Franz was born out of wedlock to two household servants. His father died in WWI and his mother remarried. He was adopted and found relative peace in life. He learned to read so as not to be easily swayed by propaganda. He was the first to own a motorcycle in his town and lived a wild and dissolute life. For three years in his early twenties, he worked in the mines and stopped practicing his faith. He returned home to farm and that year fathered his first daughter out of wedlock. Yet God did not give up on Franz. A faithful young woman entered his life and began to remind him of the faith of his childhood. Her name was Franziska. The two were married in 1936 and had three daughters together. Franz grew tremendously in his faith and began to serve as a sacristan at his local parish. He later remarked to his godson: “I can say from my own experience how painful life often is when one lives as a halfway Christian; it is more like vegetating than living.” His life had changed and now Franz clung to what was right, no matter the cost. He was the only person in his town to vote against Anschluss. He saw through Nazi propaganda and resisted. He was spied on and tried for refusing to join the military. They tempted him in many ways just to have him cave in and join, but in conscience he knew what they were doing was wrong, even before the world knew of the atrocities. In 2007, in the presence of his four daughters and wife, Franz was beatified. His wife Franziska died in 2013 at the age of 100.