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Old 08-04-2003, 11:20 AM
Richard T Eger Richard T Eger is offline
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Default Luftwaffe personnel war graves in Austria

From 12 O'Clock High!:

j Cowan
Luftwaffe Hero taken from place of honor to paupers grave.
Wed Jul 16 14:00:18 2024
66.26.28.96

Vienna council shifts Luftwaffe hero from plot of honour to pauper's grave
By Clare Chapman in Vienna
(Filed: 13/07/2003)


The ashes of a daredevil Luftwaffe pilot who shot down more than 250 Allied planes in the Second World War are to be exhumed from a grave of honour in Vienna after the council stripped him of his status as a war hero.

The campaign to remove Major Walter Nowotny's remains from the city's Central Cemetery and move them to a pauper's plot has been led by the grandson of a British RAF pilot who was shot down over Belgium in 1940 and died of his injuries.

David Ellensohn, a Vienna city councillor whose maternal grandfather was RAF acting pilot officer James Gillespie, successfully argued that Major Nowotny - the first fighter pilot in history to bring down 250 enemy aircraft - had been serving the Third Reich and did not deserve his heroic status.

"He was not fighting for this country, for Austria, he was fighting for the Third Reich," said Mr Ellensohn, a Green Party councillor. "If they had won the war, there would be no Austria as such. Therefore, we should not be forced to give special credit to this man."

Major Nowotny, who had shot down 258 enemy aircraft by the time of his death, aged 24, had been awarded the Third Reich's highest military honour, the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, by Hitler himself.

When the major died in 1944 when his fighter crashed in flames, his ashes were buried with his medals in his home town, Vienna, alongside Austrian resistance fighters and Beethoven, Schubert, Johann Strauss and Brahms.

Mr Ellensohn asked: "What did he do that earned him a place alongside those who really earned their places in the cemetery, such as resistance fighters Rosa Jochmann and Paul Speiser?

"He was placed in that section of the graveyard by the Nazis, not by the city of Vienna, and although it has taken 59 years for the city to recognise that he does not deserve to be there, we are pleased that action is finally being taken."

The council's decision has been denounced as "cultural barbarianism" by Johann Herzog, a councillor for the opposition Freedom Party (FP), which has launched an appeal.

Opposition councillors argue that relocating the major's ashes would contravene the war graves welfare law, from 1948, that says war graves - regardless of the nationality of their occupant - must remain undisturbed.

Mr Herzog said: "The necessity to dishonour Nowotny's grave, and therefore his person, almost 60 years after his death, is evidence of a distorted understanding of history and moreover a lack of deference for a fallen soldier. And that's all he was - a soldier.

"He was not a member of the National Socialist Party and he certainly was not a war criminal. If he were, I could understand the removal of his status. In fact, he was respected not just by his own side but by RAF pilots as well."

Sascha Gasthuber, of the far-Right Germania group, said protesters carrying flaming torches to show their contempt for the vote would march against the council's decision. "Nowotny gave his life to make sure the future was worth living in for us and our children. We cannot sit back and let them dishonour his memory like this."

Mr Ellensohn, however, insisted that the plan to move the grave away from the cemetery's section for heroes was perfectly justified. "As far as I am aware, there is no rule in Catholicism that says a grave cannot be moved, not like in Judaism," he said.

Major Nowotny, who joined up when he was 19 following the invasion of Poland, was renowned even among Allied pilots and during the summer of 1943 became a virtual one-man air force in the skies over the Eastern Front. In June 1943 he shot down 41 aircraft, 10 in one day. He crashed on November 8 1944 and was buried with his medals a few days later.
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Old 08-04-2003, 11:21 AM
Richard T Eger Richard T Eger is offline
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From further within the thread on TOCH!:

Simon Schatz
Nowotny grave
Wed Jul 16 20:21:02 2024
80.108.55.225

Hi guys!
Here the news I have:

The grave of Major Nowotny will not taken from place of honor. The only thing that will happen is that the city Vienna will no longer pay for the maintenance of the grave. Now a private organisation has to pay for that.

Here the source in German language.
Maybe somebody with a better english knowledge could translate that.

01. Juli 2024
19:29 MEZ NS-Grab ohne Pflege
Ehrenplatz für Luftwaffenoffizier bleibt



Wien - Das Ehrengrab des ehemaligen NS-Luftwaffenoffiziers Walter Nowotny auf dem Wiener Zentralfriedhof wird ab sofort nicht mehr von der Stadt gepflegt. SP-Kulturstadtrat Andreas Mailath-Pokorny hat die Friedhofsverwaltung dazu angewiesen. Das ist nun die Umsetzung eines Beschlusses des Gemeinderats, der im Mai mit Stimmen von Grünen und Sozialdemokraten gefällt wurde.

Walter Nowotny, geboren 1920 in Gmünd, hat im Zweiten Weltkrieg 250 Flugzeuge der Alliierten abgeschossen. Er selbst kam bei einem Einsatz ums Leben und wurde 1944 in einem Ehrengrab der Stadt Wien beigesetzt.

