Tschirtner, Oswald

Austria, 1920 - 2007

Oswald Tschirtner was born in Perchtoldsdorf on May 24, 1920, and grew up in a strict Catholic family. In 1939 he was forced to serve in Germany’s Reich Labor Service; he subsequently went to college and was then drafted into the German army’s intelligence service and sent to Stalingrad. He became a French prisoner at the end of the war, and that is when he developed a mental illness. He was hospitalized continuously beginning in 1947, and he lived in the “Mental Health and Care Facility at Gugging” from 1954 onward. Tschirtner was one of the first patients to have his artistic talent discovered and fostered. Tschirtner’s successful career as an artist began in 1971. He moved into what is now the “House of Artists” in 1981. During his own lifetime, Tschirtner became a wellrecognized and—particularly in the final years of his life— successful artist. He passed away on May 20, 2007.