PIUSVEREIN. – An association founded in Mainz in 1848 by A. F. Lenning, canon of the Cathedral, and by G. Riffel to organize German Catholics in defence of their religious freedom and civil rights. It took its name from Pope Pius IX, who was reigning at the time.
According to the first article of its statutes, the Association aimed «to prevent, while upholding the foundations of freedom and absolute equality in religious matters, that this freedom and equality should in any way or anywhere be detrimental to the Catholic religion». It was further resolved that a similar association should be established in every town and village where Catholics resided, and that the Bishop of Mainz, considering the particular importance of the city and the number of Catholics living there, should become the national headquarters of all the various local associations. The Bishop of Mainz set an example for the formation of other associations throughout Germany. From Hesse to Silesia, from Württemberg to Baden, from the Tyrol to the Baltic, and from the Rhine to Poland, German Catholicism rallied in numerous associations whose representatives met in October 1848 at a general congress in Mainz and established the Catholic Association of Germany (Katholischer Verein Deutschland). This was the first national organization of Catholics, which from then on met periodically in congress at the Katholikentage. In Switzerland, too, a Piusverein was founded in Beckenried in 1857 with the same aims as the German one; it spread to all the cantons and in 1904, together with other organizations, established the Schweizerische Katholisches Volksverein in Lucerne. In Austria, the association took the name Piusverein zur Förderung der katholischen Presse, founded in 1905 by P. Kolb, which in 1920 merged into the Volksbund der Katholiken Österreichs.