Käthe Odwody (born Katharina Wanek; 6 March 1901 – 23 September 1943) was an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ** Austria-Hungary ** Austria ...

worker at a commercial bakery and trades union officer who became a

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

resistance activist against the Dollfuß dictatorship and, after

1938 Events January * January 1 – state-owned enterprise, State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). * January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Saf ...

, against the National Socialist (''"Nazi"'') régime. Her cover name within the Siegl resistance group was "Walli". She was executed, along with two of her resistance comrades, by guillotine at the district court complex in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

on 23 September 1943.

Biography

Katharina "Käthe" Wanek was born in Hulken in

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

(today Hluk in the

Zlín Region Zlín Region () is an administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the south-eastern part of the historical region of Moravia. It is named after its capital Zlín. Together with the Olomouc Region it forms a cohesion area of Central M ...

of the

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

), about to the north-east of

. She was youngest of the six children of the farm workers Franz and Maria Wanek. The family relocated to

in 1905. She attended the junior school in the

Favoriten Favoriten (; ), the 10th district of Vienna, Austria (), is located south of the central districts. It is south of Innere Stadt, Wieden and Margareten. Favoriten is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also la ...

quarter on the southern side of the city for six years and then undertook a succession "assistant" jobs. In 1921 she married Franz Odwody, a machinist-assistant five years older than she. He emigrated to America in 1922 but returned to

in 1924. That year Käthe was recruited to work at the Ankerbot bakery, Austria's leading industrial bakery, where she worked till 1934, also serving on the factory's

works council A works council is a shop-floor organization representing workers that functions as a local/firm-level complement to trade unions but is independent of these at least in some countries. Works councils exist with different names in a variety of re ...

. She was active as a member of the Austrian Free Trades Union of Food and Drink Workers between 1923 and 1934. The Ankerbot bakery was well known as a centre of labour activism. Back in

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

employees had created a "workers' army" of around 1,000 men to protect the factory: this ad hoc militia had at that time been one of the largest quasi-military organisations in Vienna. During the short-lived (and brutally suppressed) insurrection in February 1934 the factory became a centre for the anti-government protection league and other socialist resistance groups. Workers responded to the strike call of the trades union movement and many were involved in armed street fighting against forces backing the post-democratic Dollfuß régime. The protection league member Alexander Scheck, whose shooting by government forces on 13 February 1934 marked the collapse of the resistance, was an Ankerbot worker. Käthe Odwody herself was among the Ankerbrot workers arrested in the aftermath of the

street fighting Street fighting or street combat is hand-to-hand combat in public places between individuals or groups of people. The venue is usually a public place (e.g., a street), and the fight sometimes results in serious injury or even death. Some street ...

. She was held in custody between 17 February and 11 May 1934. It was only a few weeks after her release, on 14 June 1934, that she was charged at the Vienna district court with "Insurrection and High Treason" (''"Aufstand und Hochverrat"''). She was acquitted. However, the court also dismissed her claim for compensation because the "suspicion that she had participated in the disturbances" had not been sufficiently invalidated. The indictment against her had alleged that during the days of fighting she had loaded up the gun belts of the fighters with cartridges in the canteen used by the bakery "coachmen" (delivery drivers). Despite her acquittal she lost her job with the bakery and remained unemployed till 1938. In March 1938 Fascist Austria was formally incorporated into an enlarged

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

following a largely unresisted military invasion from the north-west. That year Käthe Odwody returned to her job at the Ankerbot bakery. It was also that year that the factory owners, the Mendl family, whom the authorities had identified as Jewish, escaped to

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The factory was expropriated by the authorities and "aryanised" but it remained a focus of trades union activism. At the start of 1939 a strike took place at the factory against the equalisation of payroll taxes (which before

had been much higher in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

than in Austria). There had been no compensating wage increase at the bakery to compensate. The

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

crushed the strike and intensified their surveillance and supervision activities at the plant. Odwody reacted by joining the (since 1933 illegal) Communist Party. In Autumn 1940 she was accepted into the local leadership team (''"Bezirksleitung"'') for the

district of Vienna, which was still her home. She became a party official and contributed to party work by collecting membership subscriptions and secretly distributing Die Rote Fahne (''"Red Flag"''), the party newspaper. She became a member of the so-called "Siegl Group", a resistance group which took its name from the cover name used by its leader, Rudolf Fischer. Odwody's own cover name in the group was "Walli". Rudolf and Maria Fischer were arrested on 29 April 1941. Franz and Käthe Odwody were arrested the same day. Franz was suspected of having collaborated with his wife in respect of her resistance activities. He was nevertheless released on 17 May 1941. His wife remained in state custody. Rudolf and Maria Fischer were executed at the district court complex on 28 January 1943 and 30 March 1943. Käthe Odwody finally faced the special people's court in Vienna on 9 November 1942. The charge was the usual one under these circumstances of "preparing to commit High Treason" (''"Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat"''). She was convicted and sentenced to death. Like her comrades the Fischers she was executed on the guillotine which the authorities had installed at the district court complex in 1938, shortly after the

annexation of Austria The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany") arose after the 1871 unifica ...

. Käthe Odwody's execution took place on 23 September 1943. A report of it was prepared the next day: *"The death sentence was carried out on the convicted prisoners Karl Tomasek, Anna Muzik und Katharina Odwody on 23 September 1943, between 18.07 hrs and 18.23 hours. The executions proceeded without any unusual incidents and each lasted a few seconds. - Execution record: 24 September 1943".

Celebration

In 1946 a memorial tablet to Käthe Odwody and others was placed outside the Ankerbot premises at Absberggasse 35. In 2004 a street in Vienna-

was named after her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odwody, Katharina 1901 births 1943 deaths Austrian people of Czech descent People from Uherské Hradiště District Politicians from Vienna Austrian resistance members People executed by Nazi Germany by guillotine Executed German Resistance members Communist Party of Austria politicians Austrian trade unionists Communists executed by Nazi Germany