Dr. Franz Josef Messner "Murdered in the gas chamber of the Mauthausen concentration camp"

Foto Dr. Franz Josef Messner.  Privatarchiv Volker Sartorti, Elmshorn, Deutschland. Wikipedia. Die freie Enzyklopädie. Online unter, {https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dr._Franz_Josef_Messner.jpg}, (Stand: 6.12.2025)

Franz Josef Messner: From Imperial Rifleman to International Trade Expert

Franz Josef Messner was born in Brixlegg as the son of a general store merchant. After attending primary school, he completed his secondary education at the Franciscan Gymnasium in Hall in Tyrol, graduating with his Matura (university entrance qualification).
In 1915, at the age of 18, he volunteered for the 1st Tyrolean Imperial Rifle Regiment in Innsbruck. During the First World War, he was initially deployed in 1916 to the office of the Governor in Bucharest. In 1917, he was assigned as a commercial attaché to the Military Governor in Odessa.
After the end of the war, Messner fled to Brest-Litovsk in November 1918 but was captured by Polish legionnaires and remained in their custody until January 1919. After being liberated by the Austrian army, he returned to Brixlegg.
Despite his military obligations, he managed to study for four semesters at the Export Academy (later the University of World Trade). In the summer of 1919, he was sent to Belgrade, Serbia, by a trading company. That same year, on the recommendation of the Tyrolean provincial government, he assumed a directorial position in Innsbruck. After the dissolution of this office, he worked for three years for the trading company "Habung" in Vienna.
Subsequently, he took up a position in Dakar, the capital of present-day Senegal—a significant trading hub that retains international economic importance to this day.

Career in Brazil and Return as an Industrial Consultant

In 1925, Franz Josef Messner emigrated with his wife Franziska (1889–1983) to São Paulo, Brazil. There, he worked as a Europe expert in coffee exports. Just one year later, in 1926, he founded the colonial trading company "Messner" in Vienna.
In 1928, Messner was appointed Brazilian consul in Vienna and simultaneously served as a commercial attaché for the Brazilian Ministry of Trade. In 1929, he acquired his own coffee and cotton plantation in São Paulo as well as an orangery in Rio de Janeiro.
In 1930, he survived an airplane crash off the Brazilian coast. Despite this dramatic event, he continued his career and on October 13, 1931, obtained Brazilian citizenship. Subsequently, he worked as the general agent of the Brazilian Coffee Institute in São Paulo, with responsibility for Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia.
From 1934 onward, Messner played a key role in the economic recovery of numerous Austrian companies—serving as an advisor and industrial consultant. Two years later, in 1936, he took up a position at the Austria Credit-Anstalt. On their behalf, he undertook the restructuring of the Semperit factory in Vienna.
In 1937, he was appointed General Director and Chairman of the Board of "Semperit – Austrian-American Rubber Works Joint Stock Company" in Vienna. His main task was the comprehensive modernization of the plant and its adaptation to the technological standards of German industry.
Despite massive political and economic pressure, Messner succeeded in 1939, with the support of the Creditanstalt-Bankverein and the Reithoffer corporate group, in preventing the Semperit factory from being taken over by the German Continental Gummiwerke AG.

Photo Semperit Werk Wimpassing. Archiv der Metrum Communications GmbH A-1010 Wien, Bauernmarkt 10/19.

Escape, Secret Mission, and Return Under Mortal Danger

On June 3, 1939, Franz Josef Messner left Europe aboard a Zeppelin bound for Brazil. Officially, he cited health reasons for his departure. In reality, however, he was fleeing to escape denunciation by a relative. Despite his escape, he remained in the service of the Nazi regime: commissioned by the Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs, he was to procure natural rubber in South America—a material critical to the war effort.
Messner succeeded in purchasing an entire shipload of 3,000 tons of rubber. The cargo, however, was sunk on the high seas—under circumstances that remain unclear to this day.
Just six months later, Messner embarked on the return journey to Europe to resume his work at the Semperit factory. He traveled on an Italian steamship, which was detained in Casablanca by French authorities on suspicion of espionage. Messner spent 30 days in internment. Only after the German Wehrmacht's invasion of France was he released and able to continue his journey.

