A Servant of Two Masters: Bishop Aloisius Muench and the Debate over Catholic Schools in Postwar Bavaria

Abstract:In 1946, President Harry Truman sought to reform the German education system and appointed Bishop Aloisius Muench as the Catholic Liaison to assist the U.S. occupational forces. Simultaneously, Muench was appointed as the Vatican's official visitor to Germany. Using these roles, Muench influenced denazification and educational policies in Bavaria. Drawing on unused primary sources from Muench's personal correspondence, OMGUS files, the papers of Lucius Clay, the Christian Social Union Archives, the personal papers of Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, and the files from the archives of the archdiocese of Munich and Freising, this article concludes that Muench played a key role in preserving Catholic schools in Bavaria. Muench's case proves that denazification policies were contested and formed by a coalition of secular and religious individuals.