Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, a village bordering the city of Graz in Styria, Austria and christened Arnold Alois. His parents were Gustav Schwarzenegger (August 17, 1907 – December 13, 1972), and Aurelia Schwarzenegger (née Jadrny; July 29, 1922 – August 2, 1998). Gustav was the local chief of police, and had served in World War II as a Hauptfeldwebel after voluntarily joining the Nazi Party in 1938, though he was discharged in 1943 following a bout of malaria. He married Arnold's mother on October 20, 1945;– he was 38, and she was 23 years old. According to Schwarzenegger, both of 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." He grew up in a Roman Catholic family who attended Mass every Sunday.