Leopold VORREITER was born in Neukirchen am Großvenediger (on the upper reaches of the Salzach river, c. 130 km southwest of the city) on July 19, 1900 and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. He was the younger son of Sophia and Josef Vorreiter, farmers at Wartbichl.
Since the early 1920s, Leopold VORREITER, who hadn’t learned a trade, worked as a house servant in the city of Salzburg. He married there and had two children. The family last lived at 74 Linzer Gasse.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Leopold VORREITER became a member of the German Wehrmacht: serving with a rank as »Schütze« [caretaker] in the Veterinary Replacement Department 18, designated as a »Heimatpferdelazarett« [Homeland Horse Hospital]1 stationed in Military District XVIII (Salzburg).
On February 27, 1940, Leopold VORREITER was dead: a »Suicide by hanging« – a 39-year-old Wehrmacht soldier who had a family and had been driven to his death. The report of the Military District Command XVIII to the Berlin Wehrmacht Information Office said nothing about his motives.
Leopold VORREITER wasn’t the only suicide reported by the Homeland Horse Hospital #18: for example, »Schütze« Adam Egger, born on December 11, 1901 in Semriach, reportedly died on June 1, 1943 »from refusing food«.
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 Leopold VORREITER’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.
Leopold VORREITER is one of the 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.
1 Johann PICHLER and Josef WEGSCHEIDER, conscientious objectors for religious reasons, were also obliged to serve in the Homeland Horse Hospital #18.
Sources
- Salzburg City- and State Archives Police Registration Files and Local Citizenship records
- Archive of the Salzburg Archdiocese: Birth reregistration books
- Military District XVIII: Report to the Wehrmacht Information Office in Berlin
Translation: Stan Nadel
Stumbling Stone
Laid 08.10.2025 at Salzburg, Linzer Gasse 74
Court martial military district command XVIII (Salzburg):Report to Wehrmacht information office Berlin
Photo: Gert Kerschbaumer