Adrian Höck: A Blog Post About Courage, Resistance, and the Austrian Spirit

Photo Adrian Höck. In: Helmut Wopfner (Hrsg.), Unsere Sternkorona Hall in Tirol. Mitgliederverzeichnis 1888 – 1998, Thaur 1998, p.114.

Introduction

In the darkest years of Austrian history, after the Anschluss of 1938, when the swastika flag flew and Nazi terror sought to smother all opposition, there were still people who found the courage to resist. One of them was Pastor Adrian Höck. His story is a striking testament to Catholic-legitimist resistance in Tyrol and stands as an example of an unbroken Austrian patriotism that led to exile, imprisonment, or death.

Early Life and Vocation

Adrian Höck was born on February 12, 1903, in Wörgl, Tyrol. Little is known about his early years, but his path led him to the priesthood. By the time National Socialism was on the rise, he served as the pastor of Hötting near Innsbruck. In this role, he was not just a spiritual shepherd but also a moral authority for his community.

The First Conflict: The Intercessory Mass for Schuschnigg

Only a few months after the German troops marched in, Höck demonstrated his civil courage. On July 3, 1938, the day before Corpus Christi, he posted a notice for an intercessory mass for the former Chancellor Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg on the church door and announced it several times from the pulpit.
Historical Context: Kurt Schuschnigg was the last chancellor of Austria's Austrofascist regime before the Anschluss. He had resisted Hitler and was arrested after the Nazi takeover. A public prayer for him was a clear political provocation and an act of defiance against the new regime.
The regime's reaction was swift. The Gestapo (Secret State Police) immediately investigated the matter. A report stated: "At my request, the Secret State Police thoroughly investigated this case and have now (...) proceeded to arrest the pastor." From July 4 to July 16, 1938, Adrian Höck was taken into "protective custody". This first imprisonment was a warning, but it did not intimidate him.

Founding the Resistance Group

Later that same year, in 1938, Pastor Höck went a step further. He founded a legitimist-Catholic resistance group in Innsbruck. The focus was on young people, whom he organized through the parish youth group. A key member was the 19-year-old Karl Pfötscher from Hall.
What does "Legitimist" mean?
In the Austrian historical context, Legitimism referred to loyalty to the House of Habsburg and the rejection of both the republican and Nazi forms of government. Legitimists sought the restoration of the monarchy and saw the idea of Austria as a counterpole to Hitler's pan-German Reich.
The group met in various locations; one important meeting point was "das Waldhüttl", an inn in Völs near Innsbruck. There, in seclusion, they could hold clandestine meetings. Courageously, the group even established a hidden weapons cache, proof that they were preparing not only for intellectual but also for potential active resistance.

The Symbols of Resistance: Forget-me-not and "Seidosch"

The organization developed its own symbolic language, reflecting the spirit of the Austrian Ständestaat:

• Their badge of allegiance was a blue woollen flower, the forget-me-not. It symbolised the unforgotten and enduring idea of a free, independent Austria.
• The group's code word was "Seidosch". This was an acronym combining the names of the three defining figures of the Christian-Austrian camp: Seipel (Ignaz Seipel) – Dollfuß (Engelbert Dollfuß) – Schuschnigg (Kurt Schuschnigg). This was a clear declaration of allegiance to the political tradition of the Ständestaat.

The Demise of the Group and Escape to Brazil

Before the Gestapo could smash the group, Adrian Höck managed to flee to Brazil. His escape likely saved his life. However, the organization was betrayed by one of its members in 1939 and uncovered by the Gestapo.
The wave of arrests primarily hit the young members, aged between 17 and 26. The Gestapo reported that the organization had taken on a "larger dimension" and was believed to have already spread across all of Austria. Connections to other opposition circles, such as a successor organization to the "Bavarian People's Party," were also suspected. The Gestapo report stated that the group had been expecting a change of the political system in the Reich as early as August 1939 and had been actively recruiting for this purpose.
The consequences for those arrested were brutal: they received, in part, multi-year prison sentencesthat lasted until the end of the war in 1945.

Legacy

Adrian Höck returned to Austria after the war and died in 1973. His story is largely forgotten today, but it deserves to be remembered. It shows:

• Resistance from within the Church in Tyrol was real and active.
• Austrian patriotism was a driving force in the fight against Nazi ideology.
• The courage of one individual can inspire many – even though the price paid by the participants was extremely high.

Adrian Höck was not a military strategist but a pastor who acted based on his faith and his Austrian consciousness. He risked his freedom and his life to make a statement – a statement that one does not have to accept everything, and that there is something higher than the power of a dictatorship: conviction and the commitment to truth.