In late 1940, in order to get out of the military, he used a two-month front-leave to prepare for the final exam (Staatsexamen) of his law studies.

Towards the end of war, he was captain and training officer at the military academy at Wiener Neustadt in the Vienna region.

In early April 1945, commanding a company of cadets fighting approaching Soviet troops, he was badly wounded on his leg, an injury from which he never fully recovered.

Despite orders not to do so, he issued exit visas to Czechoslovak citizens who tried to flee from the Communists during the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

In 1974, he issued a pardon to convicted Austrian Nazi war criminal Franz Novak, who had coordinated the railroad deportation of European Jews to concentration and extermination camps.