Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was born on July 30, 1947 in Thal, Styria[10] to Aurelia (née Jadrny; 1922–1998) and Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907–1972). His father was the local chief of police and had served in World War II as a Hauptfeldwebel after voluntarily joining the Nazi Party in 1938.[11] He was wounded in the Battle of Stalingrad,[12] but was discharged in 1943 following a bout of malaria. He married Schwarzenegger's mother on October 20, 1945; he was 38 and she was 23. According to Arnold Schwarzenegger, his parents were very strict: "Back then in Austria it was a very different world ... if we did something bad or we disobeyed our parents, the rod was not spared."[13] He grew up in a Catholic family who attended Mass every Sunday.[14][15]
