Memorial Plaque for Franc Pasterk – Lenart at Tavčmanhof

The Tavčmanhof in the Lobniggraben near Bad Eisenkappel/Železna Kapla is the birthhouse of Franc and Jurij Pasterk. Both brothers played an important role in the resistance against fascism. Jurij Pasterk founded together with Karel Prušnik-Gašper the first committee of the Liberation Front in Carinthia. He was arrested by the Gestapo in the autumn of 1942 and beheaded along with 12 other people from Zell, Ebriach, and Eisenkappel in April 1943 in Vienna. Franc Pasterk-Lenart joined the partisans after deserting from the Wehrmacht in October 1942. In the spring of 1943, Lenart became the commander of the first Carinthian partisan battalion. After a successful attack on the village of Mieß (Mežica, today Slovenia) on April 3, 1943, he died severely wounded. Every spring, the partisans hold a commemoration event at the cemetery in Eisenkappel, and every autumn a hike in his honor takes place, which also passes by his birthhouse. The memorial plaque for both brothers, installed in 1959, was restored in 2022.