Odilo Globocnik - Early Life

Early Life

Odilo Globocnik was born on 21 April 1904 into a family of Slovene descent in the Imperial Free City of Trieste, in what was then the capital of the Austrian Littoral administrative region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Italy). He was the second child of Franz Globocnik from the Upper Carniolan town of Neumarktl (now Tržič in Slovenia) who served as a Habsburg cavalry lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army. His father was unable to accumulate the money needed to get an officer's marriage permission and had to leave the service. As it was the custom with officers resigning their commission for marriage's sake, he was given a job in the Imperial and Royal Mail. In 1914, the family left Trieste for Cseklész where Franz Globocnik was recalled to active duty with the outbreak of World War I.

The same year, Odilo Globocnik joined the army via a military school. The war ended his military education prematurely. Odilo and his family moved to Klagenfurt. Globocnik enrolled at the Hohere Staatsgewerbeschule (a higher vocational school for mechinical engineering) in Klagenfurt, where he passed his Matura (the Austrian equivalent of the German Abitur) and graduated with honors. He performed jobs such as carrying suitcases at the train station in order to help support the family financially.

Globocnik first appeared in politics in 1922, when he became a prominent member of the pre-Nazi Carinthian paramilitary organizations and was seen wearing a swastika. At this time he was a building tradesman. He was introduced to this when he was engaged to Grete Michner. Her father, Emil Michner, talked to the director of KÄEWAG, which was a hydropower plant, and secured Globocnik a job as a technician and construction supervisor.