Resistance
Introduction
Communists
Socialists
Conservatists, Monarchists
# Nonpartisan Resistance Groups
Resistance in Prisons
Resistance in the Wehrmacht
Resistance by Individuals
home
Up
Down

Toward war end nonpartisan resistance groups formed in many places and their most important goals were the termination of battles involving heavy losses and the prevention of ordered destruction of buildings, businesses, infrastructure, etc. The best-known among these groups, the »O5,« was led by bourgeois-conservative forces, but made also contacts with the Left. This group became significant through its connection to the Western Allies via Fritz Molden and through collaboration with the military resistance around Major Szokoll. The Tyrolean resistance group – which collaborated with the O5 – under the leadership of the future head of the regional government Karl Gruber was able to liberate Innsbruck on 3 May 1945 ahead of the arrival of US troops. Among the armed resistance groups outside of Carinthia, especially the »Koralmpartisanen« and the partisan group Leoben-Donawitz became known militarily. Toward the end of war the Allied forces carried out numerous commando forays in Austria, whose activists fell into the hands of the Gestapo mostly as a result of treachery. Women played a prominent role in armed resistance by providing shelter, supplies, information, connections, etc., but also by participating as combatants.


 

 
»O5« sign
» click see larger image


The »O5« sign on the wall of main entrance of Vienna Cathedral St. Stephan, 1945. The sign stood for Austria and was the idea of the medical student Jörg Unterreiner.

Fritz Molden Hans Becker
Ludwig Steiner Silvester Heider
Leopold Engelmann Josef Sasso
Hubert Mayr (1913–1945)

Nonpartisan Resistance Groups