Dr. Franz Lichal

Franz Lichal was born the son of a school caretaker in the Viennese suburb of Nikolsdorf (Wieden) and attended the secondary school in Vienna-Fünfhaus (Henriettenplatz), where he graduated in 1907. He then began his studies at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna (graduated as a veterinarian in 1913; Dr. med. vet. in 1914) and joined the Rudolfina student fraternity. At the end of the 1908 summer semester, he and four other Rudolfina veterinary students founded the Rugia as a fraternity specifically for students at the University of Veterinary Medicine. He is therefore regarded as the founder of the Rugia.

After completing his studies in 1913, Franz Lichal entered the service of the City of Vienna as an official veterinarian and was drafted into the Imperial-Royal Army as a military veterinarian with the rank of first lieutenant during the First World War. As such, he was deployed on the Russian front, in Serbia, in South Tyrol and in Transylvania. After the war, he returned to work as an official veterinarian for the municipality of Vienna in municipal department 43, where he reached the rank of senior veterinary councillor (equivalent to a senior magistrate) before 1938.

After the Anschluss in March 1938, Franz Lichal was dismissed and retired with reduced pay. After 1945, he was rehabilitated as a municipal official and retired in 1954, on which occasion he was awarded the title of Senate Councillor. He became involved in the Society of Veterinary Surgeons and was its chairman for a time. He was buried in the Döbling cemetery.