Alexander Wienerberger

Wienerberger worked between 1891 and 1955 across engineer, photographer and soldier. This article rests on 19 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Alexander Wienerberger • Born — 8 December 1891 • Birthplace — Vienna, Austria-Hungary • Died — 5 January 1955 • Place of death — Salzburg, Austria

Wienerberger was born in 1891 (other sources mistakenly indicate 1898) in Vienna, into a family of mixed origin. Despite the fact that his father was Jewish and his mother Czech, Alexander himself, according to his daughter, considered himself an Austrian and an atheist. From 1910 to 1914, he studied at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Vienna. During the First World War he was mobilized into the Austro-Hungarian Army, participated in battles against the Russian Army, and was captured in 1915. In 1917, he was allowed to move to Moscow, where he founded a chemical laboratory with friends. In the autumn of 1919, he attempted to escape from Soviet Russia to Austria through Estonia using fake documents, but failed: he was arrested in Pskov by the Soviet secret-police. Convicted of espionage, he spent a significant part of the 1920s in the Lubyanka prison in Moscow. During his incarceration, Wienerberger's skills as a chemist were appreciated by the Soviet government, which employed foreign prisoners in the chemical industry. He was appointed an engineer for the production of varnishes and paints, and he later worked in factories for the production of explosives. His first marriage to Josefine Rönimois, a native of the Baltic Germans, broke up in 1927. His ex-wife, together with daughter Annemarie and son Alexander, remained in Estonia (Annemarie later moved to Austria). In 1928, for the first time since his imprisonment, Wienerberger visited his relatives in Vienna and entered a second marriage to Lilly Zimmermann, the daughter of a manufacturer from Schwechat. Wienerberger's restrictions were lifted on his return to Moscow, which allowed his wife to move to the Soviet Union. In 1931, Lilly was allowed to briefly return to Vienna, where she gave birth to their daughter Margot. In the early 1930s, the Wienerberger family lived in Moscow, where Alexander held a position at a chemical factory. He was sent to Lyubuchany (Moscow Oblast) in 1932 to take up the position of technical director of a plastics factory, and he transferred to a similar position in Kharkiv in 1933. Weinerberger joined the Nazi Party in 1938, but was expelled in 1942, due to his Jewish heritage.

• Голодомор - Знімки австрійського фотографа-аматора, зображення жертв, місць масових поховань на околицях Харкова та вимерле від голоду село. МЗС України • Александр Вінербергер у спогадах доньки. Національний музей Голодомору-геноциду BBC Україна • Це був геноцид: історія британської фотохудожниці, яка ширить пам'ять про Голодомор • Зустріч з правнучкою інженера Вінербергера, автора унікальних фото Голодомору.Національний музей Голодомору-геноциду BBC Україна • Український Голодомор очима австрійця. Радіо «Свобода» • Люди помирали просто на узбіччях - жахіття Голодомору очима австрійського інженера Вінерберґера. Gazeta.ua • Люди Правди, кремлівська пропаганда і корисні ідіоти. Дзеркало тижня • Невідомі фото Голодомору інженера Вінербергера. Радіо «Свобода» • «Годували свиней трупами»: опубліковано невідомі раніше фото Голодомору. Obozrevatel • Голодомор: унікальні фото від австрійського інженера. Ukrinform • Іноземці про Голодомор: унікальні фото від австрійського інженера. Glavcom.ua

• Holodomor in Kharkiv region. Photo by Alexander Wienerberger • Alexander Wienerberger: His Daughter’s Memories [retrieved 20.10.2013]. • Alexander Wienerberger British photographic history • Ukraine's Holodomor Through An Austrian's Eyes • Josef Vogl. Alexander Wienerberger — Fotograf des Holodomor. In: Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (Hrsg.), Feindbilder, Wien 2015 (= Jahrbuch 2015), S. 259—272 • Уникальные фото Голодомора в Украине: их тайком снял Александр Винербергер • «Рискуя попасть в застенки НКВД, мой прадед фотографировал жертв Голодомора»

Alexander Wienerberger was born on 8 December 1891 in Vienna.