Dr. Karl Hammer

Karl Hammer first attended the Imperial and Royal State Secondary School in Vienna and then transferred to the 2nd Federal Secondary School in Graz, where he graduated in 1922. Following his father's instructions, he enrolled at the Technical University in Graz, specializing in mechanical engineering. In 1922 (one day after his school-leaving examination), he became a member of the Traungau student fraternity. In the summer semester of 1923, he changed his study goal and began studying law at the University of Graz, which he completed in 1929 with a doctorate in law. As this change of study was not in line with his father's wishes, he had to finance his studies himself, working as a home and private tutor, in a paper factory or in a mine. Finally, he entered the state service as a contract employee in 1933, becoming a municipal councillor in Gröbming, Liezen district, and then in Gössenberg, Styria. and in Irdning, Liezen district, where he was entrusted with the affairs of the mayor and municipal council.

After the Anschluss, Karl Hammer was arrested by the Gestapo in Knittelfeld, in the apartment of his future parents-in-law, and taken into protective custody for thirty days. On October 17, 1938, he is dismissed from the civil service without pension and expelled from Judenburg in accordance with § 4 of the "Ordinance on the Reorganization of the Austrian Civil Service" of May 31, 1938. He is subsequently unemployed. From 1.2.1939 to 30.10.1939, he was employed in Munich by the "Notwerk der Österreichischen Bischöfe", a charitable institution for dismissed and unemployed Austrian employees and civil servants.

On 17.10.1940, Karl Hammer had a conversation critical of the regime in a coffee house in Altheim, Braunau/OÖ, which was overheard and recorded, leading to a report to the police. On October 24, 1940, he was arrested by the Innsbruck Stapo headquarters and transferred to Linz, where he was remanded in custody from November 1 to December 4, 1940. On the basis of charges brought by the Linz public prosecutor's office, he is sentenced to thirteen months in prison for an "offense under Section 2 of the Treachery Act" of 20.12.1934. As an employee at the office furniture company Wiesner