Eduard Hedvicek

Eduard Hedvicek (Czech: Eduard Hedvicek) was born in 1878 in Kojetin, Moravia, Austria-Hungary, now in the Czech Republic, and died 1947 in Vienna, Austria. He was the secretary of Engelbert Dollfus, the Austrian Chancellor before the Anschluss. On July 25, 1934, he unsuccessfully tried to prevent Dollfus's assassination by Otto Planetta. He testified at the trial of the murderers as a "Crown" (prosecution) witness and was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit Signum Laudis by the Austrian government for his heroic efforts. He was imprisoned by the Nazis after the Anschluss. His imprisonment was a matter of personal revenge from Ernst Kaltenbrunner SS-Obergruppenfuhrer and Chef der Reichssicherheitshauptamtes, famous Austrian Nazi, who himself was involved in Dollfus's assassination and was for this and other crimes hanged after the war. Eduard Hedvicek died after the war in 1947.