Alois Flatscher (1894-1944)

Alois Flatscher was born on January 31, 1894, in Schlaiten, District of Lienz, Tyrol. He attended the Franciscan high school (Franziskaner Gymnasium) in Hall in Tyrol and became a member of the student fraternity Sternkorona there in 1913. In 1915, he completed his secondary school diploma (Matura) and was subsequently drafted into military service during the First World War. During the war, he was taken as a prisoner of war but returned to Austria in 1919.
Upon his return, he began studying law (Jus) at the Leopold-Franzens University in Innsbruck and worked concurrently as a civil servant for the Disability Compensation Commission in Tyrol. In 1923, he transferred to the District Administration (Bezirkshauptmannschaft) of Mattersburg in Burgenland, then in 1925 to the District Administration of Eisenstadt as a junior legal officer. In 1926, he was appointed deputy district commissioner of the District Administration of Oberwart.

Photograph: Alois Flatscher. Archives Sternkorona - Dr. Paul Torggler, Innsbruck.

🕯 Alois Flatscher: From Political Activism to Nazi Persecution

In 1934, Alois Flatscher moved back to Hall in Tyrol and became involved in the workplace organization of the Fatherland Front (Vaterländische Front). Starting in 1936, he also took on leadership roles within the student fraternity Sternkorona, serving as Philisterconsenior and Philister Secretary (Philister Schriftführer). Additionally, he was active in the Tyrolean Secondary School Students’ Association (Tiroler Mittelschüler Verband, TMV) as a speaker on social issues. During this time, he frequently published articles in journals on patriotic and state-political topics.
After Austria’s annexation (Anschluss) to Nazi Germany, Alois Flatscher lost his position within the Fatherland Front. He then found work in the private sector as an accountant and tax consultant. Although he shared his true feelings about the Anschluss and the Nazi regime only with close friends, he came under the scrutiny of the Gestapo after being denounced by someone in the police. On August 25, 1941, he was arrested for political reasons and held in the police prison in Innsbruck until December 17, 1942.

Deportation and Imprisonment during the Nazi Era

From December 17, 1942, to January 8, 1943, he was transferred to the Gestapo camp Reichenau near Innsbruck, Tyrol. Subsequently, on January 8, 1943, he was taken to the Dachau concentration camp near Munich, where he was imprisoned until January 28, 1944. From there, he was transferred on January 28, 1944, to the Majdanek concentration camp in Lublin, Poland (now the State Museum / Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku – the first memorial site of its kind in Europe). As the Red Army approached the camp, the remaining 229 prisoners were forced on a death march to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland (today: Oświęcim, Poland).

In Memory of Alois Flatscher – Victim of Nazi Persecution and Fighter for Austria's Freedom

According to eyewitness accounts, Alois Flatscher was in very poor health at the time he was forced to undertake the exhausting death march. He did not reach Auschwitz-Birkenau alive. It is believed that he either died due to physical weakness during the march or was shot by accompanying guards somewhere between Lublin and Auschwitz.
On October 31, 1950, Alois Flatscher was officially declared dead, with his date of death set as July 31, 1944.
Alois Flatscher, who bravely stood up for Austria’s freedom and fell victim to the Nazi regime, is commemorated by name on the Liberation Memorial at Eduard-Wallnöfer-Platz in Innsbruck. In his hometown of Hall in Tirol, he received a special tribute through a memorial plaque erected by the members of the student fraternity Sternkorona at the Franciscan High School, which was unveiled on September 21, 2019.