- Friedrich Rainer
Friedrich Rainer (
July 28 1903 inSankt Veit an der Glan –July 19 1947 ("date unconfirmed") inLjubljana ,Yugoslavia – now inSlovenia ) was a NaziGauleiter and anAustria n "Landeshauptmann " ofSalzburg and Carinthia. Friedrich Rainer is thus far the only Austrian "Landeshauptmann" who has ever held this office in two Austrian "Bundesländer".Rainer, whose father was a teacher at a "Bürgerschule" (a now obsolete kind of vocational school) in St. Veit, studied
law inGraz and earned money between semesters as a worker and a bank employee. After successfully completing his examination, he worked in a notary's office before he graduated late in 1926. Already while he was studying, Rainer joined the SA, and was a member of some organizations based in St. Veit that already had leanings much like the Nazis.In October 1930, Rainer joined the
NSDAP , and was a co-founder of the St. Veit "Ortsgruppe" ("local"). A mere four years later, the GauleiterHubert Klausner handed his own office over to Rainer. Forhigh treason – the exact circumstances are unknown – Rainer was sentenced to one year in police custody in August 1935, but was released early for good behaviour the following March. In May 1936, Rainer was assigned to the NSDAP's provincial governing body in Carinthia.At
Anschluss on13 March 1938 , Rainer was hired by GauleiterJosef Bürckel , the Reich Commissioner for Austria's Anschluss intoNazi Germany , as leader of the organizational department on his staff. In May 1938, Rainer was personally appointed byAdolf Hitler to be the Gauleiter of Salzburg, and in the same year a member of the Reichstag.Once the war broke out, Rainer's appointment as Reich Defence Commissar followed, and on
15 March 1940 came his appointment as "Reichsstatthalter" (Reich Governor) of Salzburg. On18 November 1941 Rainer was given the NSDAP Gau leadership of Carinthia, and he also took on the function of "Landeshauptmann". As in Salzburg, Rainer was also made Reich Defence Commissar here on11 December 1942 . AfterItaly forsook its German ally on10 September 1943 , Rainer furthermore took over theOperation Zone of the Adriatic Littoral as the Reich Defence Commissar, thereby becoming chief of the civil administration in the Italian provinces ofFriuli .On
7 May 1945 – eight days after Hitler's death – Rainer transferred his official functions to an executive board and fled to the area around the Weißensee (alake in Carinthia). After being given leads by the local population, the British arrested Rainer and transferred him toNuremberg , where he was compelled to testify as a witness in theNuremberg Trials in the proceedings against the 24 main defendants, specifically in the case againstArthur Seyß-Inquart .In March 1947, Rainer was handed over to Yugoslavia and sentenced by a military court in Ljubljana on 19 July 1947 to death. His widow received a death certificate from Yugoslavia after the war which showed that same date. Nevertheless, as in similar cases, rumours lingered on into the 1950s that Friedrich Rainer was still alive.
elected Works
Essays
* "On Brecht and Eisenstein". "TELOS" 31 (Spring 1997). New York: [http://www.telospress.com Telos Press]
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