Aloisius Joseph Muench
Encyclopedia
Aloisius Joseph Muench was an American prelate
of the Roman Catholic Church
. He served as Bishop of Fargo
from 1935 to 1959, and as Apostolic Nuncio to Germany
from 1951 to 1959. He was elevated to the cardinalate
in 1959.
Muench was the most powerful American Catholic and Vatican representative in Allied-occupied Germany and subsequently in West Germany from 1946 to 1959 as the liaison between the U.S. Office of Military Government
and the German Catholic Church in the American occupation zone (1946–1949), Pope Pius XII
's apostolic visitor to Germany (1946–1947), the Vatican relief officer in Kronberg im Taunus
, Germany (1947–1949), regent
in Kronberg (1949–1951), as well as nuncio to Germany.
to Joseph Muench and Theresa Kraus on February 18, 1889, the first of seven surviving children. His father's ancestors were from Sankt Kathrina, along the Bavaria
n–Austrian border. His father, a baker, emigrated to Milwaukee at age 18 in 1882. His mother was born in Kemnath
in the Upper Palatinate
region of Bavaria and emigrated to Milwaukee in 1882 at age 14; Muench's parents married in 1888.
The family lived on the north side of Milwaukee among other German Catholic immigrants, his parents speaking only German in the home. Muench began his training for the priesthood at age 14, entering Saint Francis Seminary in 1904. He was ordained on June 8, 1916 in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and assigned to Saint Michael's parish.
He left Milwaukee in 1917 to become the assistant chaplain of Saint Paul's University Chapel at the University of Wisconsin (now University of Wisconsin–Madison
), where he obtained a masters in economics in 1918.
In 1919 Muench entered the University of Fribourg
in Switzerland, earning a doctorate magna cum laude in July 1921 in the social sciences, focusing on theological disciplines of economics, social morality, and social ethics. He was a member of K.D.St.V. Teutonia Fribourg (Switzerland), a Catholic student fraternity
that is part of the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen
.
The archbishop of Milwaukee granted Muench permission to remain in Europe to study at University of Louvain (Belgium), Cambridge, Oxford, the London School of Economics
, the Collège de France
, and the Sorbonne
. Muench returned to St. Francis Seminary in 1922 as a professor. In 1929, he ceased his teaching duties to become a rector. Muench was promoted to the rank of monsignor in September 1934.
On August 10, 1935, Pope Pius XI
appointed Muench the third bishop
of the Diocese of Fargo
, North Dakota; he was consecrated on October 15, 1935 and installed on November 6, 1935.
Muench accompanied Archbishop Samuel Stritch to Rome when he was created cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946
, and purchased the red hat Stritch received in the ceremony. In a meeting with the pope, Stritch recommended Muench for the role of apostolic visitor
in Germany, because of his "sympathy" for the "suffering of the German people".
When Muench returned to the United States, he was offered the additional position of liaison between the U.S. post-war occupation authorities in Germany (the Office of Military Government, United States Zone
, OMGUS) and the German Catholic Church, also on the recommendation of Stritch, after Anthony Strauss, the first choice of the Truman administration turned the appointment down.
delegate of the United States armed forces, and from 1949 to 1951, he was the regent of the nunciature in Germany. Muench also served as "liaison consultant for religious affairs to the military governor", appointed by Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson
. The German nunciature had been vacant since the death of Cesare Orsenigo
in 1946. Muench assumed the de facto role of nuncio before he received the title on March 6, 1951.
According to Barry's biography, Muench focused on three goals: the Vatican mission for Catholic displaced persons and prisoners of war (funded by American donations brokered by Muench); maintaining the validity of the Reichskonkordat
(a 1933 treaty between the Vatican and Germany); and the autonomy of German Catholic schools.
Historian Michael Phayer views Muench's dual appointment as significant: "Muech's position was extraordinary. At one and the same time, he was President Truman's Catholic liaison to OMGUS and Pius XII's personal envoy to zonal Germany. Serving two masters, he listened to Rome, not Washington from the moment of his arrival in Germany".
Muench's pastoral letter
One World In Charity was published in installments (in the U.S. first in January 1946, and in occupied Germany one year later). The 10,200 word letter was read from the diocese of Fargo's pulpits weekly on the five Sundays between Shrove Tuesday
and Passion Sunday
, and then translated into German and printed first in German language newspapers in the United States. Truncated versions of One World, focusing on Muench's comments about the collective guilt of German Catholics and the equation of the Nazis and the allied occupation authorities began to circulate in Germany in early 1947, and spread rapidly due to grassroots distribution (authorized or unauthorized) and quotation in German newspapers.
One World appeared in both religious and secular publications alongside statements denying Germans' complicity in the Holocaust, especially the concept of collective guilt. Muench received several letters from German Catholics commenting on One World; they regarded him as one who understood German "suffering" and believed him to be of German descent.One World referred to the Allied authorities as "other Hitlers in disguise, who would make of [the German] nation a crawling [Bergen-]Belsen
. One World argued that responsibility for the Holocaust lay only with a very few war criminals who had "revived the Mosaic idea of an eye for an eye".
