Volkmar's story

Hannes Harwanegg’s name is actually Volkmar. His godmother wanted him to have a “primordial German” first name. But because he did not like “Volkmar”, he called himself “Hannes”. Hannes was born in the Austrian capital of Vienna. He grew up with his mother Elisabeth and his stepfather together with five half-siblings. With his black hair and darker skin, he stood out at school. If someone asked him who his father was, Hannes answered as he had been told at home: “I don’t have a father.” When he was about ten years old, his godmother finally told him that his father was Greek. Even though Hannes often asked, he never learnt more about him. It wasn’t until 1995 that he found an old envelope in his mother’s estate with his father’s name on it: Georgios Pitenis. Hannes began a year-long search. He asked archives, colleagues, and even the Greek ambassador for help. During a holiday in Greece in 2006, he finally received a phone call: his father had been found. The following day, he took a taxi to the mountains where Georgios was spending the summer.

Hannes Harwanegg as a baby, 1944

When Hannes was born in August 1944, the Allied bombing of Vienna was just reaching its peak. The hospital where he was born was destroyed a few months later.

Photo: unknown. Private property Harwanegg

The story of the parents

On Georgios Pitenis’s 22nd birthday, 6 April 1941, the German Reich attacked Greece, as had fascist Italy six months earlier. After a year of German occupation, Georgios was deported to Austria for forced labour. At times he had to dig anti-tank trenches with a hoe and spade—a particularly hard job. In Vienna, presumably on his way to a job site, Georgios got to know Elisabeth. They fell in love and had a secret relationship. When the Second World War ended in 1945 and Georgios returned to Greece, he knew that he had a son. He tried twice to enter the Soviet occupation zone in Austria, where Elisabeth and Hannes lived, but to no avail. Whether Elisabeth also endeavoured to reunite with Georgios is unknown. However, the two kept in touch by letter.

Hannes’s mother Elisabeth Wöber, 1984

His mother was always an important person for Hannes. She encouraged his personal, professional, and political development. But she never spoke about his father until her death.

Photo: unknown. Private property Harwanegg

Interview

A life for politics and the culture of remembrance

Hannes joined the left-wing youth organisation Red Falcons as a child. During his apprenticeship as a cabinetmaker, he was a youth officer in the trade union. After attending night school for business training, he worked for a large bank, where his colleagues elected him to the works council. He has been involved in the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) since 1968. From 1993 to 2010, he was a representative in the Vienna state parliament, and for more than 40 years he served as chairman of a local SPÖ association. Through his political work, Hannes got to know former resistance fighters against National Socialism and concentration camp survivors at an early age. Influenced by their stories and his own history, he made the remembrance of Nazi crimes a central task in his life.