Josef Peskoller

Josef Peskoller (August 19, 1896 – October 29, 1977) was an Austrian railway worker, resistance activist and Communist Party (KPÖ) politician. Peskoller and his wife Maria organized resistance activities during World War II. Josef suffered periods of imprisonment both during Austrofascism and after Anschluß, whilst Maria was executed after a Gestapo raid in 1944. After the war, Josef Peskoller was elected to the Carinthian Landtag (state parliament).

Youth Josef Peskoller was born in Lienz on August 19, 1896. He grew up in a railway worker family

Marriage and move to Villach Peskoller married Maria Greil, who hailed from an East Tyrolean conservative background, in 1928. The president of the People's Court in Berlin, Roland Freisler, went to Klagenfurt to conduct the trial. On December 18, 1944, Maria and seven others were sentenced to death. Maria was executed on December 23, 1944, in Graz.

Post-war years After the war Josef was an employees' representative for the railway workers of the Villach area. He was (landtag) in 1945, one of three KPÖ deputies in Carinthia and one of 15 KPÖ state parliament deputies across Austria. In the Carinthian state parliament the KPÖ deputies took an opposition role, and abstained in the election of state president and state government. Peskoller was a state parliament deputy between December 10, 1945, to November 7, 1949.

Peskoller was elected to the Villach municipal council in 1953 as a 'People's Opposition' candidate.

For some 30 years, until his health severely deteriorated, Peskoller was an official of the . Josef Peskoller died on October 29, 1977.