According to Brown-Fleming, Muench's sympathies in his writing matched his actions as one of the most active participants in the Vatican's "postwar clemency campaign on behalf of convicted war criminals". In particular, he spoke against what he perceived to be the mistreatment of high-ranking prisoners such as Konstantin von Neurath
, Erich Raeder
, Karl Dönitz
, Walther Funk
, Baldur von Schirach
, Albert Speer
, and Rudolf Hess
. He wrote that their treatment was "another terrible blotch on our record for decent, humane treatment of war criminals". One World was cited by Josef Hering and other war criminals in their own writings.
".
Muench was also an opponent of interreligious dialog
efforts that included Jews, opposing the organization of chapters of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ) and the International Conference of Christians and Jews (ICCJ), among others, in occupied Germany. In a 1948 letter to Carl Zietlow, a Minnesotan Protestant pastor of the NCCJ, Muench described the organization as unneeded because: "regarding anti-Semitism" he had "found very little of it".
According to Phayer, for Muench as well as Pius XII, the "priority was not the survivors of the Holocaust, but the situation of the German Catholic refugees in Eastern Europe who had been driven from their homes at the end of the war
. Incredibly, Bishop Muench actually felt that their lot was comparable to that of the Jews during the Holocaust".
In February 1950, Pius XII instructed Muench to write a letter in support of clemency for some convicted German war criminals to General Thomas Hardy
, the head of the U.S. Army European Command, who had the final word on all clemency decisions; with his new appointment as papal regent, Muench was to speak as a direct representative of the pope. In his diary, Muench made it clear that he viewed as "questionable" the sentences of war criminals who had not been directly involved in medical experimentation or other extreme acts at concentration camps or the deportation of people for slave labor. Prior to this, Muench had frequently become involved in individual clemency cases, but took care not to attract undue attention or publicity to the Vatican. As the Vatican urged Muench to press harder against the U.S. authorities, Muench wrote to Undersecretary Montini (future Pope Paul VI
) warning him that Rome was on "dangerously thin ice". According to Phayer, it was Muench's discretion that "saved the Vatican from becoming publicly associated with former Nazis". Muench wrote: "I have not dared to advise the Holy See to intervene, especially if such intervention would eventually become public".
Muench often preferred to work behind the scenes; for example, a letter from one of Muench's secretaries provided Father Franz Lovenstein the contact information he had requested "with the understanding, of course, that you are not to use his name in connection with any letters or briefs that will be sent to those gentlemen". For example, in the case of Hans Eisle (former SS, convicted of medical experimentation on prisoners) there is some evidence that Muench's intervention with General Clay in the summer of 1948 resulted in the commutation of Eisle's execution (scheduled for June 1948) and Eisle's eventual release in 1952.
permitted the Federal Republic to form an independent foreign affairs ministry in March 1951. On March 9, 1951, Pope Pius XII
appointed Bishop Muench papal nuncio
to Germany
with the title of archbishop
. Muench viewed it as no small honor to hold the nunciature formerly occupied by Pius XII himself. On March 12, Pius XII moved the nunciature from Eichstatt
to Bad Godesberg
, outside of Bonn
. By April 4, 1951, Muench was named dean of the German diplomatic corps, the first diplomat accredited by the Federal Republic.
There is much evidence of genuine camaraderie between Pius XII and Muench. He met Eugenio Pacelli (the future pope) for the first time while Pacelli was nuncio to Bavaria, when Muench visited Munich as a student representative of the Catholic Central Verein of American (CCVA).
As pope, Pius XII received Muench in several audiences, and after their second audience on July 12, 1946, the two always conversed in German. Muench also wrote many reports on the events in Germany directly to Pius XII between 1946 and 1958, and there is some evidence that Pius XII read many of them personally, even in 1953 when his health began to deteriorate. The reports spoke not only of the immediate, material needs of German Catholics, but also of the spread of communism, a fear shared by Muench and Pius XII, and the subject of another 1954 audience between the two.
Muench and Pius XII met in February 1947 and in the fall of 1948 and 1949; although initially Muench (in his letters to others) expressed satisfaction with Pius XII's grasp of the situation in Germany, he later stated that the pope was too reliant on his own, earlier experiences in Germany and did not "fully grasp" the implications of the occupation and increasing secularization. Muench wrote that Pius XII was continuing to interpret the events unfolding in Germany "according to this or that phrase of the Concordat".
In the 1953 dedication of the North American College in Rome
, Pius XII stopped as he passed by Muench, expressed his gratitude that Muench could join him in Rome, and added "don't forget to see me before you leave". Muench was, according to Father Gerald Weber (in attendance), the only one of the many assembled bishops and cardinals whom Pius XII stopped and talked to.
Muench mourned the death of Pius XII in October 1958, telling friends that the pope "treated him with the affection and love of a father to his son".
