Franz Droner

Franz Dorner was born in Murstetten near St. Pölten in Lower Austria as the legitimate son of master blacksmith Karl Dorner and Josefa, née Kuntner. Nothing has been preserved about his childhood and youth. As an adult, he became a singer. He married Maria Putzke in 1937, but the marriage was annulled in 1938.

Franz Dorner was not politically active in the interwar period, but was probably critical of National Socialism. On March 12, 1938, he witnessed the demise of a free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. On November 3, 1939, he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht and deployed in Salzburg in the Nachrichten-Ersatz-Abteilung 18.

In Salzburg, he made contact with the later ÖVP National Councillor Karl Glaser. In 1941 and 1942, the two men discussed founding an illegal youth group. The local HJ leadership became aware of these plans and passed on the information, whereupon Franz Dorner was placed under observation. A superior close to him then transferred him to Rome in September 1942. After the investigations against him continued, he was ordered back to Salzburg in October 1942 and had to be present in the barracks, but was no longer allowed to serve.

As Franz Dorner expected to be arrested every day, he decided to flee to Switzerland around October 20, 1942. He wanted to say goodbye to his relatives, which is why he left the barracks in civilian clothes. In Linz, he is stopped by a civilian checkpoint. As he did not have a leave pass, he was deemed to be 'absent from the troops without leave'. At the same time, he may have sought sexual contact with men in Linz. He was transferred via Salzburg to the Moabit Wehrmacht prison in Berlin and charged with 'deterioration of the military force', 'homicide against the party and state', 'unauthorized removal from the troops' and attempting to commit 'fornication, against nature' under Section 175 RStGB.

[Note.: §175 of the Reich Criminal Code (§175 RStGB) criminalized sexual acts between persons of the male sex and thus enabled the persecution of homosexuals.]

On 18 March 1943, the court of the Wehrmacht commandant's office in Vienna sentenced Franz Dorner to two years in prison for these offences. He served his sentence in the Wehrmacht prison in Torgau, where he was released on December 31, 1944.

In April and May 1945, Franz Dorner witnessed the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic. On 30 May 1945, he joined the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and shortly afterwards the ÖVP Comradeship of the Politically Persecuted and Confessors for Austria. He returns to his profession as a singer in liberated Austria. In 1955 he marries Gisela Richter, née Schulda. He dies in Vienna at the age of 78.