Gustav Schwarzenegger

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Gustav Schwarzenegger
Weiz, Steiermark, Austria
Buried
Weiz Cemetery, Weiz, Steiermark, Austria
Allegiance Federal State of Austria
 Nazi Germany
Service/branchGerman Army
Austrian Army
Years of service1924–1945
RankStabsfeldwebel [citation needed]
UnitFeldgendarmerie-Abteilung 521 (mot.), 4th Panzer Army
Battles/wars
Awards
Eastern Front Medal
Wound Badge
Spouse(s)
Aurelia Jadrny
​
(m. 1945)​
Children2, including Arnold Schwarzenegger
Other workPoliceman

Gustav Schwarzenegger (17 August 1907 – 13 December 1972) was an Austrian police chief (Gendarmeriekommandant), postal inspector, member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), and military police officer. He was the father of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Biography

Gustav Schwarzenegger was born in Austria-Hungary, the son of Cecelia (née Hinterleitner, 1878–1968) and Karl Schwarzenegger (1872–1927).[1] His patrilineal grandfather, Wenzel Mach, was Czech and came from the village of Chocov near Mladá Vožice.[2] Wenzel had a child out of wedlock with Kunigunde Schwarzenegger, and the child was originally named Carl Mach but later adopted his mother's surname, Schwarzenegger.[3][4]

Nazi Party and SA membership

According to documents obtained in 2003 from the Austrian State Archives by the

Wiesenthal Center
indicates he sought membership before the annexation, but was accepted only in January 1941.

Schwarzenegger also applied to become a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's (NSDAP) paramilitary wing, on 1 May 1939, in the early years of the annexation of Austria, at a time when SA membership was declining. The SA had 900,000 members in 1940, down from 4.2 million in 1934. This six-year decline in SA membership was an extended result of the three-day-long purge known as the Night of the Long Knives, a political purge carried out by Adolf Hitler against the SA, seen at that time as too radical and too powerful by senior military and industrial leaders within the NSDAP.

Military career

Schwarzenegger had served in the

Panzer Group 4
.

Wounded in action in

Eastern Front Medal, and the Wound Badge; he also received significant medical attention for his injuries. Initially treated at a military hospital in Łódź, according to the records, Schwarzenegger also suffered recurring bouts of malaria, which led to his discharge in February 1944. Considered unfit for active duty, he returned to Graz, Austria, where he was assigned to work as a postal inspector.[5]

A health registry document[when?] describes him as a "calm and reliable person, not particularly outstanding" and assesses his intellect as "average." Ursula Schwarz, a historian at Vienna's Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance, has argued that Schwarzenegger's career was fairly typical for his generation,[7] and that no evidence has emerged directly linking him with participation in war crimes or abuses against civilians.[5] He resumed his police career in 1947.

Later life and death

Schwarzenegger married war widow Aurelia "Reli" Jadrny (29 July 1922 – 2 August 1998) on 5 October 1945, in

Steiermark, Austria. They later had two sons, Meinhard (July 17, 1946 - May 20, 1971) and Arnold; Meinhard died on 20 May 1971 in a car accident while driving alone drunk on a mountain road.[8][9]

Schwarzenegger died of a stroke on 13 December 1972, at the age of 65, in Weiz, Steiermark, Austria, where he had been transferred as a policeman. While visiting Weiz Cemetery in August 1998, where her husband was buried, Aurelia Jadrny Schwarzenegger died of a heart attack at the age of 76; she is buried next to him. Their son, Arnold, stated in the film Pumping Iron that he did not attend his father's funeral, but later retracted this, explaining that it was a story he had appropriated from a boxer, to make it appear as though he could prevent his personal life from interfering with his athletic training.[10]

News reports about Schwarzenegger's Nazi links first surfaced in 1990, at which time Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the

2003 recall election
.

In a 2021 video made in response to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which he urged the Russian soldiers to discontinue their invasion in order to not "be broken like [his] father".[12]

Notes

  1. ^ This was following the expiration of a 30-year seal on Schwarzenegger's records under Austrian privacy laws.

References

  1. ISBN 9780313338106
    .
  2. ^ "Birth record of Wenzel Mach". Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  3. ^ "Slovenka vypátrala skutočný pôvod akčného hrdinu: Žiadny Schwarzenegger, ale Arnold Mach!". Nový čas. 18 August 2020. Archived from the original on 23 December 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  4. ^ "Conan the Bohemian: Arnold Schwarzenegger's Czech roots confirmed". The Prague Reporter. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Wilkinson, Tracy; Lait, Matt (14 August 2003). "Austrian Archives Reveal Nazi Military Role of Actor's Father". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  6. ^ "I love the Russian people. That is why I have to tell you the truth. Please watch and share". Twitter. 18 March 2022.
  7. ^ "Spotlight Thrown on Nazi Past of Schwarzenegger's Father". AFP. 25 August 2003. Archived from the original on 22 November 2006.
  8. ^ "The Unkillable Arnold Schwarzenegger". Rolling Stone. 7 May 2015. Archived from the original on 10 March 2022. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  9. ^ Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Simon & Schuster, 2012, p. 134
  10. ^ Gillespie, Nick (31 July 2003). "Hasta la Vista, Arnold: How Schwarzenegger could have liberated U.S. politics". Reason. Retrieved 13 November 2006.
  11. ^ @Schwarzenegger (10 January 2021). "My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  12. ^ Urban, Sasha (17 March 2022). "Arnold Schwarzenegger Recalls Nazi Father in Anti-War Message to Russia". Variety. Retrieved 19 March 2022.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gustav_Schwarzenegger&oldid=1219370790"