Gustav Schwarzenegger was born in Austria-Hungary, the son of Cecelia (née Hinterleitner, 1878–1968) and Karl Schwarzenegger (1872–1927).^[1] His patrilineal grandfather, Wenzel Mach, was Czech and came from the village of Chocov near Mladá Vožice.^[2] Wenzel had a child out of wedlock with Kunigunde Schwarzenegger, and the child was originally named Carl Mach but later adopted his mother's surname, Schwarzenegger.^[3][4]

According to documents obtained in 2003 from the Austrian State Archives by the Los Angeles Times,^[a] Schwarzenegger applied to join the Sturmabteilung (SA) on 1 March 1939. Austria became part of Nazi Germany after being annexed on 12 March 1938.^[5] A separate record obtained by the Wiesenthal Center indicates he sought membership before the annexation, but was accepted only in January 1941.

Schwarzenegger also applied to become a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's (NSDAP) paramilitary wing, on 1 May 1939, in the early years of the annexation of Austria, at a time when SA membership was declining. The SA had 900,000 members in 1940, down from 4.2 million in 1934. This six-year decline in SA membership was an extended result of the three-day-long purge known as the Night of the Long Knives, a political purge carried out by Adolf Hitler against the SA, seen at that time as too radical and too powerful by senior military and industrial leaders within the NSDAP.

Schwarzenegger had served in the Austrian Army from 1924 to 1937, achieving the rank of section commander and, in 1937, he became a police officer. After enlisting in the Wehrmacht in November 1939, Schwarzenegger had gained the appointment of Hauptfeldwebel (Company 1st Sergeant) of the Feldgendarmerie, which acted as military police units. He served in Poland, France, Belgium, Ukraine, Lithuania and Russia. His unit was Feldgendarmerie-Abteilung 521 (mot.), part of Panzer Group 4.

Wounded in action in Leningrad, Russia,^[6] on 22 August 1942, Schwarzenegger was awarded the Iron Cross First and Second Classes for bravery, the Eastern Front Medal, and the Wound Badge; he also received significant medical attention for his injuries. Initially treated at a military hospital in Łódź, according to the records, Schwarzenegger also suffered recurring bouts of malaria, which led to his discharge in February 1944. Considered unfit for active duty, he returned to Graz, Austria, where he was assigned to work as a postal inspector.^[5]

A health registry document^[when?] describes him as a "calm and reliable person, not particularly outstanding" and assesses his intellect as "average." Ursula Schwarz, a historian at Vienna's Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance, has argued that Schwarzenegger's career was fairly typical for his generation,^[7] and that no evidence has emerged directly linking him with participation in war crimes or abuses against civilians.^[5] He resumed his police career in 1947.

Schwarzenegger married war widow Aurelia "Reli" Jadrny (29 July 1922 – 2 August 1998) on 5 October 1945, in Mürzsteg, Steiermark, Austria. They later had two sons, Meinhard (July 17, 1946 - May 20, 1971) and Arnold; Meinhard died on 20 May 1971 in a car accident while driving alone drunk on a mountain road.^[8][9]

Schwarzenegger died of a stroke on 13 December 1972, at the age of 65, in Weiz, Steiermark, Austria, where he had been transferred as a policeman. While visiting Weiz Cemetery in August 1998, where her husband was buried, Aurelia Jadrny Schwarzenegger died of a heart attack at the age of 76; she is buried next to him. Their son, Arnold, stated in the film Pumping Iron that he did not attend his father's funeral, but later retracted this, explaining that it was a story he had appropriated from a boxer, to make it appear as though he could prevent his personal life from interfering with his athletic training.^[10]

News reports about Schwarzenegger's Nazi links first surfaced in 1990, at which time Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an organization he had long supported, to research his father's past. The Center found his father's army records and NSDAP party membership, but did not uncover any connection to war crimes or the paramilitary organization, the Schutzstaffel (SS).^[5] Media interest resurfaced when Arnold ran for Governor of California in the state's 2003 recall election.

In a 2021 video made in response to the United States Capitol attack, his son Arnold publicly recalled, for the first time, how Gustav was frequently drunk and abusive to his family when Arnold was young. He attributed this behavior to guilt and shame over what Gustav and other Nazis and collaborators had perpetrated or enabled during the war.^[11] His son brought up the war's impact on Gustav again in a 2022 video about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in which he urged the Russian soldiers to discontinue their invasion in order to not "be broken like [his] father".^[12]

• "Records: Arnold's father was member of Nazi storm troops", AP wire services via USA Today 24 August 2003
•   Media related to Gustav Schwarzenegger at Wikimedia Commons