Hitze, Franz

HITZE, FRANZ. - German Catholic politician and sociologist. Born on 16 March 1851, at Hänemicke (Westphalia), he was ordained a priest in 1878. In 1880 he was elected general secretary of the "Arbeiterwohl"; from 1893 until 1920 he was professor of Christian sociology at Münster, in Westphalia; from 1884 he was also a member of the Reichstag, active in the Centre Party. Died at Bad Nauheim on 20 July 1921.

For forty years he devoted all his work, through writings and speeches, to a social reform to be brought about through collaboration among the Catholic Church, the State and society, yet in such a way as to leave to private initiative and to charity — before being induced to advocate State intervention — the implementation of a sound social program. He succeeded in convincing German Catholics, sensitive to the social problems of the transformations which both the economy and society were undergoing in his time, and he obtained, in Germany, recognition of a trade-union self-administration of the leagues, protecting the economic interests of professionals and workers.

He wrote, among other things: Die soziale Frage und die Bestrebungen zu ihrer Lösung (München-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).

Francesco Ercolani