Location: Dorfstraße 17, 8430 Wagna
From 1942 to 1945, Retzhof Castle was home to the “Gebietsführerschule I” of the Styrian Hitler Youth (HJ). The school trained HJ followers, sub-band and regular leaders as well as ensign leaders of the Deutsches Jungvolk (DJ).
The Retzhof was purchased by Robert and Fernanda Knapp in 1911, each legally owning half of the property. Robert Knapp, a cavalry captain out of service, joined the SS in 1931 and the NSDAP in 1932 and rose to become the NS district leader of Leibnitz. He held this position even after the ban on activities for the NSDAP and its branches was issued in June 1933. The couple’s two sons, Robert Jr. and Carl, were also part of the National Socialist movement. Knapp played a central role in the July Putsch of 1934 in the Leibnitz district. After this National Socialist uprising was suppressed and Knapp was arrested, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for high treason. Knapp’s half of the Retzhof estate was confiscated and temporarily administered by the public authorities. As part of the so-called July Agreement, Knapp was released from prison early on July 23. Just a few months later, he fled to Germany with his wife as he no longer saw a livelihood in Austria. After the “Anschluss” of Austria to the German Reich in 1938, however, Knapp did not return to Leibnitz, but made a career in Germany as a full-time SS leader (with the rank of brigade leader in 1943).
The Retzhof, which was already “in a dilapidated state” in 1940, was confiscated by the Wehrmacht after the German attack on Yugoslavia in spring 1941 and briefly used as quarters. In January 1942, Knapp leased the Retzhof to the NSDAP for a term of five years, which was also granted a right of first refusal and the right to make structural alterations to the Retzhof. The party also made use of this right – the so-called Gebietsführerschule I Retzhof was built. There was a second regional leaders’ school in the Rheilandhaus Töllinghöhe youth hostel (Schardorf near Leoben). Higher-ranking HJ leaders such as ensigns and followers were trained and indoctrinated for their tasks at Retzhof. Teacher Johann Kürzl was in charge of the Gebietsführerschule I Retzhof from 1943 until the end of the war in 1945.
In 1944, the following report appeared in the Marburger Zeitung newspaper about the work of the Gebietsführerschule I: “The Kriegseinsatzführer are exempted from the RAD and instead work full-time in the Hitler Youth as followers’ leaders and in the staffs of the Banne until they join the Wehrmacht. They are given the necessary training for this on a three-week course at the Gebietsführerschule. There, they receive basic theoretical and practical training in cross-country and shooting, which is taught by the school’s cross-country sports instructor, a veteran HJ leader who has been awarded the Iron Cross First Class.
The sports service is led by the school leader himself, as is the ideological training.” In addition to the ongoing training work, the Retzhof was also used to hold banquets and leadership meetings of the Leibnitz Hitler Youth. After the collapse of Nazi rule, the Retzhof was plundered by occupying troops, and in 1946 a public administrator was appointed for the castle. From April 1, 1948, the castle was occupied by an educational institution of the Province of Styria, despite the unresolved ownership situation. At the same time, attempts were made to put the use of the castle on a legally secure basis, which only succeeded in 1957 with the purchase of the Retzhof by the Province of Styria. Today, the Bildungshaus Retzhof is a center for adult education.
Literature: Lisbeth Matzer, Der Retzhof im 20. Jahrhundert. Eine Spurensuche im institutionellen Gedächtnis. 2. Auflage. Wagna 2021. Wolfgang Graf, Österreichische SS-Generäle. Himmlers verlässliche Vasallen. Klagenfurt 2012, 341–345. Hans Schafranek, Biografien steirischer NS-Akteure, in: Hans Schafranek/Herbert Blatnik (eds.), Vom NS-Verbot zum „Anschluss“. Steirische Nationalsozialisten 1933–38. Wien 2015, 440–535, hier 485–487.
Sources: Die Hitler-Jugend zu Gast im Unterland. Die Gebietsführerschule Retzhof in Cilli. In: Marburger Zeitung, 22.2.1944, 3
Text: Markus Rieger-Roschitz / Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on War Consequences
