Dr. Anton Thir

After graduating from grammar school, Anton Thir studied at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Graz from 1895 (abs. theol. 1899; Dr. theol. 1907) and was ordained a priest in 1899. He then went to Leoben and Graz as chaplain. His particular concern was the pastoral care of workers.

In 1917, he became the parish priest of Leoben-Waasen. He also became politically active there and was elected to the Leoben municipal council in 1919, where he served until 1930, ultimately as finance officer. During this time, he was made an honorary member of the secondary school fraternity Lützow Leoben and the student fraternity Glückauf Leoben.

In 1930, he was appointed infulted provost, head priest and town priest in Bruck/Mur. In 1931, he founded a clergy collection point for the unemployed. At the end of June 1934, he performed the blessing of the Kapfenberg chaplain Franz Eibel, who had been killed in a Nazi bomb attack, which was also attended by the later Federal Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg. In 1934 he was appointed a member of the Federal Cultural Council, to which he belonged from November 1, 1934 to March 12, 1938 and which elected him to the Bundestag on November 29. There he was chairman of the priests' section.

After the Anschluss, Anton Thir was arrested on March 14, 1938 and forced to clean the streets of Bruck/Mur. He was dismissed on July 16, 1938 and forbidden to continue working as a priest in Bruck, so he resigned from the parish in November. On December 22, 1939, he was sentenced to seven months in prison for alleged embezzlement of church funds, but was acquitted in an appeal hearing before the Reich Court in Leipzig on June 7, 1940.

After this, Anton Thir became a pilgrimage chaplain in Maria Straßengel (north of Graz) and, from July 1942, a temporary chaplain in Kindberg. In 1947, he was appointed honorary canon of the cathedral chapter of Graz-Seckau.