Photo: Managing Director Dr. Messner in conversation with his employees at the Semperit company. In: Archives of Metrum Communications GmbH. A-1010 Vienna, Bauernmarkt 10/19.

Social Reformer in the Shadow of War: Messner's Work at Semperit from 1940

On August 15, 1940, Franz Josef Messner resumed his duties as the Executive Board Director of the Semperit factories. Under his leadership, numerous improvements were implemented across the three main plants in Traiskirchen, Wimpassing, and Stadlau.
Messner was frequently on business trips—including to Zurich, Basel, Paris, Brussels, Milan, as well as to Pressburg (Bratislava), Budapest, Bucharest, and Istanbul. Despite the wartime circumstances, he championed profound social reforms within the company until 1943.
He modernized the outdated sanitary facilities, established a works canteen for all employees, and opened the previously exclusive "factory director's park" to the workforce. Furthermore, he established an occupational health service with a company doctor and a dedicated medical station. A recreational home for employees was also built.
Additional social measures included the introduction of a company health insurance fund, a minimum wage system, and a child allowance for all employees. Regular cultural events complemented the offerings—even during wartime.
However, the Semperit factories at this time did not only employ regular workers: alongside so-called "voluntary Belgian guest workers," there were also Polish female forced laborers, prisoners of war from Belgium, Italy, and France, as well as inmates. In 1943, General Director Dr. Messner had a barracks camp constructed for Soviet prisoners of war and families from the Stalingrad region—a dark chapter that highlights the ambivalence of his role during this period.

Between Social Reform and Systemic Violence: An Ambivalent Role

Franz Josef Messner's work at Semperit exemplifies the ambivalence of economic leaders during the Nazi era. On one hand, he strove for social improvements for the core Austrian workforce and implemented reforms that were progressive for the time. On the other hand, he was also complicit in the Nazi regime's forced labor system—a system based on racist ideology, disenfranchisement, and violence.
The employment of forced laborers, prisoners, and prisoners of war in the Semperit factories was not merely a feature of a general wartime economy but constituted the targeted exploitation of entire population groups. The construction of a barracks camp for Soviet prisoners of war and their families in 1943 represents a particularly grave example of entanglement in Nazi power and violence structures.
Messner's role illustrates how economic efficiency, social reformist thinking, and state-sanctioned violence were interwoven during the Nazi period—and raises contemporary questions about responsibility, moral action, and individual agency within an authoritarian context.

Franz Josef Messner in the Resistance: Collaboration with Chaplain Heinrich Maier

Formation of a Resistance Group

Franz Josef Messner first met the Viennese chaplain Heinrich Maier (1908–1945) in 1936—a dedicated educator, priest, and resistance fighter against National Socialism. By 1940, Chaplain Maier was in contact with the resistance group centered around the Christian Social politician Jakob Kaiser (1888–1961) in Berlin.
Together with the Tyrolean Walter Caldonazzi (1916–1945), Maier and Messner founded the Maier–Caldonazzi–Messner resistance group. Their goal was nothing less than ending Nazi rule in Austria. They recognized early on that this could only be achieved by militarily weakening the Third Reich—and therefore deliberately collected information about armament plants and industrial sites.

Intelligence Gathering and Allied Contact

Messner used his position as General Director of the Semperit factory to relay initial reports about the extermination of Jewish people near the plant in the Auschwitz area to the Allies. However, this information was initially met with disbelief by the Americans. Walter Caldonazzi, on the other hand, provided precise data about the Heinkel Works in Jenbach, which manufactured propulsion components for the Messerschmitt Me 163 and V2 rockets. Chaplain Maier, in turn, obtained knowledge about the secret rocket factory in Peenemünde from returning soldiers.
This information was passed on to Allied intelligence services through intermediaries—particularly to the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the predecessor of the CIA. This enabled targeted air raids on strategically important armament plants, significantly weakening the supply lines of the German Wehrmacht.