The correspondence between Muench and Pius XII focused almost exclusively on the various opinions shared by the two men, often with great levity, but rarely touched on the issues of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, the wartime relationship between the church and Nazi Germany, and the situation of the postwar Jewry. According to Brown-Fleming, in one private audience between the two in May 1957 Pius XII told Muench a joke about Hitler dying, going to Heaven, and meeting the Old Testament Prophet Moses, who forgives Hitler; Hitler then asks Moses if he set fire to the burning bush
himself, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Reichstag fire
, which apparently elicited a "big laugh" from Pius XII.
on December 14, 1959 by Pope John XXIII
. Muench resigned as Bishop of Fargo on December 9, 1959 just before he became Cardinal. He died in Rome on February 15, 1962 and was buried in Fargo
.
to Fargo prior to moving to Rome.
As early as June 1956, Muench tasked his secretary, Father Gerard Weber, with the talk of sending his files, mostly composed of his personal correspondences, back to Fargo; Muench further directly four German nuns of the Saint Lioba convent in Freiburg/Breisgau to organize his German language correspondence. He continued sending records to Fargo until December 1959; in December 1960 he wrote a letter thanking an American friend bringing his personal diplomatic archives to the United States "without custom difficulties". After Muench died on February 15, 1962, the papers were found by Sister Ilga Braun, secretary to the Bonn nunciature since 1951, who was invited by his successor as Bishop of Fargo, Leo Dworschak
to organize the papers, which she did until 1963.
The papers were presented to the Catholic University of America in September 1972 by Bishop Justin Albert Driscoll
, and indexed by 1976.
In addition, Muench received approximately 100 letters from U.S. Catholics and military government officials speaking frankly on taboo topics, such as anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and its survivors. For example, a 1947 letter from a German Catholic alleged that U.S. generals such as Lucius D. Clay
and Walter Muller
were Jews, that Roosevelt had been assassinated by Jews, and other Jewish conspiracy theories. Another letter from a Catholic Army major wrote that enlisted Jews sought promotions into positions where they could "control thought".
had confided in Muench his belief that "no emigrés who were not citizens for at least twenty years should be permitted to shape and execute policies in Germany".
He also reserved for his diary his description of Jewish Germans who had survived the war and resettled in the United States as "alien" and "recent" Americans, disloyal citizens, "in control" of American post-war policy in Germany, and harsh "avengers" against the Germans. For example, when Muench encountered difficulty in 1946 in easing travel restrictions on members of the clergy, he wrote in his diary that the problem was due to "Jews in control [of the] Public Safety [division]". Similarly, Muench referred to Franz Cueppers, a Frankfurt banker convicted of conducting illegal foreign exchange as a "victim of Jewish lawyers".
A recurring point of interest for Muench were what he referred to as "Thirty-Niners": Jews who had fled Germany in 1933 or 1934, received United States citizenship in 1939, and then enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces—Muench believed—"to wreak their vengeance in every way possible on the defeated foe". Muench's writings often characterized Jews generally, and Jewish displaced persons specifically, to be "greedy, wilfully destructive, sexual predators, thieves, and anarchists involved in leftist activities".
in 1953—to write his biography in 1961. Muench was a long-time benefactor of Barry, ever since he had reviewed Barry's first book, The Catholic Church and the German Americans for the Catholic Historical Review
.
Barry interviewed Muench extensively in Fargo in the summer of 1961 and thereafter interviewed his family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances in Milwaukee, Fargo, Germany, and Rome. Barry published American Nuncio; Cardinal Aloisius Muensch in 1969 and it remains the only biography of Muench.
Barry's biography does not cover the letters between Muench, American Catholics, occupation authorities, and Vatican officials; nor does it address Muench's views of German guilt and collective responsibility for the Holocaust in much depth.
Barry's biography was reviewed by the Journal of Ecumenical Studies and Church History as well as several Catholic journals and papers, which leveled very little criticism of the work, with the exception of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies. The reviewer, Prof. Franklin Littel
l of Temple University
, argued that the work lacked objectivity.
's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, published her monograph
of the Muench papers in 2006: The Holocaust and Catholic Conscience: Cardinal Aloisius Muench and the Guilt Question in Germany. Dr. Brown-Fleming holds a Ph.D. in Modern German History form the University of Maryland, College Park
.
The monograph has received positive reviews. Prof. Mark Edward Ruff of Saint Louis University
calls the work "concise and clearly written", her use of primary sources "often convincing and damning", states Brown-Fleming "deserves kudos for bringing he work and values of Muench, a hitherto neglected figure, to the public eye". Prof. Micahel Ott of Grand Valley State University
calls the work a "critical contribution to the growing research on the question of the Roman Catholic Church's policies and actions with regard to the Holocaust during World War II". Prof. Kevin Spicer of Stonehill College
calls the work an "insightful and well-researched examination".
Although Prof. John Conway of the University of British Columbia
praises her use of the Muench papers, he notes that "her book suffers from the inaccessibility of the Vatican's records, since the papers for the reign of Pius XII are still-regrettably-closed".
