Memorial Plaque for Andreas Rieser in the Parish Church

The memorial plaque in the parish church in Dorfgastein commemorates the priest Andreas Rieser. He was born in Dorfgastein on July 8, 1908, and was ordained a priest in 1932. In the year 1938, he was entrusted with the temporary administration of the parish of Dorfgastein. On June 23, 1938, Rieser was arrested for prior "defamation of the party, leader, and state or suspicion of high treason" and after a short detention in the police prison Munich, he was brought to the Dachau concentration camp on August 3, 1938. After seven years in the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, Rieser returned to Dorfgastein at the end of May 1945. His great readiness to help others while in captivity earned him the honorary title "Angel of Dachau." In the parish church of Dorfgastein, a memorial plaque commemorates the priest Andreas Rieser. The Pinzgauer community Bramberg am Wildkogel – where Rieser served as a priest until his death on March 3, 1966, in Bramberg – renamed the church square to "Andreas-Rieser-Platz" in honor of him in 2013.