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FRANZ POLLINGER
1895—1979
DEEPLY GRIEVED PASSING DEARLY LOVED FRANZ POLLINGER LONG RECORD HIS OUTSTANDING SERVICES HIS EXAMPLE STEADFASTNESS PATH FAITH WILL SHINE FOREVER IN ANNALS AUSTRIAN BAHAI COMMUNITY PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS RADIANT SOUL ABHA KINGDOM CONVEY FAMILY HEARTFELT SYMPATHY.
Universal House of Justice
As a small boy Franz Péllinger was taken from Klagenfurt, Austria, where he was born in 1895, to live with his grandparents in the
[Page 701]
IN MEMORIAM
F ranz Pollinger
Turrach mountains. He had lost his father very early in life, and his mother was forced to work in the city to support the family. It soon became apparent that Franz could not see well. During the seven years he was able to attend school, he had great difficulty with subjects requiring use of his eyes. Later, because of poor eyesight, he was unable to retain any of the many jobs he attemptedworking in a foundry, as a construction worker or as the pit boy in a mine. He also worked for a time as a painter, as a fire boy in a coffee house, and in a theatre, until he finally found a position in the household of a nobleman in lower Austria. In his search for an ophthalmologist who could correct his failing eyesight, Franz went to Munich in 1914. The doctors in Germany were no more successful in curing his condition than those in Austria had been. He therefore made himself a monocle from a flashlight lens and was thus able to read a little with one eye.
While working in the household of the Bavarian envoy in Stuttgart, Mr. Pollinger
701
met Mr. Bauer, the household masseur, who befriended him. During a Sunday afternoon visit to the Bauer family, Franz mentioned that truth was more important to him than anything else. Mrs. Bauer told him that as a seeker of truth he should know that Christ had returned and had suffered imprisonment and exile for forty years. He was intrigued and asked to hear more. That Sunday was 23 May 1916, the anniversary of the Declaration of the Báb. As Mr. Pollinger himself later related, ‘At home I of course read the booklet, and those Words of Bahá’u’lláh, the Words of Wisdom, impressed me greatly. “My God,” I thought, “how wide I can open my lungs to the air, as if my lungs were filled with ethereal air!” That was what I felt; I was electrified by the beauty of those Words. Thus I received the Bahá’í teachings—that was my commencement.’
Franz used the remaining time before returning to Vienna to study the Bahá’í Writings —in spite of his disability—and to visit deepening classes and firesides. He received answers to his many questions from Miss Alma Knoblochl who was his true spiritual teacher. He wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and in return received a short Tablet in which the Master assured him of His prayers that he be able to successfully overcome self, acquire divine perception and be vivified by the eternal Glad Tidings. When he left Stuttgart to return to Vienna, his only solace was that in Vienna he was closer to the Holy Land and thus to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Neither the fact that he was completely alone nor the severity of the period following World War I lessened his courage or diminished his love for the Cause.
In a Tablet t0 Alma Knob10ch, who had written of Franz Pollinger’s deteriorating eyesight and of his search for an ophthalmologist, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá responded that He prayed Mr. Pollinger’s eyes would be so enlightened that he would become a discoverer of reality in all stages of life. Franz recounted, ‘I then realized that my earthly eyes were not of the same importance as the eternal eyes, the eyes of the soul, and that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had opened my eyes through His believers, through His friends. It was a great exultation!’
In the period that followed, during which
' See ‘In Memoriam’, The Bahá’í World, vol. IX, p. 641.
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Franz found the first waiting souls in Vienna and in St. Veit an der Glan. he received his second Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:
‘O thou who art thirsty for the water of Heavenly Life! Thy letter has been received. Its contents imparted great joy because they were expressive of firmness and steadfastness.
‘I feel great kindness toward thee and supplicate eternal endearment and everlasting life for thee so that thou mayest in those regions raise the call of the Kingdom, delivering the people from the obscurities of the world of nature through the light of guidance, that thou mayest, like the Egyptian messenger, become the bearer of the garment Of the heavenly Joseph, giving light to the eyes of the Jacobs and perfuming nostrils with the fragrances of the mantle of the Joseph of the Kingdom.
‘Give the divine Glad Tidings to the friends in Vienna, so that they may attain to eternal blessings, obtain new life and acquire limitless rapture and joy.’