Prelate
A prelate is a high-ranking member of the clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin prælatus, the past participle of præferre, which means "carry before", "be set above or over" or "prefer"; hence, a prelate is one set over others.-Related...
of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. He served as Bishop of Fargo
Roman Catholic Diocese of Fargo
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fargo is a Roman Catholic diocese in North Dakota. It was founded on April 6, 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. Fargo, North Dakota is the episcopal see of the diocese.-Bishops of the Diocese of Fargo:...
from 1935 to 1959, and as Apostolic Nuncio to Germany
Apostolic Nunciature to Germany
The Apostolic Nunciature to Germany is an ecclesiastical office of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. It is a diplomatic post of the Holy See, whose representative is called the Apostolic Nuncio to Germany with the rank of an ambassador. The office of the nunciature has been located in Berlin...
from 1951 to 1959. He was elevated to the cardinalate
Cardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
in 1959.
Muench was the most powerful American Catholic and Vatican representative in Allied-occupied Germany and subsequently in West Germany from 1946 to 1959 as the liaison between the U.S. Office of Military Government
Office of Military Government, United States
The Office of Military Government, United States was the United States military-established government created shortly after the end of hostilities in occupied Germany in World War II. Under General Lucius D...
and the German Catholic Church in the American occupation zone (1946–1949), Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
's apostolic visitor to Germany (1946–1947), the Vatican relief officer in Kronberg im Taunus
Kronberg im Taunus
Kronberg im Taunus is a town in the Hochtaunuskreis district, Hesse, Germany. Before 1866, it was in the Duchy of Nassau; in that year the whole Duchy was absorbed into Prussia. Kronberg lies at the foot of the Taunus, flanked in the north and southwest by forests...
, Germany (1947–1949), regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
in Kronberg (1949–1951), as well as nuncio to Germany.
Early life and education
Muench was born in Milwaukee, WisconsinMilwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
to Joseph Muench and Theresa Kraus on February 18, 1889, the first of seven surviving children. His father's ancestors were from Sankt Kathrina, along the Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
n–Austrian border. His father, a baker, emigrated to Milwaukee at age 18 in 1882. His mother was born in Kemnath
Kemnath
Kemnath is a town in the district of Tirschenreuth, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated near the Fichtelgebirge, 24 km southeast of Bayreuth....
in the Upper Palatinate
Upper Palatinate
The Upper Palatinate is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany, located in the east of Bavaria.- History :The region took its name first in the early 16th century, because it was by the Treaty of Pavia one of the main portions of the territory of the Wittelsbach Elector...
region of Bavaria and emigrated to Milwaukee in 1882 at age 14; Muench's parents married in 1888.
He left Milwaukee in 1917 to become the assistant chaplain of Saint Paul's University Chapel at the University of Wisconsin (now University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
), where he obtained a masters in economics in 1918.
In 1919 Muench entered the University of Fribourg
University of Fribourg
The University of Fribourg is a university in the city of Fribourg, Switzerland.The roots of the University can be traced back to 1582, when the notable Jesuit Peter Canisius founded the Collège Saint-Michel in the City of Fribourg. In 1763, an Academy of law was founded by the state of Frobourg...
in Switzerland, earning a doctorate magna cum laude in July 1921 in the social sciences, focusing on theological disciplines of economics, social morality, and social ethics. He was a member of K.D.St.V. Teutonia Fribourg (Switzerland), a Catholic student fraternity
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
that is part of the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen
Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen
The Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen or Cartellverband is a German umbrella organization of Catholic male student fraternities .-Foundation:...
.
The archbishop of Milwaukee granted Muench permission to remain in Europe to study at University of Louvain (Belgium), Cambridge, Oxford, the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
, the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
, and the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
. Muench returned to St. Francis Seminary in 1922 as a professor. In 1929, he ceased his teaching duties to become a rector. Muench was promoted to the rank of monsignor in September 1934.
Bishop of Fargo (1935-1959)
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
appointed Muench the third bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
of the Diocese of Fargo
Roman Catholic Diocese of Fargo
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fargo is a Roman Catholic diocese in North Dakota. It was founded on April 6, 1897 by Pope Leo XIII. Fargo, North Dakota is the episcopal see of the diocese.-Bishops of the Diocese of Fargo:...
, North Dakota; he was consecrated on October 15, 1935 and installed on November 6, 1935.
Muench accompanied Archbishop Samuel Stritch to Rome when he was created cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946
Cardinals created by Pope Pius XII in 1946
In his Christmas Message 1945, Pope Pius XII announced his intention, to make the College of Cardinals a living picture of the universality of the Church. Included here are cardinals created by Pope Pius XII in the consistory of February 18, 1946....
, and purchased the red hat Stritch received in the ceremony. In a meeting with the pope, Stritch recommended Muench for the role of apostolic visitor
Apostolic visitor
In the Catholic Church, an apostolic visitor is a papal representative with a transient mission to perform a canonical visitation of relatively short duration...
in Germany, because of his "sympathy" for the "suffering of the German people".
