Hermann Schneeweiss

Hermann Schneeweiss was born in 1872 in Bielsko, in what was then Silesia. A son of a printing shop owner, he studied jurisprudence in Vienna and completed an additional book printer’s apprenticeship.
Dr. Schneeweiss settled in Linz in 1904 and opened a law practice here. He soon gained an excellent reputation within the religious community, aiding them in legal matters. After they married and their daughter was born, Schneeweiss and his wife purchased a villa in the Stockbauernstrasse. Both sons were born there. Hermann Schneeweiss was a devout and assimilated Jew who lived primarily for his profession.

During the First Republic, he became involved in Linz’s local political scene. He served as a social-democratic mandatary on the local and city councils. As the only Jew holding political office, Schneeweiss was exposed to anti-Semitism which began to be more and more openly expressed.

The oppression by the Nazi regime that began in March of 1938 hit him especially hard. After he was imprisoned for several months in Linz, Dachau and Buchenwald, Schneeweiss’s wife obtained his release through the intervention of his professional colleague Ernst Kaltenbrunner. After that, the couple managed to flee to their sons, who were living in Australia.

The solicitor who was once renowned in Linz was unable to take up his profession again in Sydney. He had to earn his living selling scholastic exercise books and through book lending.

Dr. Hermann Schneeweiss died prematurely; according to his son, he died in 1946 of “a broken heart”.