SCHINDLER, FRANZ MARTIN. - Austrian sociologist, b. at Motzdorf in Bohemia on 25 Jan. 1847, d. at Vienna on 27 Oct. 1922. Ordained priest in 1869, he was appointed professor of moral theology in his diocese of Litoměřice (1878-87) and later (1887-1917) at the University of Vienna; authoritative on social issues, he was one of the inspirers of the Catholic social movement.
Among the founders and, in the years 1892-1917, also general secretary of the Leo-Gesellschaft, S. gathered around himself a circle of very influential Catholic personalities for the penetration of Christian principles into social public life (e.g., Lueger, Prince A. Liechtenstein and others); he organized evening meetings of academics (Akademische Abende) and held lectures on the Christian social order in universities, attended by students from all faculties. One of the principal founders and organizers of the Christian Social Party and president of the governing council of the Reichspost, the central organ of Vienna’s Christian Socialists, S. knew how to propagate and defend Christian-social principles even against strong opposition from conservatives.
He wrote: *Ist der Staat zur Durchführung einer Zwangsversicherung berechtigt?* (1885); *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 edited the *Sozialwissenschaftliche Vorträge* (1895 ff.) and *Das soziale Wirken der Kirche in Österreich* (10 vols., 1896 ff.).