HAFFNER, PAUL LEOPOLD. - Bishop of Mainz, born at Horb in Württemberg on 21 Jan. 1829, died at Mainz on 2 Nov. 1899. A professor at the Seminary of Mainz, during the «Kulturkampf» he became, alongside his bishop Ketteler, the soul of the Catholic movement, making use of his rich gifts as an orator, journalist, and writer.
He became famous through his speeches at the Catholic congresses (Katholikentage), especially that of 1877; he was one of the founders of the Görres-Gesellschaft, whose philosophical section he directed; from 1864 he was a member of the governing committee for the publication of the Frankfurter Zeitgemässen Broschüren. In his writings on the Christian social order he followed in the footsteps of Bishop Ketteler, whom he also succeeded in the episcopal see of Mainz in 1886, after a vacancy of nine years.
Principal writings: Die deutsche Aufklärung (Mainz 1864); Der Materialismus in der Kulturgeschichte (ibid. 1865); Grundlinien der Philosophie (2 vols., ibid. 1881-1883); Der Versuch eines Dilettanten (under the pseudonym Minranov, ibid. 1879); Wie machen wir's, dass wir kommen in Abrahams Schoss (under the same pseudonym, ibid. 1879); Sozialer Katechismus (under the pseudonym Artur V. Hohenberg [ibid. 1879, new ed. by F. Kirchesch, 1925]).