Rudolf Maria Springer CSsR

Rudolf Maria Springer was born in Stoizendorf, the son of the teacher Ferdinand Springer and his wife Helene. He joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists) in Mautern at a very early age and made his perpetual profession on August 15, 1902. On July 29, 1908, he was finally ordained a priest in the Redemtorist branch of the order in Mautern. He was then active in the order's branches in Puchheim, Innsbruck and Eggenburg until he finally became rector at the Redemtorist College in Leoben in 1936.

On November 11, 1939, he was arrested by the Gestapo in Vienna together with Benedictine priest Hermann Handler. The reason given in the daily report of the Vienna Gestapo no. 6 from November 14 to 15, 1939 is "arrested for legitimist activities".

In prison, he fell seriously ill with head flu (encephalitis) and survived partly because a doctor secretly supplied him with milk. He is released from prison on September 12, 1940, seriously ill.