Leopold Kahlkopf 1907 - 1940

Born 24.12.1907 in Wien
Died 29.4.1940 in Mauthausen

Biography

At the age of 15, having attended primary and secondary modern school in St. Andrä Wördern and Vienna, Leopold Kahlkopf began an apprenticeship in the Alois Artner lingerie store at 20 Währinger Straße 20 in Vienna’s 9th district, which he completed in 1925.[1] Starting in 1926, there followed a long period of unemployment until Kahlkopf enlisted in the Austrian Army, serving from 2 March 1931 to 5 January 1935 as a radio operator with the 1st Telephone Company in Klosterneuburg. Just one day after his military service came to an end he started work as a guard at Vienna’s town hall and, in September 1937, he was assigned to the municipal administration, where, having passed the chancellery exam, he worked as a candidate in the chancellery.

On 4 January 1939 at 7.30am, Kahlkopf was arrested in his flat in Vienna’s 16th district by the Gestapo agents Franz Punz and Adolf Knippelberg on suspicion of homosexual activities. His arrest came about by the so-called ‘snowball principle’: this meant that during an interrogation, he had been betrayed or named as a homosexual by someone else. When his personal details were taken, it was recorded that Kahlkopf was a candidate member of the NSDAP and had been performing the role as Blockleiter (block leader) of the local Brunnenmarkt group in region 7 since June 1938.[2] However, no further statements are found about this activity. On 7 January 1939 he was photographed for police records.[3]

Leopold Kahlkopf was accused of having been cultivating sexual relations with several different men since 1932. On the basis of these accusations and the confession given during his Gestapo interrogation, this man, who had a spotless record and no previous convictions or police cautions, and who enjoyed a good reputation among his circle, was charged according to § 129 lb StG.[4] and sentenced by Vienna Regional Court II on 23 May 1939, after four and a half months in custody, to seven months aggravated imprisonment, with the additional punishment of having to sleep on bare boards once a month. The time spent in custody was taken into account, which meant that he was released from the prison of Regional Court II on 4 August 1939. This was immediately followed by imprisonment in the police prison at Rossauer Lände – making him available to the Vienna Gestapo – during what was known as a ‘back transfer’. In many cases, this kind of transfer after having served a full sentence meant being sent to a concentration camp. In Leopold Kahlkopf’s case, it also led to imprisonment in Buchenwald concentration camp.

On 15 April 1940 he was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp for unknown reasons. Leopold Kahlkopf received prisoner number 2816 and the reason for imprisonment was given as § 175.[5] After just two weeks, he died there on 29 April 1940. The official cause of death was given as ‘infect. Wound l. thigh, gen. sepsis.’[6]

Manuela Bauer

 

Translation into English: Joanna White

 

Sources:

Wiener Stadt-und Landesarchiv (WStLA), Gestapo, K1, Gestapo-Kartei [Gestapo index card]: Leopold Kahlkopf.

 

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