When Muench returned to the United States, he was offered the additional position of liaison between the U.S. post-war occupation authorities in Germany (the Office of Military Government, United States Zone
Office of Military Government, United States
The Office of Military Government, United States was the United States military-established government created shortly after the end of hostilities in occupied Germany in World War II. Under General Lucius D...
, OMGUS) and the German Catholic Church, also on the recommendation of Stritch, after Anthony Strauss, the first choice of the Truman administration turned the appointment down.
Post-war Germany (1946-1951)
Pope Pius XII appointed Muench apostolic visitor to Germany in 1946. From 1946 to 1949, he served as military vicarMilitary ordinariate
A military ordinariate is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church, of Latin or Eastern Rite, responsible for the pastoral care of Catholics serving in the armed forces of a nation....
delegate of the United States armed forces, and from 1949 to 1951, he was the regent of the nunciature in Germany. Muench also served as "liaison consultant for religious affairs to the military governor", appointed by Secretary of War, Robert P. Patterson
Robert P. Patterson
Robert Porter Patterson was the United States Under Secretary of War under President Franklin Roosevelt and the United States Secretary of War under President Harry S. Truman from September 27, 1945 to July 18, 1947....
. The German nunciature had been vacant since the death of Cesare Orsenigo
Cesare Orsenigo
Cesare Vincenzo Orsenigo was Apostolic Nuncio to Germany from 1930 to 1945, during the rise of Nazi Germany and World War II...
in 1946. Muench assumed the de facto role of nuncio before he received the title on March 6, 1951.
According to Barry's biography, Muench focused on three goals: the Vatican mission for Catholic displaced persons and prisoners of war (funded by American donations brokered by Muench); maintaining the validity of the Reichskonkordat
Reichskonkordat
The Reichskonkordat is a treaty that was agreed between the Holy See and Nazi government, that guarantees the rights of the Catholic Church in Germany. It was signed on July 20, 1933 by Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President...
(a 1933 treaty between the Vatican and Germany); and the autonomy of German Catholic schools.
Historian Michael Phayer views Muench's dual appointment as significant: "Muech's position was extraordinary. At one and the same time, he was President Truman's Catholic liaison to OMGUS and Pius XII's personal envoy to zonal Germany. Serving two masters, he listened to Rome, not Washington from the moment of his arrival in Germany".
One World in Charity
Pastoral letter
A Pastoral letter, often called simply a pastoral, is an open letter addressed by a bishop to the clergy or laity of his diocese, or to both, containing either general admonition, instruction or consolation, or directions for behaviour in particular circumstances...
One World In Charity was published in installments (in the U.S. first in January 1946, and in occupied Germany one year later). The 10,200 word letter was read from the diocese of Fargo's pulpits weekly on the five Sundays between Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday is a term used in English-speaking countries, especially in Ireland, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, Germany, and parts of the United States for the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of fasting and prayer called Lent.The...
and Passion Sunday
Passion Sunday
Passion Sunday is a name that the Roman Rite liturgy gives to the sixth Sunday of Lent, but that in the pre-1960 form of that liturgy was given to the fifth Sunday...
, and then translated into German and printed first in German language newspapers in the United States. Truncated versions of One World, focusing on Muench's comments about the collective guilt of German Catholics and the equation of the Nazis and the allied occupation authorities began to circulate in Germany in early 1947, and spread rapidly due to grassroots distribution (authorized or unauthorized) and quotation in German newspapers.
One World appeared in both religious and secular publications alongside statements denying Germans' complicity in the Holocaust, especially the concept of collective guilt. Muench received several letters from German Catholics commenting on One World; they regarded him as one who understood German "suffering" and believed him to be of German descent.One World referred to the Allied authorities as "other Hitlers in disguise, who would make of [the German] nation a crawling [Bergen-]Belsen
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...
. One World argued that responsibility for the Holocaust lay only with a very few war criminals who had "revived the Mosaic idea of an eye for an eye".
According to Brown-Fleming, Muench's sympathies in his writing matched his actions as one of the most active participants in the Vatican's "postwar clemency campaign on behalf of convicted war criminals". In particular, he spoke against what he perceived to be the mistreatment of high-ranking prisoners such as Konstantin von Neurath
Konstantin von Neurath
Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath was a German diplomat remembered mostly for having served as Foreign minister of Germany between 1932 and 1938...
, Erich Raeder
Erich Raeder
Erich Johann Albert Raeder was a naval leader in Germany before and during World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of Großadmiral — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz...
, Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz
Karl Dönitz was a German naval commander during World War II. He started his career in the German Navy during World War I. In 1918, while he was in command of , the submarine was sunk by British forces and Dönitz was taken prisoner...
, Walther Funk
Walther Funk
Walther Funk was a prominent Nazi official. He served as Reich Minister for Economic Affairs in Nazi Germany from 1937 to 1945, tried as a major war criminal by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.-Early life:...
, Baldur von Schirach
Baldur von Schirach
Baldur Benedikt von Schirach was a Nazi youth leader later convicted of being a war criminal. Schirach was the head of the Hitler-Jugend and Gauleiter and Reichsstatthalter of Vienna....
, Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
, and Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
. He wrote that their treatment was "another terrible blotch on our record for decent, humane treatment of war criminals". One World was cited by Josef Hering and other war criminals in their own writings.
Relationship with Jews
In at least four instances, Muench became involved in restitution disputes between Catholic Germans and Jews regarding property seized during the war; in each instance, Muench sided with the German Catholics, contacting highly placed German and American officials on their behalf. Muench wrote in a September 1946 letter that "some of these gents exploit the fact that they were in concentration camps for their own benefit, although some were there because of an unsavory past". In one restitution case, where a distant relative of Muench had been sentenced by a military court to a fine of 2,000 marks and the return of his business to a Warsaw Jew, Muench wrote "a lot of hardship and injustice comes about because of [restitution resulting from] denazificationDenazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
".
Muench was also an opponent of interreligious dialog
Ecumenism
Ecumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...
efforts that included Jews, opposing the organization of chapters of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ) and the International Conference of Christians and Jews (ICCJ), among others, in occupied Germany. In a 1948 letter to Carl Zietlow, a Minnesotan Protestant pastor of the NCCJ, Muench described the organization as unneeded because: "regarding anti-Semitism" he had "found very little of it".
According to Phayer, for Muench as well as Pius XII, the "priority was not the survivors of the Holocaust, but the situation of the German Catholic refugees in Eastern Europe who had been driven from their homes at the end of the war
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
. Incredibly, Bishop Muench actually felt that their lot was comparable to that of the Jews during the Holocaust".
Clemency for war crimes
Along with other German and American clerics, such as Johann Neuhausler, auxiliary bishop of Munich, Cardinal Josef Frings of Cologne, Muench was "in close contact with occupation authorities, other religious leaders, and the convicted war criminals themselves" regarding the campaign for clemency for Nazi war criminals.In February 1950, Pius XII instructed Muench to write a letter in support of clemency for some convicted German war criminals to General Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
, the head of the U.S. Army European Command, who had the final word on all clemency decisions; with his new appointment as papal regent, Muench was to speak as a direct representative of the pope. In his diary, Muench made it clear that he viewed as "questionable" the sentences of war criminals who had not been directly involved in medical experimentation or other extreme acts at concentration camps or the deportation of people for slave labor. Prior to this, Muench had frequently become involved in individual clemency cases, but took care not to attract undue attention or publicity to the Vatican. As the Vatican urged Muench to press harder against the U.S. authorities, Muench wrote to Undersecretary Montini (future Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
) warning him that Rome was on "dangerously thin ice". According to Phayer, it was Muench's discretion that "saved the Vatican from becoming publicly associated with former Nazis". Muench wrote: "I have not dared to advise the Holy See to intervene, especially if such intervention would eventually become public".
Muench often preferred to work behind the scenes; for example, a letter from one of Muench's secretaries provided Father Franz Lovenstein the contact information he had requested "with the understanding, of course, that you are not to use his name in connection with any letters or briefs that will be sent to those gentlemen". For example, in the case of Hans Eisle (former SS, convicted of medical experimentation on prisoners) there is some evidence that Muench's intervention with General Clay in the summer of 1948 resulted in the commutation of Eisle's execution (scheduled for June 1948) and Eisle's eventual release in 1952.
Nunciature (1951-1959)
Muench's role as apostolic visitor was upgraded to nuncio when the Allied High CommissionAllied High Commission
The Allied High Commission was established by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and France after the 1948 breakdown of the Allied Control Council to regulate and supervise the development of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany The Allied High Commission (also known...
permitted the Federal Republic to form an independent foreign affairs ministry in March 1951. On March 9, 1951, Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
appointed Bishop Muench papal nuncio
Nuncio
Nuncio is an ecclesiastical diplomatic title, derived from the ancient Latin word, Nuntius, meaning "envoy." This article addresses this title as well as derived similar titles, all within the structure of the Roman Catholic Church...
to Germany
Apostolic Nunciature to Germany
The Apostolic Nunciature to Germany is an ecclesiastical office of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. It is a diplomatic post of the Holy See, whose representative is called the Apostolic Nuncio to Germany with the rank of an ambassador. The office of the nunciature has been located in Berlin...
with the title of archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...
. Muench viewed it as no small honor to hold the nunciature formerly occupied by Pius XII himself. On March 12, Pius XII moved the nunciature from Eichstatt
Eichstätt
Eichstätt is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the District of Eichstätt. It is located along the Altmühl River, at , and had a population of 13,078 in 2002. It is home to the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, the lone Catholic university in Germany. The...
to Bad Godesberg
Bad Godesberg
Bad Godesberg is a municipal district of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 till 1990 , the majority of foreign embassies to Germany were located in Bad Godesberg...
, outside of Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
. By April 4, 1951, Muench was named dean of the German diplomatic corps, the first diplomat accredited by the Federal Republic.
