BIEDERLACK, Joseph. – Jesuit, born at Greven (Westphalia) on 27 March 1845, died at Innsbruck on 15 November 1930. Professor in the theological faculty at Innsbruck and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, he made the social question his favourite field of study.
His sociological courses, begun in 1893 and continued throughout his life, kept pace with the needs of the times and gave rise to the work: Die sociale Frage (Innsbruck 1895, expanded to the 10th ed., ibid. 1925; Italian trans. by M. Vivari, 3rd ed., Rome 1907), which served as a stimulus to the study of various topics, especially among Catholics and the clergy. In it, besides competently addressing the different aspects of the question, he strongly upheld the idea of workers’ unions. Other works: De contractibus, De iustitia et iure (Innsbruck 1892); De iure regularium (ibid. 1893; revised in the 2nd ed. to conform to the new Codex Iuris Canonici, ibid. 1919).