Josef Leopold
| Josef Leopold | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Josef Leopold February 18, 1889 Langenlois |
| Died | June 24, 1941 (aged 52) Volhynia |
| Cause of death | Killed in battle |
| Citizenship | Austrian, German (after 1938) |
| Title | Oberstleutnant in the Sturmabteilung |
| Political party | Nazi Party |
Josef Leopold (18 February 1889 – 24 June 1941) was a leading member of the Nazi Party in Austria. He was the Landesleiter of the party from 1935 to 1938 and the head of the Sturmabteilung in Austria. He belonged to the pro-independence tendency within Austrian Nazism and insisted that Adolf Hitler was only a spiritual leader rather than a future Austrian leader.
Leopold was a native of the rural Waldviertel and, with little formal education, was expected to devote his life working his peasant father's small farm. Leopold however followed a military career, joining the 49th Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army on 7 October 1910. He left the army in 1913, having reached the rank of sergeant but returned following the outbreak of the First World War. Leopold saw action on the Eastern Front until 1915 when he was captured by the Russians. He was sent to Siberia as a prisoner of war and remained in a camp until February 1918 when he escaped, returning to Austria. Soon after this he saw service with the Volkswehr and following the reorganisation of the military after the establishment of the republic he was retained in the new Austrian Army as an instructor of new recruits.
Leopold's initial involvement in politics came in December 1918 when he joined the Social Democratic Party of Austria. However, by the following year Leopold had switched sides to join Walter Riehl's Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei and he became a convinced activist in the party after hearing Adolf Hitler speaking at Krems an der Donau in 1920. Leopold quickly rose through the ranks, so that by 1926 he was leader of the Sturmabteilung in Lower Austria as well as deputy Gauleiter of that region. With the support of Hitler he became full Gauleiter in 1927 and was soon the leading critic of Karl Schulz, whose faction of the Austrian Nazi Party was decidedly anti-Germany in outlook.
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