Relationship with Pius XII
As pope, Pius XII received Muench in several audiences, and after their second audience on July 12, 1946, the two always conversed in German. Muench also wrote many reports on the events in Germany directly to Pius XII between 1946 and 1958, and there is some evidence that Pius XII read many of them personally, even in 1953 when his health began to deteriorate. The reports spoke not only of the immediate, material needs of German Catholics, but also of the spread of communism, a fear shared by Muench and Pius XII, and the subject of another 1954 audience between the two.
Muench and Pius XII met in February 1947 and in the fall of 1948 and 1949; although initially Muench (in his letters to others) expressed satisfaction with Pius XII's grasp of the situation in Germany, he later stated that the pope was too reliant on his own, earlier experiences in Germany and did not "fully grasp" the implications of the occupation and increasing secularization. Muench wrote that Pius XII was continuing to interpret the events unfolding in Germany "according to this or that phrase of the Concordat".
In the 1953 dedication of the North American College in Rome
Pontifical North American College
The Pontifical North American College is a Roman Catholic educational institution in Rome, Italy educating seminarians for the dioceses in the United States and providing a residence for American priests studying in Rome. It was founded in 1859 by Blessed Pope Pius IX and was granted pontifical...
, Pius XII stopped as he passed by Muench, expressed his gratitude that Muench could join him in Rome, and added "don't forget to see me before you leave". Muench was, according to Father Gerald Weber (in attendance), the only one of the many assembled bishops and cardinals whom Pius XII stopped and talked to.
Muench mourned the death of Pius XII in October 1958, telling friends that the pope "treated him with the affection and love of a father to his son".
The correspondence between Muench and Pius XII focused almost exclusively on the various opinions shared by the two men, often with great levity, but rarely touched on the issues of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, the wartime relationship between the church and Nazi Germany, and the situation of the postwar Jewry. According to Brown-Fleming, in one private audience between the two in May 1957 Pius XII told Muench a joke about Hitler dying, going to Heaven, and meeting the Old Testament Prophet Moses, who forgives Hitler; Hitler then asks Moses if he set fire to the burning bush
Burning bush
The burning bush is an object described by the Book of Exodus as being located on Mount Sinai; according to the narrative, the bush was on fire, but was not consumed by the flames, hence the name...
himself, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Reichstag fire
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany....
, which apparently elicited a "big laugh" from Pius XII.
Cardinalate and death
He was elevated cardinalCardinal (Catholicism)
A cardinal is a senior ecclesiastical official, usually an ordained bishop, and ecclesiastical prince of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope. The duties of the cardinals include attending the meetings of the College and...
on December 14, 1959 by Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
. Muench resigned as Bishop of Fargo on December 9, 1959 just before he became Cardinal. He died in Rome on February 15, 1962 and was buried in Fargo
Fargo, North Dakota
Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...
.
Origins
Muench's papers from course of his work in Germany are well preserved. This makes them one of a very few collections of papers from German, American, or Vatican Catholic dignitaries of that time period that are "fully accessible to historians". According to Muench's biographer, Father Colman Barry, Muench took his papers with him to Rome when he retired as nuncio in December 1959 and the papers were returned to the diocesan archives in 1962 after his death. Altogether, the papers weigh over 2,500 pounds, including those Muench transferred directly from Bad GodesbergBad Godesberg
Bad Godesberg is a municipal district of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 till 1990 , the majority of foreign embassies to Germany were located in Bad Godesberg...
to Fargo prior to moving to Rome.
As early as June 1956, Muench tasked his secretary, Father Gerard Weber, with the talk of sending his files, mostly composed of his personal correspondences, back to Fargo; Muench further directly four German nuns of the Saint Lioba convent in Freiburg/Breisgau to organize his German language correspondence. He continued sending records to Fargo until December 1959; in December 1960 he wrote a letter thanking an American friend bringing his personal diplomatic archives to the United States "without custom difficulties". After Muench died on February 15, 1962, the papers were found by Sister Ilga Braun, secretary to the Bonn nunciature since 1951, who was invited by his successor as Bishop of Fargo, Leo Dworschak
Leo Ferdinand Dworschak
Leo Ferdinand Dworschak was the fourth Roman Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fargo, in Fargo, North Dakota....
to organize the papers, which she did until 1963.
The papers were presented to the Catholic University of America in September 1972 by Bishop Justin Albert Driscoll
Justin Albert Driscoll
Justin Albert Driscoll was an American Roman Catholic clergyman. He served as President of Loras College and Bishop of Fargo .-Biography:...
, and indexed by 1976.
Contents
Among the papers are tens of thousands of letters (and Muench's replies) from German Catholics dated from 1946 to 1959, many from convicted Catholic war criminals seeking Muench's assistance in revising their denazification sentence, having their imprisonment commuted, or seeking emigration to the United States. Muench's correspondence was vast, numbering approximately 15,000 letters in 1956 alone; but of those, only 300 addressed the Holocaust explicitly.In addition, Muench received approximately 100 letters from U.S. Catholics and military government officials speaking frankly on taboo topics, such as anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and its survivors. For example, a 1947 letter from a German Catholic alleged that U.S. generals such as Lucius D. Clay
Lucius D. Clay
General Lucius Dubignon Clay was an American officer and military governor of the United States Army known for his administration of Germany immediately after World War II. Clay was deputy to General Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1945; deputy military governor, Germany 1946; commander in chief, U.S....
and Walter Muller
Walter Müller
-Selected filmography:* The Singing House * The Black Forest Girl * Season in Salzburg * The White Horse Inn * Mask in Blue -External links:...
were Jews, that Roosevelt had been assassinated by Jews, and other Jewish conspiracy theories. Another letter from a Catholic Army major wrote that enlisted Jews sought promotions into positions where they could "control thought".
