Dr. Karl Hammer

Karl Hammer first attended the Imperial and Royal State Realschule in Vienna and then transferred to the 2nd Federal Realschule in Graz, where he graduated in 1922. Following his father’s wishes, he enrolled at the Technical University of Graz, majoring in mechanical engineering. In 1922 (one day after his graduation exams), he became a member of the Traungau fraternity. In the summer semester of 1923, he changed his field of study and began studying law at the University of Graz, completing his studies in 1929 with a doctorate in law (Dr. iur.). Since this change in his course of study did not align with his father’s wishes, he had to finance his studies himself—working as a private tutor, in a paper mill, or in a mine; eventually, he joined the state civil service as a contract employee. In 1933, he became a municipal councilor in Gröbming (Liezen district) and later in Gössenberg, Styria, as well as in Irdning (Liezen district) Liezen, where he was entrusted with the duties of mayor and municipal council chair.

After the Anschluss, Karl Hammer was arrested by the Gestapo in Knittelfeld, at the home of his future in-laws, and placed in protective custody for thirty days. On October 17, 1938, he was dismissed from public service pursuant to § 4 of the “Ordinance on the Reorganization of the Austrian Civil Service” of May 31, 1938, without a pension, and was expelled from Judenburg. As a result, he was unemployed. From February 1, 1939, to October 30, 1939, he was employed in Munich by the “Notwerk der Österreichischen Bischöfe” (Emergency Relief Organization of the Austrian Bishops), a charitable institution for Austrian employees and civil servants who had been dismissed and were now unemployed.

On October 17, 1940, Karl Hammer engaged in a conversation critical of the regime at a coffeehouse in Altheim, Braunau District, Upper Austria; the conversation was overheard and transcribed in shorthand, leading to a complaint filed with the gendarmerie. On October 24, 1940, he was arrested by the Stapo headquarters in Innsbruck and transferred to Linz, where he was held in pretrial detention from November 1 to December 4, 1940. Based on charges brought by the Linz Public Prosecutor’s Office, he was sentenced to thirteen months in prison for a “violation under § 2 of the Malicious Practices Act” of December 20, 1934. As an employee at the office furniture company Wiesner

After the war, Karl Hammer temporarily served as mayor of Altheim from May 3 to September 2, 1945.