Memorial Plaque for Persecuted Clergy in the Diocesan House Klagenfurt/Celovec

The Klagenfurt Diocesan House on the Lend Canal was opened in 1932 as a new seminary for priests. After the "Anschluss" to National Socialism, the Carinthian Gauleiter claimed the building. Until liberation from the NS regime, it was used for NS administrative offices, as well as for the supervision of the "Universale Hoch- und Tiefbau A.G." which was entrusted with the construction of the Loibltunnel, where concentration camp prisoners were employed. After liberation from the NS regime, the Diocesan House served as the main headquarters of British troops in Klagenfurt, as indicated by a marble plaque in the entrance area. In the first floor of the building, there is a memorial plaque dedicated to all women, men, members of religious orders, and priests of the Diocese of Gurk who were persecuted, arrested, or murdered by the National Socialists due to their Christian convictions. It was only with the withdrawal of the Allies from Austria in 1955 that the Catholic Church in Carinthia regained use of the Diocesan House.