Diary
Muench kept a diary, which often recorded his recollections of conversations with important post-war leaders. For example, Muench wrote in his diary that former President Herbert HooverHerbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
had confided in Muench his belief that "no emigrés who were not citizens for at least twenty years should be permitted to shape and execute policies in Germany".
He also reserved for his diary his description of Jewish Germans who had survived the war and resettled in the United States as "alien" and "recent" Americans, disloyal citizens, "in control" of American post-war policy in Germany, and harsh "avengers" against the Germans. For example, when Muench encountered difficulty in 1946 in easing travel restrictions on members of the clergy, he wrote in his diary that the problem was due to "Jews in control [of the] Public Safety [division]". Similarly, Muench referred to Franz Cueppers, a Frankfurt banker convicted of conducting illegal foreign exchange as a "victim of Jewish lawyers".
A recurring point of interest for Muench were what he referred to as "Thirty-Niners": Jews who had fled Germany in 1933 or 1934, received United States citizenship in 1939, and then enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces—Muench believed—"to wreak their vengeance in every way possible on the defeated foe". Muench's writings often characterized Jews generally, and Jewish displaced persons specifically, to be "greedy, wilfully destructive, sexual predators, thieves, and anarchists involved in leftist activities".
Barry's biography
Muench commissioned Father Coleman Barry—whom he had met in MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
in 1953—to write his biography in 1961. Muench was a long-time benefactor of Barry, ever since he had reviewed Barry's first book, The Catholic Church and the German Americans for the Catholic Historical Review
Catholic Historical Review
The Catholic Historical Review is the official organ of the American Catholic Historical Association. It was founded at The Catholic University of America in 1915 and is published by The Catholic University of America Press. The journal publishes articles and book reviews received in all areas of...
.
Barry interviewed Muench extensively in Fargo in the summer of 1961 and thereafter interviewed his family, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances in Milwaukee, Fargo, Germany, and Rome. Barry published American Nuncio; Cardinal Aloisius Muensch in 1969 and it remains the only biography of Muench.
Barry's biography does not cover the letters between Muench, American Catholics, occupation authorities, and Vatican officials; nor does it address Muench's views of German guilt and collective responsibility for the Holocaust in much depth.
Barry's biography was reviewed by the Journal of Ecumenical Studies and Church History as well as several Catholic journals and papers, which leveled very little criticism of the work, with the exception of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies. The reviewer, Prof. Franklin Littel
Franklin Littel
Franklin Hamlin Littell was an American Protestant scholar. He is known for his writings rejecting supersessionism and, in light of the Holocaust, advocated educational programs to improve relations between Christians and Jews.After spending nearly ten years in post-war Germany as Chief Protestant...
l of Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
, argued that the work lacked objectivity.
Brown-Fleming's monograph
Suzanne Brown-Fleming, a fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
's Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, published her monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
of the Muench papers in 2006: The Holocaust and Catholic Conscience: Cardinal Aloisius Muench and the Guilt Question in Germany. Dr. Brown-Fleming holds a Ph.D. in Modern German History form the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
.
The monograph has received positive reviews. Prof. Mark Edward Ruff of Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University
Saint Louis University is a private, co-educational Jesuit university located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by the Most Reverend Louis Guillaume Valentin Dubourg SLU is the oldest university west of the Mississippi River. It is one of 28 member institutions of the...
calls the work "concise and clearly written", her use of primary sources "often convincing and damning", states Brown-Fleming "deserves kudos for bringing he work and values of Muench, a hitherto neglected figure, to the public eye". Prof. Micahel Ott of Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University
Grand Valley State University is a public liberal arts university located in Allendale, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1960, and its main campus is situated on approximately west of Grand Rapids...
calls the work a "critical contribution to the growing research on the question of the Roman Catholic Church's policies and actions with regard to the Holocaust during World War II". Prof. Kevin Spicer of Stonehill College
Stonehill College
Stonehill College is a private Roman Catholic college located in Easton, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1948. Situated in North Easton, Massachusetts, a suburban community of 23,329 people, Stonehill is located south of Boston on a campus, the original estate of Frederick Lothrop Ames...
calls the work an "insightful and well-researched examination".
Although Prof. John Conway of the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...
praises her use of the Muench papers, he notes that "her book suffers from the inaccessibility of the Vatican's records, since the papers for the reign of Pius XII are still-regrettably-closed".
External links
- Inventory of the Cardinal Aloisius Muench Papers at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives