FRITZEN, ADOLF. – Bishop of Strasbourg, born on 10 August 1838 at Cleve, died at Strasbourg on 7 September 1919. Ordained a priest in 1862, from 1874 to 1887 he was tutor to the sons of the future King Giorgio of Saxony. In 1891 he became bishop of Strasbourg.
In 1903 he supported the establishment of the Faculty of Theology at the local university, and four years later he oversaw the publication of a new catechism. He resumed the celebration of diocesan synods, which had not been held since 1687. After Alsace passed to France at the end of the First World War, the new state authorities, who unjustly accused the bishop of favoring Germanizing tendencies, placed F., through their deliberate intention to ignore him, in an untenable position, from which he withdrew by resigning the bishopric. Appointed titular archbishop of Mocesso, F. died not long afterward.