Dr. Josef Batliner

Batliner was born the son of a farmer, innkeeper and brewery owner. After attending elementary school, he first went to the Collegium Marianum grammar school in Schwyz (Switzerland) in 1884. He then transferred to the state grammar school in Brixen in 1887, where he graduated in 1892. He then began studying at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Innsbruck, where he joined Austria Innsbruck. In the winter semester of 1893/94, he transferred to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Graz and became a member of the Carolina Graz band.

After completing his doctorate in Graz at the end of 1898, Josef Batliner practised at various clinics in Vienna and Hollabrunn and finally settled as a general practitioner in Feldkirch (Vorarlberg) in July 1902. After acquiring Austrian citizenship in the same year, he quickly became respected and popular and was elected to the local municipal council in 1903, where he remained until 1912. He later became a town doctor and, after 1918, a railroad doctor.

In May 1915, Batliner was drafted into the Imperial and Royal Army. He was initially deployed as a battalion doctor (Landsturmbataillon 16a) on the Isonzo and in Val Sugana until January 1916. He then worked at the reserve hospital in Feldkirch (Knight's Cross of the Order of Franz Joseph, Signum laudis).

For the liberal professions, Batliner was sent to the "Estates" parliament of Vorarlberg, of which he was a member from November 1934 to March 12, 1938.