Eduard Hedvicek

Who was Eduard Hedvicek?

Eduard Hedvicek was born in 1878 in Kojetín, Moravia, Austria-Hungary, now in the Czech Republic, and died 1947 in Vienna, Austria. He was the secretary of Engelbert Dollfuß, the Austrian Chancellor before the Anschluss. On July 25, 1934, he unsuccessfully tried to prevent Dollfuß's assassination by Otto Planetta. He testified at the trial of the murderers as a "Crown" witness and was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit by the Austrian government for his heroic efforts. He was imprisoned by the Nazis after the Anschluss. His imprisonment was a matter of personal revenge from Ernst Kaltenbrunner SS-Obergruppenführer and Chef d. Reichssicherheitshauptamtes, famous Austrian Nazi, who himself was involved in Dollfuß's assassination and was for this and other crimes hanged after the war. Eduard Hedvicek died after the war in 1947.