HARTMANN, FELIX von. - Cardinal, Archbishop of Cologne, b. at Münster in Westphalia on 15 Dec. 1851, d. at Cologne on 11 Nov. 1919. Ordained a priest in 1874, he devoted himself to the study of law in Rome (1874-80), then to the ministry for ten years (1880-90), and was afterward secretary of the Bishop of Münster and vicar general; upon the death of his own bishop he was elected capitular vicar (1910) and then, on 6 June 1911, bishop of the same diocese. Cardinal Fischer wanted him and obtained him (9 Apr. 1913) as his coadjutor with the right of succession at Cologne and, having become archbishop of that city on 25 May 1914, he was elevated to the purple with the title of cardinal priest of St. John at the Latin Gate. As president of the Conferences of the German Bishops at Fulda he was for many years at the head of the German episcopate.
He showed himself an indefatigable champion of Catholic orthodoxy against the errors of Hermann Schell, of Kraus and of the so-called Reformkatholizismus movement, which had its leaders in Ehrhard, Müller and Schnitzer. He exerted himself in works of Christian charity during the first European conflict (1914-18). To his zeal is due the work that arose at Paderborn for the benefit of all the prisoners who were in Germany. For imprisoned priests he obtained from the Emperor the treatment reserved for officers. In the field of charity he promoted a kind of confederation among all the charitable works in Germany.
In social action he took care to avoid every exaggeration and to preserve unconditional fidelity to the directives of Rome. Thus in the very difficult question of the Christian trade unions he immediately followed the line of conduct marked out by Pius X in the encyclical Singulari quadam of 24 Aug. 1912, that is, of tolerance toward the Christian trade unions with the due safeguards indicated in the same pontifical document, although until that day he had followed a somewhat different line in the Kölnische Volkzeitung.
He promoted with solemn celebrations the 12th centenary of the beginning of the evangelization of Germany by St. Boniface (1919) and laid the foundations of the celebrated Neudeutschland association, which did so much good among German youth.
Bibliography4 works
Pietro Palazzini