Herbert Wilhelm Ludwig Heller
- Born on: 19.9.1922
- Birthplace: Vienna (Wien),
- Category: Diploma program
- Right of domicile: Wien (Wien),
The English version is based on a translation by Artificial Intelligence. The German version is considered the authentic version.
Herbert Wilhelm Ludwig was the son of Friedrich Wilhelm (born January 26, 1877, in the Bohemian town of Komhaus/Mšec, died April 1, 1939, in Vienna) and Josefine Valerie Heller (born February 3, 1885, in Vienna with the maiden name Rückle), who operated a shop for artificial flowers at Taborstraße 45 (2nd district of Vienna).
To what extent Herbert enrolled at the University for World Trade before the end of World War II can no longer be determined due to the deficient source situation. It is a fact that in 1945 three semesters were credited to him as "reparation." It may have been decisive that his studies during the Nazi period were made difficult because he was considered a "Mischling" according to the racist ideas of Nazi ideology. Although he himself and his parents were baptized Protestant, the entire family was classified as "jüdisch versippt" in terms of the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935 due to the father's Jewish descent. It can be verified that Herbert began his diploma studies shortly after the end of the war, which he successfully completed by the end of June 1946. He then pursued doctoral studies. With his dissertation on Das Recht auf den vollen Arbeitsertrag. Eine volkswirtschaftliche Betrachtung, he was awarded a Doctorate in Commerce in July of the following year.
He lived in his parental home at Pfeffergasse 2 (2nd district) for almost the entire Nazi period. In early March 1945, he moved to Peter-Jordan-Straße 43 (19th district), where he remained until August 1954. He then relocated to Josefstädter Straße 101/12 (8th district), where he was registered until 1958. In the meantime, he had married Gerda (born February 18, 1927, in Vienna, maiden name Pelz). In Josefstädter Straße, he also had a travel agency. This helped him bring relatives to Austria during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. Furthermore, he founded the company Helimpex in the post-war period, which was active in Eastern trade during the Cold War. His trade relations in the Eastern bloc were likely responsible for him being suspected by the Hungarian state security service of espionage for the German and Austrian governments in the 1950s and 1960s. Conversely, he was accused from the Catholic side at the same time of acting as an "Austrian economic communist." The magazine Orientierung. Katholische Blätter für weltanschauliche Information believed to know that his travel agency on Josefstädter Straße actually belonged to the Communist Party of Austria.
Author: Johannes Koll
Source material
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Universitätsarchiv, Karteikarte.
Meldeauskunft des Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchivs, GZ MA 8 – B-MEW – 788156/2013.
Wiener Adreßbuch 1942, 83. Jahrgang, Wien 1942, Bd. 1, S. 403.
Alfred M. Posselt: Die Ehrenarier – Verräter oder geschonte Opfer? Eine zeitgeschichtliche Studie (150 untersuchte Einzelfälle), Wien 1992, S. 90.
Éva Argejó (Hrsg.): Atomzselés cukorka. Adalékok Ötvös Alajos hírszerzői tevékenységéről a váci börtönben keletkezett fogdaügynök-jelentések tükrében, in: Betekintő 2010/2, Dok. 4 und 5, S. 13-16.
Der Kommunismus und die Weltjugendfestspiele in Wien, in: Orientierung. Katholische Blätter für weltanschauliche Information, 23. Jg., Nr. 12/13 vom 30. Juni 1959, S. 141-147.