Private Pflege

Das Grab wird künftig von Privaten gepflegt. Nach Angaben der FPÖ, die sich gegen den Beschluss wehrt ("Kulturbarbarei"), leben noch Angehörige von Nowotny.

An eine Auflösung des Ehrengrabs ist aber nicht gedacht, heißt es aus Mailath-Pokornys Büro. Dies sei auch nicht Gegenstand des Gemeinderatsbeschlusses gewesen.

Grünen-Gemeinderat David Ellensohn, der die Diskussion angeregt hat, verlangt, dass das Grab verlegt oder beim derzeitigen Standort eine erklärende Tafel zum geschichtlichen Hintergrund angebracht wird. Die Tafel ist für Mailath-Pokorny überlegenswert, FP-Gemeinderat Johann Herzog ist auch gegen diese Lösung. Er bezichtigt Grüne und SP des "gestörten Geschichtsverständnisses". (aw/DER STANDARD, Printausgabe, 2.7.2003)


Greetings from Vienna,
Simon
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Old 08-04-2003, 11:22 AM
Richard T Eger Richard T Eger is offline
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From further within the thread on TOCH!:

Richard Byrd
Change of plan
Thu Jul 17 17:54:06 2024
208.62.52.1

This thread triggered a much longer (and even more acrimonious) thread over on hyperscale. In the course of that one, someone posted a copy of a German-language article from Vienna indicating that Nowotny's remains would not now be moved, only that the city council would no longer pay for maintenance of the grave. That would now be the responsibility of surviving members of the Nowotny family.
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Old 08-04-2003, 11:23 AM
Richard T Eger Richard T Eger is offline
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From TOCH!:

Simon Schatz
local council meeting May 25th 2024
Fri Jul 18 16:25:29 2024
80.108.55.225

Hi Guys!
Here you can read the hole literal minutes form the 28th local council meeting concerning Major Walter Nowotny and his grave on vienna's Central Cemetery.

Text is in German, but I hope some of you can read this! It´s really interesting.

http://www.wien.gv.at/mdb/gr/2003/gr...-05-23-042.htm
http://www.wien.gv.at/mdb/gr/2003/gr...-05-23-043.htm
http://www.wien.gv.at/mdb/gr/2003/gr...-05-23-044.htm
http://www.wien.gv.at/mdb/gr/2003/gr...-05-23-045.htm
http://www.wien.gv.at/mdb/gr/2003/gr...-05-23-046.htm
http://www.wien.gv.at/mdb/gr/2003/gr...-05-23-047.htm

Here the text of the considering board.

The text suggestion of Viennese Green party
Former honour grave of Walter Nowotny
„Luftwaffemajor Walter Nowotny, leader of the illegal Hitler Youth and NSDAP member since 1. 5. 1938, after his crash represented as hero death 1944, he was high-stylized to the figurehead and buried in an honour grave of the city Vienna. Since this the burial place was place of right-wing extremist activities again and again and no material reason for the maintenance of the honour of a National Socialist final victory fighter is present, the local council of the city Vienna canceled the honour grave dedication on 23 May 2024 on initiative of a Wehrmachts deserter.
Source: Kurier 07-19-2003
http://archiv.kurier.at/display.html3...11/003_001.dcs
http://archiv.kurier.at/display.html3...11/002_001.dcs

Der Textvorschlag der Wiener Grünen
Ehemaliges Ehrengrab von Walter Nowotny
„Der Major der deutschen Luftwaffe Walter Nowotny, Führer der illegalen Hitlerjugend und NSDAP-Mitglied seit 1. 5. 1938, wurde nach seinem als Heldentod dargestellten Absturz 1944 von der NS-Propaganda zur Galionsfigur hochstilisiert und in einem Ehrengrab der Stadt Wien beerdigt. Da diese Grabstätte immer wieder Ort rechtsextremer Aktivitäten war und kein sachlicher Grund für die Aufrechterhaltung der Ehrung eines nationalsozialistischen Endsieg-Kämpfers vorliegt, hat der Gemeinderat der Stadt Wien am 23. Mai 2024 auf Initiative eines Wehrmachtsdeserteurs die Ehrengrabwidmung aufgehoben.“
Quelle: Kurier, Samstag 19.07.2003



Greetings from Vienna,
Simon
"Luftwaffe Profiles & Models"
http://www.luftwaffe.at.tf
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  #5  
Old 08-05-2003, 12:45 PM
Richard T Eger Richard T Eger is offline
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From within a thread on 12 O'Clock High!:

tomcat
nowotny
Wed Jul 23 00:41:22 2024
212.144.46.87

hello,

in fact, most of walter nowotny's remains are still in achmer near osnabrueck, the place where his plane crashed.
his grave at simmering, vienna, was and is empty.

the whole thing now seems more a political affair, a struggle among "the good" (green party pacifists) and "the bad" (soldiers of any kind). behind closed doors, the "middle" in europe is loosing ground, and left and right fractions get more interest.

no good times, these times ...

regards, tomcat
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