Dr. Manfred Mumelter (1885-1965) Political Persecution and Arrest in the Year 1938: Mumelter's Conflict with the Nazi Regime and his Imprisonment.

Photo: Dr. Manfred Mumelter. Estate 228 Dr. Manfred Mumelter. In: Verein Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum Innsbruck. Tiroler Landesmuseum – Library.

Dr. Manfred Mumelter (1885–1965) – A Life Between Pedagogy, Regional Engagement, and Resistance

Origin and Education

Court Councilor Dr. Manfred Mumelter was born on October 28, 1885, in Bolzano as the son of attorney Dr. Franz S. and his wife Marie, née von Roeggla zu Aehrental. After attending the Bolzano Franciscan High School, he studied German and French in Vienna. To deepen his language skills, he spent the academic year 1905/06 as a guest student at the Faculty of Humanities ("Faculté des Lettres") of the University of Paris. In 1907, he completed his studies in Vienna with a dissertation on "Andreas Hofer in German Drama" – an early sign of his attachment to Tyrolean history.

Professional Career and World War I

Mumelter gained his first teaching experience as a teacher in Graz before moving to the secondary school (Realschule) in Innsbruck. World War I interrupted his pedagogical career: in 1915, he was deployed as a First Lieutenant with the Innsbruck Rifle Corps (Standschützen) to the southern front in the Sexten Dolomites and at Lake Garda. After being taken as a prisoner of war in southern Italy, he returned to Bolzano in 1919 but resumed his teaching position at the Innsbruck secondary school. In 1923, he was appointed director of the Federal High School and Federal Secondary School in Innsbruck, and in this role, he initiated the expansion of the school building on Angerzellgasse.

Commitment to South Tyrol and Youth

Alongside his professional work, Mumelter was active in publishing and through associations. From 1923 to 1925, he edited the "South Tyrol Bulletin for Friends of South Tyrol" ("Südtirol-Mitteilungen für Freunde Südtirols") in Innsbruck, a journal later continued by his brother Ernst Mumelter. Simultaneously, he volunteered in the youth department of the German-Austrian Alpine Association and served from 1929 to 1933 on its executive committee as the officer for alpine youth hiking. This activity exists within the historical context of the interwar period, during which many German-speaking Austrians closely followed the cultural and political situation of South Tyrol after its annexation by Italy in 1919.

Confrontation with the Nazi Regime

Mumelter's conservative-patriotic stance and his commitment to an independent Austria collided with the National Socialist regime after the 1938 annexation ("Anschluss"). Documents clearly show that his political convictions brought him into conflict with the new rulers. However, his arrest in the course of the Nazi seizure of power also appears to have been personally motivated – an indication of the arbitrary and often denunciation-driven persecution mechanisms of the time.
Through his work as an educator, publicist, and unyielding spirit, Manfred Mumelter remains a figure who exemplarily embodies the ruptures and conflicts of the first half of the 20th century in Tyrol.

Persecution and Imprisonment under National Socialism
Dismissal and Arrest in 1938

With the annexation ("Anschluss") of Austria to National Socialist Germany in March 1938, the systematic persecution of political opponents began. Dr. Manfred Mumelter was immediately removed from his position as director of the Akademisches Gymnasium Innsbruck. On March 12, 1938, immediately after the takeover of power, he was arrested and imprisoned in the Innsbruck police jail.
As part of the first wave of arrests, SS and SA members also abducted numerous citizens from Hall in Tyrol. While most of them were released quickly, Dr. Mumelter, the lawyer and municipal official Dr. Ernst Verdross, the Hall town policeman Friedrich Corazza, and about 60 other Tyroleans from various municipalities were among those subjected to strict Gestapo interrogations.

Deportation and Torture in Dachau Concentration Camp

On May 31, 1938, they were deported to the Dachau concentration camp near Munich – the first major concentration camp established by the Nazi regime in 1933. Here, they were subjected to brutal maltreatment and arbitrary violence. The imprisonment served to intimidate, break the will to resist, and demonstrate absolute power.

