Karl Maria Stepan was born in 1894 in Vienna. After War duty and five years imprisonment in Siberia he studied philosophy of law in 1920 in Vienna and Graz. In 1924 he received his PhD and took over as leading functionary the duties of the Christlichsozialen Partei (Christian Socialist Party). In 1928 Stepan entered the institution of the Katholischen Preßvereins (Catholic Press Association) as management secretary. After he was promoted to chairman only a few months later, he tackled an extensive modernisation of the entire business, in which he not only proved organizational and commercial skills but also showed publishing instinct with sensational book projects.

In 1934 Stepan was first summoned to Vienna as federal leader of the “Vaterländischen Front” (National Front), before he took over office as head of the Styrian government in Autumn of that same year and resided there, until shortly before the “Anschluss”. As spokesman for the Christian socialist politics and due to his uncompromising disapproval of the National Socialism, Stepan was arrested on 12th March 1938 and detained in Graz. Later he was taken to the concentration camps Dachau, Mauthausen and Gusen. After his release in 1940, Stepan was temporarily employed by a leather trader in Graz as a storeman, before he was again arrested in 1944 and taken to the concentration camps Flossenbürg and Dachau. The letters he wrote to his wife and family from captivity are evidence of his unshakable will-power (refer to F. Csoklich/ M. Opis: Karl Maria Stepan. Briefe des steirischen Landeshauptmannes aus Gefängnis und KZ, Verlag Styria).

As Stepan returned from internment to Graz in the summer of 1945, his return to politics stayed impeded. With all his knowledge and strength he again imparted his services to “Styria” which he led as chairman until his retirement in 1968. In the post-war years, Stepan succeeded in enticing many young talents to Graz, who then made careers for themselves within and alongside “Styria”.

As an outstanding personality with a willingness to debate in all eventualities, Stepan embodied within politics, church and the general public of the Second Republic, the exemplary independence that made the media into an indispensable corrective body in democracy and for society.

In 1972 Karl Maria Stepan died in Graz after a long and serious illness.