Johann Staud

Johann Staud was born in Rohosna in Bohemia [today: Rohozná in the Czech Republic] as the illegitimate son of the farm maid Johanna Staud. He grew up in Nursch near Großmugl in Lower Austria in very modest circumstances. After completing his schooling, he learned the shoemaking trade, joined the Catholic Journeymen's Association and lived his life according to the rules of Adolph Kolping.

At the turn of the century, he went on the road, mainly along the Rhine, and used the time for self-taught training. He found work in Duisburg and was given a position in the local Christian leather workers' association. There he gained organizational experience, which he was able to put to use in the Association of Christian Shoe Workers after his return to Vienna in 1908. From 1909 to 1934, he was its chairman and introduced the kind of strict association work he had become familiar with in Germany. In 1912, he married Sophie Kratzel from Freiwaldau, with whom he had a son, Alfred († 1945).

During the First World War, Johann Staud was drafted to the Russian front in 1915. After suffering a serious leg injury, he did not see combat. After the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the break-up of the dual monarchy and the expulsion of the Habsburgs, he tried to rebuild the Christian leather workers' union, but it remained comparatively small with around 400 members. Of greater importance was the textile workers' union, of which Staud was elected chairman in 1922.

Johann Staud subsequently became a close collaborator of the Christian labor leader Leopold Kunschak and in 1927 Secretary of the Central Commission of Christian Trade Unions.