Karl SONNLEITHNER, born on July 17, 1897 in Pilsen, Bohemia (Austria-Hungary, later Czechoslovak Republic), was the second of four children of the Catholic couple Anna and Max Edler von Sonnleithner, who was a professional officer in the Imperial and Royal Army, last in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, last in the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The family, entitled to a home in Salzburg under Austrian law, had lived in the house at Arenbergstraße 1, which was owned by the family, since 1903. Karl’s father died in Salzburg in 1930.
His younger brother Franz, an Austrian lawyer and police commissioner who worked in the Federal Chancellery in Vienna until 1934, made a career in Berlin under the Nazi regime.1
Karl SONNLEITHNER, who learned the trade of carpenter and remained single, had been a patient at the Salzburg State Sanatorium since 1925.
He was one of the 85 inmates who were deported to Hartheim and murdered on May 21, 1941.
As with all victims of the National Socialist secret action »T4«2, the death of the 43-year-old man is not recorded in the police registration file of the city of Salzburg.
His mother died in April 1942 and his older brother Max, who also lived in Salzburg and worked as a gardener, died here in 1946.
1 Autobiography of Franz von Sonnleithner (born 1905 in Salzburg, died 1981 in Ingelheim am Rhein): Als Diplomat im »Führerhauptquartier«, Munich 1989 (from the estate, foreword by Reinhard Spitzy, former Nazi functionary, died 2010 in Maria Alm am Steinernen Meer).
2 »T4« named after the »euthanasia« headquarters in Berlin, Tiergartenstraße 4.
Those mainly responsible for the murders of the sick in Salzburg: Dr. Friedrich Rainer as Reichsstatthalter, Dr. Oskar Hausner as head of the Gaufürsorgeamt, Dr. Leo Wolfer as head of the Landesheilanstalt and Dr. Heinrich Wolfer as head of the hereditary biology department of the Landesheilanstalt (now Christian Doppler Clinic).
Quellen
- Salzburg City Archives
- Schloss Hartheim Study and Memorial Center
Translation: DeepL
Stumbling Stone
Laid 22.07.2010 at Salzburg, Arenbergstraße 1
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer