| Gustav Schwarzenegger | |
|---|---|
| Born | August 17, 1907 Austria-Hungary |
| Died | December 1, 1972 (aged 65) Weiz, Steiermark, Austria |
| Resting place | Weiz Cemetery, Weiz, Steiermark, Austria |
| Spouse | Aurelia Jadrny (1945 – 1972) |
| Children | Arnold Schwarzenegger |
Gustav Schwarzenegger (August 17, 1907 – December 1, 1972) was an Austrian police chief (Gendarmeriekommandant), postal inspector, a senior non-commissioned military police officer, who later became notable as the father of bodybuilder, Hollywood star and Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger.
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Gustav Schwarzenegger, the father of Arnold Schwarzenegger, married war widow Aurelia Jadrny (July 2, 1922 – August 2, 1998) on October 5, 1945, in Mürzsteg, Steiermark, Austria. He died in Weiz, Steiermark, Austria at the age of 65, where he had been transferred as a policeman. He is buried in Weiz Cemetery, Weiz, Steiermark, Austria. Aurelia Jadrny Schwarzenegger died of a heart attack at the age of 76 while visiting Weiz Cemetery in 1998 and she is buried next to her husband.
His son, Arnold Schwarzenegger, stated in the film Pumping Iron that he did not attend his father's funeral, but later retracted this, explaining that it was a story he had appropriated from a boxer to make it appear as though he could prevent his personal life from interfering with his athletic training.[1] News reports about Gustav's Nazi links first surfaced in 1990, at which time Arnold asked the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an organization he had long supported, to research his father's past. The Center found Gustav's army records and Nazi party membership, but did not uncover any connection to war crimes or the paramilitary organization, the Schutzstaffel (SS).[2] Media interest resurfaced when Arnold ran for Governor in the 2003 recall election.
According to documents obtained in 2003 from the Austrian State Archives by the Los Angeles Times, which was after the expiration of a 30-year seal of his records under Austrian privacy law, Gustav Schwarzenegger voluntarily applied to join the Nazi Party in 1938. He also applied to become a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the NSDAP's paramilitary wing, on May 1, 1939. Austria became part of the German Reich through the Anschluss on March 12, 1938.[2]
Schwarzenegger was a master sergeant of the Feldgendarmerie, which were military police units. Schwarzenegger appears to have received much medical attention and may have contracted malaria during his term of service; he was discharged in 1943.[2]
Ursula Schwarz, a historian at Vienna's Documentation Center for Austrian Resistance, has said that Schwarzenegger's career was fairly typical for his generation,[3] and no evidence has emerged that has directly linked him with participation in war crimes or abuses against civilians.[2] He resumed his police career in 1947.