page_title: Aloisius Joseph Muench
section_title: Bishop of Fargo (1935–1959)
hierarchical_section_title: Aloisius Joseph Muench / Bishop of Fargo (1935–1959)
caption_attribution_description: English: American cardinal Samuel Stritch (1887-1958)
context_page_description: 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, Pope Pius XII's apostolic visitor to Germany, the Vatican relief officer in Kronberg im Taunus, Germany, regent in Kronberg, as well as nuncio to Germany.
context_section_description: 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 the latter 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.
caption: Samuel Stritch recommended Muench to Pius XII and Truman after the pope elevated Stritch to the cardinlate.
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