Dr. Ferdinand Ott

After elementary school, Ferdinand Ott transferred to the teacher training college in St. Pötten, where he joined the Aggstein St. Pölten secondary school fraternity in 1921. After graduating from high school, he studied at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Vienna, where he became a member of the Franco-Bavaria student fraternity in 1926. In 1930, he received his doctorate in law and was subsequently appointed to the higher administrative service of the Lower Austrian provincial government. He was initially assigned to the Gmünd district administration office and then moved to the Hietzing-Umgebung district administration office. His last position was in the Ministry of Agriculture from 1936.

After the Anschluss, he was suspended from duty on March 13, 1938 and imprisoned for a time. Because, as an official of the Gmünd district administration, he had taken unrestrained action against illegal National Socialists after the July Putsch in 1934, he was charged with abuse of authority. The reasons given by the public prosecutor's office include:

"In political terms, he [meaning On] is described as a fanatical enemy of National Socialism, animated by a sadistic rage for persecution."

Ferdinand Ott is then drafted into the German Wehrmacht,

After being released from captivity, he returns to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.