Dr. Paskal (Fritz) Plaseller OFM

Fritz Plaseller attended high school in his hometown of Hall, Tyrol. There, in 1925, he joined the Sternkorona Hall high school fraternity. After graduating from high school in 1928, he studied history and geography in nearby Innsbruck, where he earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree with a dissertation on “Navigation on the Inn River in Tyrol.” After passing his teaching certification exam in 1934, he taught at the Oberrealschule and the teacher training college in Innsbruck, and later in Kufstein.

Following the Anschluss, he was removed from his teaching position on March 13, 1938, as a functionary of the VF, and was detained by the Gestapo until June 5—first in Kufstein, then at the Innsbruck Regional Court. This experience had such a profound effect on Fritz Plaseller that he, though already engaged, decided to devote himself to the religious life. On August 24, 1938, he took the habit as a novice with the Franciscans in Telfs and received the religious name Paskal. His theological studies, however, were interrupted by his conscription into the German Wehrmacht. He spent the next five years on the front lines.

After returning home from the war, he was able to complete his studies and was ordained a priest in Innsbruck in 1947. However, Father Pascal Plaseller remained faithful to his teaching vocation even as a priest, teaching history and geography as a high school teacher in Hall, Tyrol, until shortly before his death.