school in Prottes, he transferred to the secondary school (Bürgerschule) at the Schulbrüder in Vienna-Strebersdorf. After three years, he went to the teacher training college there, from which he graduated in 1930. He then worked as an educator for the School Brothers for two years and at the same time began studying for a teaching degree, initially in geography and gymnastics, at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Vienna.

In 1932, Leopold Gartner passed his secondary school teacher's examination and worked as a secondary school teacher for the School Brothers in Vienna until 1934. He also continued to attend university.

Leopold Gartner was very involved in sport and was active in the Reichsbund and the Christian-German Gymnastics Federation. He was also involved in the VF. Between 1933 and 1938, he held various positions in the unified party at district level. For this reason, he was dismissed as a secondary school teacher after the Anschluss in March 1938 and demoted to primary school teacher. The police patrol his parents' house, where he lives, because he is temporarily under house arrest.

In the fall of 1938, Leopold Gartner is drafted into the German Wehrmacht and then takes part in the campaigns in France, the Balkans and Russia. In January 1945, he was taken prisoner of war by the British, from which he was only able to return home nine months later.

After the war, Leopold Gartner was rehabilitated as a secondary school teacher and quickly became principal of the secondary school in Lassee. The Soviet occupying power appointed him as the only non-Nazi in charge of the 30 compulsory schools in the Marchfeld region. He later made a career in the state service and eventually became a state school inspector. He is also involved in the ÖVP.