Ökonomierat Franz Josef Kranebitter

Franz Josef Kranebitter was born in Oberlienz as the legitimate son of mountain farmer Peter Kranebitter and Pauline, née Oblasser. He grew up in an avowedly devout Roman Catholic family. After attending elementary school, he attended the further education school and the agricultural school in Lienz. Franz Kranebitter was also active as a musician, singer and theater actor in Oberlienz.

In 1932, Franz Kranebitter was elected chairman of the Young Farmers' Association of East Tyrol and was particularly committed to his homeland, tradition and religious values. In 1935 he became a local councillor in Oberlienz. He put his career aspirations as a priest, sculptor and carver on the back burner when he took over his parents' farm in 1936. In the same year, he married the daughter of the neighboring farmer, Anna Stotter, with whom he subsequently had 13 children and became the local farmers' leader and local farmers' councilor. A year later, in 1937, the staunch Austrian and legitimist became the local administrator of the Neues Leben movement of the Vaterländische Front.

On March 12, 1938, Franz Kranebitter witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. He was immediately relieved of his political functions and placed on a Gestapo list as an enemy of the state under the category 'Political Catholicism'. In the event of mobilization, he is immediately taken into protective custody. After the management of his farm was deemed necessary for the system, Franz Kranebitter was placed 'u.k. (

In May 1945, Franz Kranebitter witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. As early as May 11, 1945, three days after the unconditional surrender of Hitler's Germany, he became District Farmers' Chairman and Head of the Food Office and on November 12, 1945, Chairman of the ÖVP District Farmers' Association. At the same time, he became a representative of the ÖVP farmers' association in the Tyrolean state parliament and in 1946 founded the Chamber of Agriculture newspaper Osttiroler Bote. On September 27, 1947, he finally became a member of the National Council, a position he held until 1970. In 1958, he was admitted to the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (OESSH).

Franz Kranebitter remained true to his legitimist convictions during the Second Republic. Republic, he remained true to his legitimist convictions and maintained contact with the resistance fighter and staunch Austrian and European Otto von Habsburg-Lothringen. He campaigned vehemently against the entry ban and the confiscation of the assets of the House of Austria.

In his free time, Franz Kranebitter wrote and composed local folklore pieces and carved nativity scenes. In the 1970 election, he was no longer elected to the National Council for the ÖVP. He spends the last years of his life on his farm in East Tyrol. He died a few days before his 71st birthday and was laid to rest at the cemetery in Oberlienz.

One of his grandsons is the scientific director of the Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstands (DÖW), Andreas Kranebitter.