Obelisk in the city forest

In 1936, Austrian SA legionnaires of the so-called Austrian Legion erected a memorial to their dead comrades from Austria in the Bocholt relief organisation camp with the help of local craftsmen.

The inscription on the base of the memorial read: "Our dead comrades from Austria's fight for freedom in July 1934".

These members of the Austrian SA had lost their lives in the failed coup against the authoritarian government in Vienna on 25 July 1934. The background to this was the so-called July coup, in which Austrian National Socialists attempted to take power in Austria and assassinated the then Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß, among others. However, the attempted coup was crushed.

A monument becomes a memorial

The monument itself was a stone obelisk. An eagle with outstretched wings was enthroned on its top. At the foot of the monument was a swastika in an oak wreath and a dedication plaque as symbols of National Socialist ideology. After the Second World War, these emblems were hastily removed. Today, the remains of the monument stand as a memorial in the undergrowth of the former camp grounds and mark a final, warning testimony to National Socialist tyranny in Bocholt.

The Austrian Legion in Bocholt

When the NSDAP was banned in Austria in June 1933, thousands of Austrian supporters of the party fled to Germany. There they were initially housed as the so-called Austrian Legion in Bavaria and later distributed in camps throughout the German Reich.

One of these so-called relief organisation camps was set up in Bocholt. From spring 1935, the Austrians were militarily drilled and ideologically indoctrinated here.

The willingness of the Austrian legionnaires to use violence soon became apparent. Their atrocities included an attack on an event organised by the Catholic Workers' Movement (KAB) in Rhede, the destruction of the Kolping memorial at St. George's Church in Bocholt and attacks on Jewish citizens.

After the "Accession" of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938, many of the men returned to their homeland. From autumn 1939, the camp grounds became the Stalag (Stammlager) VI F prisoner of war camp for thousands of soldiers.