‘These regions are greatly in need of the heavenly Glad Tidings because all have, through the severity of the calamities of the war, become disappointed, withered, faded and almost dead. So they are in need of the breath of life. This breath of life is simply the heavenly Glad Tidings. Nothing can relieve them from this sorrow, grief, depression, disappointment except the divine Glad Tidings.‘I
Because of his servitude and his love for Bahá’u’lláh. Franz Fellinger was the magnet that drew a number of thirsting souls to the Ocean of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. These souls formed the basis of the Viennese Bahá’í community. Later, at an institute for the blind where he learned basket weaving, he found a number of souls whose spiritual eyes were open and who recognized the truth of Bahá’u’lláh’s message.
The first Local Spiritual Assembly of Vienna was formed in 1926. In the meantime, through Franz’s indefatigable efforts. a fledgling Bahá’í community was established in Graz‘ During this period, Martha Root and Marzieh Carpenter (now Gail) arrived in Vienna. ~Franz was always ready to assist
' Cited, in this translation. in Star of (/16 West. vol. 13, no. 10, January 1923, p. 281, where the name of the recipient is erroneously given as Pallinger.
THE Bahá’í’ WORLD
where he could: he organized public lectures, firesides and deepening classes, and found ways to introduce Martha Root to Austria’s leading public figures. Although there was widespread unemployment in Vienna, he did not hesitate to leave his job whenever he felt called upon to serve.
After Shoghi Effendi assumed his office as Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, he addressed Mr. Pollinger in many letters as ‘My dearest Franz’, ‘My dear eo-worker’, or ‘My dear and precious co-worker’..A postscript penned in his own hand to a letter written on his behalf 0n 7 September 1926 states, ‘My dearest Franz: Your most welcome letterhas profoundly touched me. Continue in your steadfast heroic efforts and never forget that your exemplary services are engraved in characters of gold upon the radiant scroll in the Abhá Kingdom. You occupy a warm and abiding place in my heart. Your unsparing efforts are drawing you closer and closer to the heart of the Cause. You are destined to render memorable services to our beloved'Cause. If you but persevere, doors will be opened to your face, obstacles will be fast removed and you will witness the harvest for which you are preparing so devotedly. Write me in full and frequently for I thirst for the glad-tidings of your letters. I will continue to pray for you from all my heart.’ The Guardian’s love and encouragement stimulated him to sacrifice even more of himself for the Cause of God.
Franz Pollinger married Anna Modlagl on
8 July 1935. From that time they trod the path
of service and sacrifice together, with faces
shining and their beings full of humour.
However, the times were deteriorating noticeably as society lost its equilibrium and order
vanished. Soon all meetings had to be registered with the police who sent a plain—clothes
policeman to note all occurrences. The right
of assembly was suspended entirely in 1937,
which precluded further Bahá’í meetings. This
was the beginning of a very sad time for the
Austrian Bahá’í community. As most of the
Bahá’ís in Austria were of Jewish ancestry,
those who did not leave the country were
deported to concentration camps. Mr. and
Mrs. Pollinger attempted to help wherever
possible, at no little danger to themselves. At
the end of World War II only a small number
of Bahá’ís remained in Austria. With [Page 703]
undaunted
courage they began to rebuild the
community. Franz even attempted to have
the Bahá’í Faith officially recognized by the
occupying powers.
Before the Guardian died he had stipulated.
that the National Spiritual Assembly of Austria should be formed in 1959. The necessary foundations were laid through the formation of the Local Spiritual Assemblies of Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Linz whose establishment was aided through the efforts of pioneers from Iran, the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America. When the first National Spiritual Assembly was elected at Riḍván 1959, Franz Pollinger was one of the nine members.
In 1963, after forty-seyen years, Franz’s dearest wish was fulfilled. Alma Knobloch had taught him a prayer which expressed the desire to make a pilgrimage to ‘Akká and Haifa. When the first Universal House of Justice was elected, Franz Pollinger was present. His dream was fulfilled, his patience rewarded.
In the following years there were very few activities in which he did not take part, whether summer or winter schools, seminars or firesides, youth camps or teaching activities. His humorous contributions, filled with the varied experience of his life, enriched every meeting. At the close of the Five Year Plan (1973—1978), as the Austrian Bahá’í community reached a new level of development, he was able to witness the fruits of his lengthy and untiring effort in the service of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.
In the final weeks of his life, Franz Pollinger felt as if he were being called home. At last he could hasten to meet ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, whose mandate to spread the divine Glad Tidings in Austria he had never neglected. After sixty-three years of loyal service, his shining soul winged its way back to its Creator. Our prayers accompany it.
KAMBIZ POOSTCHI