The Key Role of Barbara Issakides

Beyond military reconnaissance, the group also sought to win over politically like-minded individuals and prepare for the collapse of the Nazi regime. Through Chaplain Maier, Messner met the concert pianist Barbara Issakides, who established initial contacts with US intelligence officer Allen Welsh Dulles in Zurich in 1942. In 1943, Messner traveled to Switzerland with Issakides and handed over information to the OSS in Zurich regarding the production of synthetic rubber (Project "Buna") as well as German rocket developments.
Barbara Issakides, born on May 31, 1914, in Vienna, was an Austrian pianist and resistance fighter against National Socialism. She studied piano at the Vienna Music Academy from 1930 to 1942 and undertook concert tours to European countries such as Poland, Hungary, and England. During the Second World War, she worked closely with Viennese chaplain Heinrich Maier and Semperit director Franz Josef Messner to pass information about the armaments industry to the Allies. After the war, she continued her music career, performing at venues including the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Musikverein. Barbara Issakides died on August 29, 2011, in Vienna.

Covert Work in Switzerland and Betrayal

In Bern, Messner worked under the code names "Diana" or "Oyster." He reported on fuel depots, weapons factories, and aircraft plants in the Vienna area, and also provided information about mass executions he had learned of. In early 1944, he met with Dulles several times to discuss the next phase of resistance. The Allies promised Messner financial support amounting to 100,000 Reichsmarks—to be passed on to the resistance in Austria.
However, the plan was betrayed: a double agent working for the OSS passed the information to German counterintelligence. During the attempted money handover in Budapest, Messner was arrested by the Gestapo and taken to Vienna.

Hungary: During a visit in Budapest to the gravely ill former Hungarian Prime Minister Károly Huszár von Sárvár, the high-ranking Semperit employee and NSDAP party member Sigismund Romen from Frankfurt am Main learned that Franz Josef Messner had advocated for the bombing of the Buna synthetic rubber plants by English aircraft.

Arrest and Aftermath

At the Vienna Regional Court, a close confidante of Messner, Evelyn Wagner, attempted to free him. Wagner, a secretary at Semperit and a member of the resistance, managed to persuade two young Wehrmacht deserters to assist in November 1944. The attempt failed—the two men were arrested during a check, and shortly afterward, Evelyn Wagner was also arrested. She survived only because she was liberated in April 1945 during the capture of Vienna by the Red Army.
Franz Josef Messner, however, was deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp in November 1944, along with the future Austrian ministers Felix Hurdes and Lois Weinberger. There, he was initially held in the bunker before being transferred back to Vienna in January 1945.

Photo concentration camp Mauthausen 1941/42 Entrance Mauthausen. Die freie Enzyklopädie Wikipedia. Online unter, Von Bundesarchiv, Bild 192-342 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5485775}, (Stand 6.12.2025)

The Fate of Dr. Messner in April 1945

In April 1945, Dr. Messner was taken back to the Mauthausen concentration camp and imprisoned there in the so-called "Bunker"—the punishment block. His admission as a prisoner was not officially registered, as he was considered a Brazilian citizen.
As a citizen of a neutral state, Dr. Messner had the right to receive a food package. On April 18, 1945, he requested such a package—without giving his name or his former position as director of the Semperit company. On April 19, the package was handed over to him, which he intended to share with his fellow prisoner Burde.
But already the next day, April 20, 1945, Dr. Messner was missing. In his place in Block 10, only half of the package was found. Evidently, he had been taken back to the bunker—presumably because another prisoner had laid claim to the coveted package.
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Three days later, on April 23, 1945, Dr. Messner was murdered in the gas chamber. The exact circumstances of his arrest remain unclear. However, much suggests that the package played a tragic role in his fate.
The bunker was located in the immediate vicinity of the infirmary, which housed the gas chamber in its cellar. On April 23, 1945, at 3 p.m., the commandant of the Mauthausen concentration camp, SS-Standartenführer Franz Ziereis, ordered the immediate transfer of 40 prisoners, including Franz Josef Messner, to the gas chamber in the cellar. SS Commandant Ziereis personally filled the gas insertion device with Zyklon B. In the following night, Messner and the other 39 victims were burned in the crematorium.
It should be noted that the Brazilian government had already submitted a request for a prisoner exchange in January 1945. Although official German authorities such as the Reich Security Main Office, the Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the Reich Commissioner for Rubber had no objections, the judiciary itself denied the exchange even after the Brazilian government had confirmed Franz Josef Messner's citizenship. This occurred despite the knowledge of his Brazilian nationality, and the prisoner was ultimately murdered in the gas chamber of Mauthausen.