Suddenly gone

Fuss over alleyway for former Nazi mayor

A street sign casts a shadow over picturesque Groß Gerungs.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Waldviertel Tourismus, BLG)

Tragic-comic farce about a controversial street sign in Groß Gerungs, because it pays homage to a Nazi mayor.

Johann Ortlieb was certainly not a fine man! After all, contemporary history lists him as a block and cell leader of the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1936. The Hitler henchman and mayor of Groß Gerungs then climbed the career ladder in various NSDAP functions up to district staff leader.

Sentenced to hard labor
His loyalty to the criminal regime culminated on December 10, 1947 at the Donnerskirchen trial in a sentence of two years in prison and the loss of all his assets. But this is precisely why he was NOT remembered by the people of "Germs" - as the village is colloquially known in Waldviertel.

The controversial street sign suddenly disappeared.(Bild: BLG)

Alley as a "historical burden"
For the municipal elections, however, the citizens' list led by Markus Kienast is making the "historical burden" of an alley named after Ortlieb an issue. "Ortlieb doesn't deserve this kind of homage," scolded Kienast. No sooner had his criticism become public than the "Gassen-Taferl" mysteriously disappeared. The Taferl miraculously reappeared - the suspicion of a political staging suggests itself. None other than the owner of the house on which the debt was emblazoned, a pianist named Johannes Wohlgenannt Zincke, had removed it. So that it would not disappear into the mists of history . . .