Dr. Dr. h. c. Reinhold Stecher

At the beginning of Reinhold Stecher's biography we read:

"The most decisive year that ended my carefree childhood and youth was 1938 with the annexation of Austria to the Reich. As a member of the Catholic Youth Organization, I and many others immediately came under fire from the new rulers."

He graduated from the Angerzellgasse Humanist Grammar School in Innsbruck in 1939. After an eight-month stint in the "Reich Labor Service" in Ehrwald/Tyrol and Nassereith/Tyrol, he entered the seminary in St. Michael in Matrei am Brenner in November 1939. In 1940, this seminary was also abolished by the National Socialists and the seminarians had to move to St. Georgen am Längsee in Carinthia.

Reinhold Stecher was then arrested by the Gestapo for a forbidden pilgrimage to Maria Waldrast. "In 1941, I was arrested as a theology student on the accusation of having been involved in organizing a pilgrimage. After two months in solitary confinement, I escaped from transportation to a concentration camp at the last moment and was called up to the Wehrmacht." He served in a mountain infantry company "as an ordinary soldier". After serving on the front in the winter battle in northern Russia (Petersburg-Leningrad and Moscow) in 1941/42, he was wounded and returned home briefly to recover. This was followed by three years in Karelia, Finland, Lapland and Norway. During this time, he also made contact with comrades from the confessing Protestant church, "with whom they knew they were one in the resistance against National Socialism".

After walking 3,600 km, he reached his home in Tyrol in November 1945. He then re-entered the seminary, now at the Canisianum in Innsbruck, and continued his interrupted theological studies. On December 19, 1947, he was ordained a priest in Schwaz/Tyrol. Here in Schwaz he then worked from 1949-1956 as a prefect at the Paulinum Episcopal College and Grammar School. During this time, he also completed his further studies with a doctorate in theology. From 1956-1981, he taught as a professor of religion at the Innsbruck Teacher Training College and, from 1968, as a professor of religious education at the Pedagogical Academy. From 1965-1970, he also supervised the seminarians of the dioceses of Innsbruck and Feldkirch as a spiritual director.

On 25 January 1958, he was received into Raeto-Bavaria, the association that his father had co-founded in 1908. Over the years, he became an honorary member of all Innsbruck fraternities and beyond.

On December 15, 1980, Pope John Paul II appointed the enthusiastic mountaineer and painter as the second bishop of the young diocese of Innsbruck. On January 25, 1981, he was consecrated bishop in Innsbruck Cathedral. True to his motto "Servire et confidere" ("Serve and trust"), his episcopal work has also been experienced beyond the boundaries of the diocese, for example as a consultant for "Caritas" and "Women" in the Austrian Bishops' Conference or as their representative in the Faith Commission of the German Bishops' Conference.