Dr. Paskal (Fritz) Plaseller OFM

Fritz Plaseller attended grammar school in his hometown of Hall/Tyrol. There he joined the secondary school fraternity Sternkorona Hall in 1925. After graduating from high school in 1928, he studied history and geography in nearby Innsbruck, where he completed his doctorate in philosophy with a dissertation on "Die tirolische Innschiffahrt". After passing his teaching exam in 1934, he taught at the Oberrealschule and the teacher training college in Innsbruck, later in Kufstein.

After the Anschluss, he was removed from his teaching post as a functionary of the VF on March 13, 1938 and detained by the Gestapo until June 5, first in Kufstein and then in Innsbruck district court. This experience had such an impact on Fritz Plaseller that, already engaged, he decided to devote himself to the spiritual life. On August 24, 1938, he was ordained as a novice with the Franciscans in Telfs and was given the religious name Paskal. However, his theological studies were interrupted when he was called up to serve in the German army. He spent the next five years at the front.