Gedenktafel Hans Karl Zessner-Spitzenberg, Emmerich Zederbauer

The memorial plaque for Hans Karl Zeßner-Spitzenberg and Emmerich Zederbauer was installed in 1984 in the main building of the University of Agriculture in Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33. The plaque was funded by the university collegium. The plaque is made of metal. Hans Karl Zeßner-Spitzenberg was a functionary of the Christian Social Fatherland Front and the Austrofascist regime. Due to his anti-national socialist stance, he was among the first to be arrested by the NS regime after the "Anschluss". He was led away during a church service at the Kaasgrabenkirche on 18 March 1938 and taken into Gestapo custody. On 15 July, he was transferred to the Dachau concentration camp. He was already subjected to severe mistreatment during the transport. He was unable to recover from serious internal injuries and died from them on 1 August 1938. Hans Karl Zeßner-Spitzenberg was one of the first Austrian victims of a concentration camp. Emmerich Zederbauer was promoted to rector of the University of Agriculture in 1937 and was already arrested by the National Socialists on 12 March 1938 and imprisoned in the police prison Roßauer Lände. In addition, he was forced into early retirement. He was part of the so-called Prominententransport to the Dachau concentration camp, from where he was released in September 1938 upon intervention by his students. He survived the NS regime. After the liberation of Vienna, the botanist was rehabilitated as a university lecturer. He died in 1950.