Karl MAYER was born in Grödig (9 km south of Salzburg) on October 23, 1903 and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. His unmarried mother was an unskilled workerand had no regular place of residence.
Karl MAYER left few records of his life. He was a worker in Salzburg, got married in the war year 1941, and had a son. He and his family lived in the Riedenburg neighborhood of Salzburg.
It isn’t known when Karl MAYER was drafted into service in the German Wehrmacht and where he was stationed. The only thing that is known is the formal report of the Deputy General Command Military District XVIII (Salzburg) about the suicide of the »Rifleman« [Private] Karl MAYER on 19 June 1944 – »in mental confusion«.
The 40-year-old Wehrmacht soldier, who had a family, was driven to his death.
It should also be noted that the surviving relatives of Wehrmacht members who committed suicide and thus refused military service were not entitled to victims’ assistance benefits in liberated Austria after 1945.
That meant that Karl MAYER’s widow and children were denied both the survivor’s benefits given to other families of soldiers killed in the war, and the victims’ assistance benefits granted to many other family members of those killed by the Nazis.
Karl MAYER is one of the Nazis’ victims who wasn’t counted in the 1991 publication Dokumentation Widerstand und Verfolgung in Salzburg 1934-1945, and doesn’t appear in the Online-Databank of the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance.
Sources
- Salzburg City- and State Archives Police Registration Files and Local Citizenship records
- Archive of the Salzburg Archdiocese: Birth registration books
- Deputy General Command Military District XVIII (Salzburg): Report to the Wehrmacht Information Office in Berlin
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 08.10.2025 at Salzburg, Göllstraße 7
Court martial military district command XVIII (Salzburg):Report to Wehrmacht information office Berlin
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer