Editing Franz Jonas (section)

== Early life and career ==
Franz Jonas was born in [[Vienna]] on 4 October 1899. He was born to a working class family and had seven siblings. After graduating school, he attended the printers' school of graphic arts.<ref name="Austrian Information 1974">{{Cite news |date=May 1974 |title=Franz Jonas 1899–1974 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KSD9TN-ZlnQC&dq=Franz+Jonas&pg=RA2-PA2 |work=Austrian Information |pages=2 |volume=27 |issue=3}}</ref> He later attended the Wiener Arbeiterbildungszentrum ({{Translation|Viennese Workers' Education Centre}}) where his instructors included fellow future presidents [[Karl Renner]], [[Adolf Schärf]], and [[Theodor Körner (president)|Theodor Körner]].<ref name="Austrian Information 1974" /> He did not receive formal schooling at a traditional university.<ref name="Lentz 2014" /> Jonas was conscripted during [[World War I]] to fight in the [[Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces]] in 1917.<ref name="Austrian Information 1974" /> He served in the Deutschmeister regiment,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Ziegler |first=Senta |url=https://archive.org/details/osterreichsfirst0000zieg |title=Österreichs First Ladies: von Louise Renner bis Margot Klestil-Löffler |date=1999 |publisher=Ueberreuter |isbn=978-3-8000-3719-3 |location=Wien |pages=44–60 |language=de |url-access=registration}}</ref> where he served on the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front]] and the [[Italian front (World War I)|Italian front]]. He got a job as a [[typesetter]] at the end of the war in 1919 and continued in the profession until 1932.<ref name="Austrian Information 1974" />

Jonas met Margarete "Grete" Towarek in 1921 at the home of a worker with the socialists, and they married on 22 December 1922. They honeymooned in the [[Vienna Woods]] and then moved into a Krankenhaushäusern in Floridsdorf. They did not have any children, as they were first unable to support any financially and then were unable to have any because of health complications.<ref name=":0" /> Jonas was interested in designing stamps, and he played sports.<ref name="Austrian Information 1974" /> He was also an [[Esperantist]], joining the [[Esperanto workers movement]] and becoming an instructor of the language.<ref name=":0" />

Jonas became active in socialist politics, joining the [[Socialist Youth Movement]], becoming an official in the Printers' Union, and serving as socialist organiser for his district in the 1930s.<ref name="Austrian Information 1974" /> He was arrested along with numerous other socialists in 1935 and charged with treason, but he was acquitted and released in 1936.<ref name="Lentz 2014">{{Cite book |last=Lentz |first=Harris M. |title=Heads of States and Governments Since 1945 |date=2014 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |isbn=978-1-134-26490-2 |pages=57–58|doi=10.4324/9781315074023}}</ref> The typesetter shop where he had worked closed at this time, leaving him unemployed.<ref name=":0" /> Jonas became an engine factory clerk during [[World War II]].<ref name="Austrian Information 1974" /> He was appointed to the town council of [[Floridsdorf]] after the Allied powers [[Allied-occupied Austria|took control of Austria]] in 1945, where he became chairman in 1946.<ref name="Lentz 2014" /> Jonas was put in command of Vienna's food supply in 1948, and he became the Viennese Commissioner for Housing in 1949.<ref name="Austrian Information 1974" /> He became leader of Vienna's branch of the [[Socialist Party of Austria]] (SPÖ) in 1950.<ref name=":0" />