HITZE, FRANZ. - German Catholic politician and sociologist. Born on 16 March 1851 at Hanemicke (Westphalia), he was ordained a priest in 1878. In 1880 he was elected general secretary of the *Arbeiterwohl*; from 1893 until 1920 he taught Christian sociology at Münster in Westphalia; from 1884 he was also a member of the Reichstag, representing the Centre Party. He died at Bad Nauheim on 20 July 1921.
For forty years he devoted his entire work, through writings and speeches, to a social reform to be achieved through collaboration between the Catholic Church, the State, and society, yet in such a way as to leave the implementation of a sound social programme to private initiative and charity before resorting to state intervention. He succeeded in persuading German Catholics, who were sensitive to the social problems arising from the transformations then affecting both the economy and society, and he obtained in Germany recognition of a self-governing trade-union system safeguarding the economic interests of professionals and workers.
Among his works are: *Die soziale Frage und die Bestrebungen zu ihrer Lösung* (Munich-Gladbach 1877); *Kapital und Arbeit und die Reorganisation der Gesellschaft* (ibid. 1880); *Die Arbeiterfrage und die Bestrebungen zu ihrer Lösung* (ibid. 1892); *Zur Würdigung der deutschen Arbeiter-Sozialpolitik* (ibid. 1913).