Robert Stricker (16 August 1879 – 1944) was a Jewish Austrian politician. Born in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

(present-day

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

), Stricker graduated from high school at the technical college. He entered the service of the

Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways The Imperial-Royal State Railways (german: k.k. Staatsbahnen) abbr. ''kkStB'') or Imperial-Royal Austrian State Railways (''k.k. österreichische Staatsbahnen'',The name incorporating "Austrian" appears, for example, in the 1907 official state ha ...

, where he was active in management. He was elected at the

1919 Austrian Constitutional Assembly election Constituent Assembly elections were held in Austria on 16 February 1919, and were the first election in which all women were allowed to vote. German citizens living in Austria and Sudeten Germans living in the newly-formed Czechoslovakia were als ...

as the only representative of the

Jewish National Party The Jewish National Party (german: Jüdischnationale Partei) was an Austrian political party of the Jewish minority. History A Jewish National Party () was already founded in 1892 at Lemberg (''Lviv''), then the capital of the Austrian Kingdo ...

, founded in 1907 under the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

, which never again succeeded in sending a representative to the Austrian Parliament. In addition, Stricker was a

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

activist, and for many years was a board member of the ''

Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien The Jewish Community of Vienna (Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien or IKG) is the body that represents Vienna's Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish community. Today, the IKG has around 10 000 members. Throughout history, it has represented almost all ...

''. He was the publisher of the Jewish weekly magazine '' Die Neue Welt'', established in 1926 as a replacement for the defunct Zionist journal ''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...

''. After the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

'', Robert Stricker was sent to

Dachau , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

, but was eventually released. In 1942 he was sent to

Theresienstadt Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...

, and is reported to have been killed in 1944 in

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. Contrary to a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

1978 report, a US POW (Lt Robert L. Stricker) murdered in Austria in 1945 was not Jewish and was not a son of Dr. Robert Stricker.Lt. Robert L. Stricker at Find a grave
/ref>

Notes and sources

Bibliography

*Stricker, Robert, Jüdische Politik in Oesterreich : Tätigkeitsbericht und Auszüge aus den im österreichischen Parlamente 1919 und 1920 gehaltenen Reden / Robert Stricker, Wien : Wiener Morgen-Zeitung, 920? 39 p.
on microfilm at the Library of Congress
*Fraenkel, Josef (ed.), Robert Stricker, London, 1950, 94 p., LCCN 54031133 1879 births 1944 deaths Musicians from Brno People from the Margraviate of Moravia Czech Jews Jewish Austrian politicians Jewish National Party politicians Members of the Constituent National Assembly (Austria) Dachau concentration camp survivors Theresienstadt Ghetto prisoners Austrian people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Politicians who died in Nazi concentration camps Austrian civilians killed in World War II Czech people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Czech Jews who died in the Holocaust Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust {{Austria-politician-stub