SCHINDLER, FRANZ MARTIN. - Austrian sociologist, b. at Motzdorf in Bohemia on 25 Jan. 1847, d. at Vienna on 27 Oct. 1922. Ordained a priest in 1869, he was appointed professor of moral theology in his diocese of Litoměřice (1878-87) and then (1887-1917) at the University of Vienna; an authority on social problems, he was one of the inspirers of the Catholic social movement.
Among the founders and, in the years 1892-1917, also secretary general of the Leogesellschaft, Schindler gathered around himself a circle of very influential Catholic personalities for the penetration of Christian principles into public social life (e.g., Lueger, Prince A. Liechtenstein and others); he organized evening gatherings of academics (Akademische Abende) and gave lectures at the universities on the Christian social order, very well attended by students of all Faculties. One of the founders and principal organizers of the Christian Social Party and president of the directing Council of the Reichspost, the central organ of the Vienna Christian Socials, Schindler knew how to propagate and defend Christian-social principles even against the strong opposition of the conservatives.
He wrote: Ist der Staat zur Durchführung einer Zwangsversicherung berechtigt? (1883); Nazionalität und Christentum (1888); Der Lohnvertrag (1895); Aufgabe der Caritas (1895); Die Stellung der theol. Fakultät im Organismus der Universität (1904); Die soziale Frage der Gegenwart (1905, 4th ed. 1908); Lehrbuch der Moraltheologie (3 vols. 1907-11, 1913). He was the editor of the Sozialwissenschaftlichen Vorträge (1895 ff.) and of Das soziale Wirken der Kirche in Österreich (10 vols., 1896 ff.).
Bibliography
Jaroslav Skarvada