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​
The Franciscan Monastery 
 Solbad Hall 1938-1940


Forced Closure and Seizure
​


The Fate of the Franciscan Monastery in Solbad Hall During the Nazi Era

6/24/2025

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Picture
Photograph The Franciscan Monastery (2023). In: private archive K. Walder Hall in Tyrol.

The Franciscan Monastery in Solbad Hall, 1938–1940

Until 1938, the Franciscan Monastery in Hall, Tyrol, was a distinguished center of humanistic education that successfully immunized its students against right-wing ideological influences. Many alumni of the Franciscan Gymnasium in Hall actively resisted Nazi ideology as early as 1938, when the National Socialists seized power.
The monastery, known for its intellectual and spiritual independence, quickly became a target of Nazi repression. Its role in fostering critical thinking and moral resistance made it a threat to the regime’s propaganda efforts. In 1940, the monastery was forcibly dissolved—its property confiscated, its sacred spaces desecrated, and its religious community expelled.
This act was not merely an administrative measure but a deliberate strike against an institution that embodied values diametrically opposed to Nazi ideology: human dignity, intellectual freedom, and faith-based resistance.
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Photograph: Leopoldinum Student Residence Hall, Tyrol (2023). In: private archive K. Walder Hall in Tyrol. 

The Forced Closure of the Franciscan Gymnasium (1938)

Following Hitler's annexation of Austria in March 1938, the Franciscans were permitted to operate their prestigious gymnasium (secondary school) in Solbad Hall—which they had run for nearly 150 years—only until July 2, 1938. The Nazi regime moved swiftly to dismantle this bastion of independent education:
  • June 28, 1938: Hall’s Nazi mayor, Ing. Bauer, demanded by telephone the partial evacuation of the Leopoldinum (the school building) to make way for the Reich Labor Service.
  • July 20, 1938: The gymnasium was officially expropriated by the state.
  • October 3, 1938: The Franciscans were forced to hand over the keys of the Leopoldinum to Edmund Christoph, deputy to the Nazi Gauleiter.

A Symbolic Farewell: "He Will Return in Triumph"

On the morning of October 4, 1938, the seminary’s rector, Father Josef Calasanz Rosenhammer (1900–2003), carried the Blessed Sacrament (the consecrated Eucharist) out of the Leopoldinumchapel in a solemn procession. His prophetic words echoed through the emptied halls:
"The Lord must depart now—but He will return in triumph!"
Father Rosenhammer, who later became Bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Chiquitos in Bolivia, narrowly escaped a planned arrest by the Gestapo by emigrating to the Bolivian mission on August 2, 1939.

The Violent Seizure of the Franciscan Monastery in Solbad Hall

April 1, 1940: Confiscation of the Franciscan Mission Museum

The Franciscans were caught completely off guard when their monastery in Solbad Hall was abruptly dissolved. The first blow came on April 1, 1940, with the forced confiscation of the Franciscan Mission Museum—a precursor to the full suppression of the monastery.

September 30, 1940: The Gestapo Raid

At around 10 a.m., a police vehicle pulled up in front of the monastery. Several Gestapo officers from Innsbruck stepped out, accompanied by municipal workers who were also SS members—totaling 12–15 men. Soon after, Mayor Heinz Bauer arrived.
The first Franciscan confronted by the group was Brother Andreas Puff (1912–1999). Without presenting any written order, Nazi Commissar Busch announced:
"The monastery is being seized due to subversive activities against the state.

Expulsion and Plunder

The monks were given just two hours to leave. Under Gestapo supervision, they were permitted to pack only personal belongings—everything else was confiscated. As the 50 residents scrambled to gather their few possessions, Andreas Moser, a local farmer and the monastery’s legal trustee, courageously stepped in to help. (For Hall’s citizens, aiding the Franciscans in this moment carried grave personal risk.)
While the friars were forced out, the Gestapo began looting the monastery:
  • The valuable library (25,000 volumes) was transferred to the dissolved Premonstratensian Abbey of Wilten.
  • Liturgical vessels (chalices, patens) ended up in Mayor Bauer’s private safe.
  • Furniture, pews, and even the Baroque-era Holy Sepulchre were burned for fuel.
  • Sacred vestments were cut up and repurposed into theater costumes.
Picture
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Photographs The Church of the Franciscan Monastery and "The Franciscans' Sacristy" in Hall in Tyrol. In: Archives of the Tyrolean Franciscan Province, Hall in Tyrol.

Plans for Desecration

Though the monastery church remained open temporarily, the Nazis had already drafted plans to convert it into a gymnasium with a theater stage after the war. The sacristy and oratory were slated to become washrooms for the Hitler Youth.

"The Last Franciscan Leaves: Humiliation and Defiance in Solbad Hall (1940)"

Final Expulsion and Nazi Desecration
By 5 p.m. on September 30, 1940, the last heartbroken Franciscan was forced out of the monastery in Solbad Hall. Many were mocked and ordered to remove their habits as they departed. Dozens of friars found refuge with courageous Catholic families in Hall and the surrounding villages—a dangerous act of solidarity under Nazi rule.
That night, the Gestapo and SS men held a vile "victory celebration" inside the desecrated cloister:
  • Sacred chalices and ciboria were used as ashtrays.
  • The monastery’s suppression was publicly justified at a propaganda rally in Solbad Hall’s gymnasium, where Nazi officials smeared the Franciscans as "enemies of the state."

The Dissolution of the Franciscan Order in Hall, Tyrol: An Eyewitness Account

Prof. Dr. Franz Egger (1879–1958), City Historian, Reports:
"The Franciscan fathers—without whom Hall is scarcely imaginable—were first removed from their gymnasium, which was then downgraded to a mere secondary school. Finally, in October 1940, emboldened by Germany’s victorious military campaigns, the Nazis dared to close the church (later repurposed as a storage depot for the Gau Theater), seize the monastery, and expel the friars.
Even before this, the widely beloved Guardian, Father Gaudenz Conci, along with the porter brother, had been imprisoned for four months—simply for giving alms to a beggar, allegedly a 'deserter.' Now, Fathers Epiphan Redhammer (the gymnasium’s director), Professor Dr. Rupert Dullnig, Florian Schachl, Gabriel Haider, Otto Matthys, and Walter Rücker were arrested, briefly detained, and then banished from Tyrol.
By Easter 1941, the same fate befell the St. Joseph’s Missionaries: expulsion and confiscation of all their property.
​
Source:
Municipal Archives of Hall in Tyrol (Stadtarchiv), Dr. Ernst Verdross Collection.
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    Author
    Elisabeth Walder
    ​BA MA MA

    female historian-female ethnologist 

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