18 Facts About Adolf Bertram

Adolf Bertram was archbishop of Breslau and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Adolf Bertram was born in Hildesheim, Royal Prussian Province of Hanover, Germany.

Adolf Bertram studied theology at the University of Munich, the University of Innsbruck, and the University of Wurzburg, where he obtained a doctorate in theology, and at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in canon law in 1884.

Adolf Bertram was ordained a Roman Catholic diocesan priest in 1881.

On 4 December 1916 Adolf Bertram was created a cardinal but only in pectore for fear of provoking a negative reaction against the Church on the part of the Allies, especially from the Italian side.

Adolf Bertram forbade Polish priests from taking part in Polish cultural and political activities but allowed German ones to participate in political agitation.

On 21 November 1920, four months before the Silesian Plebiscite, Adolf Bertram issued an order that made political activity of local priests dependent on the agreement of the local provost and supported by threat of severe church sanctions if broken.

On 7 November 1922, Adolf Bertram lost his episcopal competence in the parishes of Breslau diocese that had become part of Poland, namely in the prior Austro-Hungarian, now Polish eastern Cieszyn Silesia, and the prior German East Upper Silesia.

Adolf Bertram then supervised three suffragans within Breslau's new Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province, the dioceses of Berlin and Ermland as well as the Territorial Prelature of Schneidemuhl.

Adolf Bertram warned against the ambiguity of the concept of "positive Christianity", a highly nationalistic religion that the Nazis were encouraging.

Adolf Bertram ordered Church celebrations upon Nazi Germany's victory over Poland and France, with an order to ring bells all across the Reich upon the news of the German capture of Warsaw in 1939.

Adolf Bertram opposed what he called the immorality and "neopaganism" of the Nazi Party.

In 1940, Cardinal Adolf Bertram condemned the propaganda and planning for Operation Lebensborn and Nazi vitalism and insemination plans as "immoral", saying that the Lebensborn programme was institutionalized "adultery".

Adolf Bertram's death left the College of Cardinals with 40 members - the fewest in 144 years.

Adolf Bertram finally decided to leave the city in late February or early March 1945 and spent the rest of the war at his summer residence at Castle Johannesberg in Jauernig, where he died on 6 July 1945 at the age of 86.

Adolf Bertram was buried at the local cemetery in Ves Javornik.

Adolf Bertram was succeeded as Chairman of the Fulda Conference of Catholic Bishops by Josef Frings.

In point of fact, this is what we know: Adolf Bertram was elderly and ill when the war ended.