The Cruel Camp Punishment "The Tree"

A particularly feared torture method in Dachau concentration camp was the so-called "tree" punishment. In this procedure, prisoners' hands were bound behind their backs and they were suspended from a high beam, causing their own body weight to dislocate their shoulder joints. The torment often lasted an hour or longer and regularly led to unconsciousness. Dr. Mumelter was subjected to this torture for one hour; Friedrich Corazza was beaten so brutally that he could not walk, stand, or sit for three days.

Eyewitness Account:

"'The Tree.' A squared-off beam about 3 meters high was rammed into the ground. The prisoner's hands were bound behind his back with chains, then pulled upward and hooked onto a peg... This torment lasted half an hour, an hour, or more. Most lost consciousness from the pain."
– Dr. Ernst Verdross, KZ-Dachau-Protokoll, 2025
This practice illustrates the complete lack of legal rights and the arbitrary violence that characterized the camp regime. The punishments served not to penalize offenses but to terrorize and humiliate the prisoners.

Conditional Release and Lasting Damage

It was only after ten months of imprisonment, on March 13, 1939, that Dr. Verdross, Friedrich Corazza, and Dr. Mumelter were released. Their release followed an appeal made to Tyrol's Gauleiter, Franz Hofer, by their former colleague Prof. Franz Egger. However, it remains uncertain whether Hofer, a former student of Egger, actually granted this request.
The physical and psychological consequences of the imprisonment were severe and lasting. Mumelter suffered from the effects of the "tree" torture for a full year after his release and could not move his hands. The experience of arbitrariness, torture, and dehumanization in Dachau concentration camp marked the survivors for life and stands as a prime example of the Nazi terror regime's brutal measures against its political and ideological opponents in the first months of its rule.

Life Under the Shadow of Surveillance and Involvement in the Resistance

After their return from imprisonment, the released men continued to face reprisals. They received no financial support or back pay and were forced to seek paid employment privately. Additionally, they were under strict surveillance by the Nazi authorities, who monitored any hint of opposition.
Despite this threatening situation and the traumatic experiences in Dachau concentration camp, Dr. Manfred Mumelter joined the local resistance after his return to Hall. He worked within the network around Dr. Ernst Verdross, the "Gruppe Anton Haller," and with Dr. Viktor Schumacher. This involvement demonstrates his unbroken will to resist and his deep democratic and Austrian convictions.
To secure his livelihood, Dr. Mumelter found employment in the private sector, which provided him with a modest living.

A New Beginning After 1945: Recognition and Reconstruction

With the end of National Socialism and the beginning of the Allied occupation period, Mumelter's situation changed fundamentally. His stance during the Nazi era was now recognized, and he actively cooperated with the French occupation authorities in Tyrol.
His merits as a resistance fighter were also personally acknowledged: The house at Erlerstraße 6 in Hall, where he lived, was exempted by the French authorities from the obligation to billet soldiers—a rare and respectful gesture.
As early as the summer of 1945, the Tyrolean provincial government appointed him Provincial School Inspector for Secondary Schools. In this key position, he vigorously drove forward the reconstruction of an orderly and high-quality education system in Tyrol. His successful work received high recognition from the Federal Ministry of Education and the Tyrolean Provincial School Board upon his retirement in 1950.

Photo: Dr. Manfred Mumelter (right) in conversation with a French occupation officer on the Seegrube near Innsbruck, 1945. (Source: Estate of Dr. Manfred Mumelter, Verein Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck)

Cultural Legacy: Homecoming to Austria

Dr. Mumelter channeled his artistic and patriotic sentiments in 1946 into the theatrical play "Mein Heimatland, mein Österreich" ("My Homeland, My Austria"), which he wrote on the occasion of the 950-year celebration of Austria. The poignant opening lines reflect the emotional state of an entire generation:
"Austria. Is this the homecoming after so many years, yearned for, dreamed of, in anxious waking doubts, the staff by which I walked through exile, the sole hope that kept me upright, so that I would not drown in the sea of hatred?"

Arolsen Suchdienst. Online, https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/document/10713312 ; https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/de/search/person/10713312?s=Manfred%20Mumelter&t=2114521&p=0 ​, (Access: January 10, 2026

Identification Document of the Tyrol Association for Victims of Nazi Oppression. (Source: Estate of Dr. Manfred Mumelter, Nr. 228. Verein Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck