Adolf Cardinal Bertram

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Adolf Cardinal Bertram (March 14, 1859 – July 6, 1945) was archbishop of Breslau and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.

Adolf Bertram was born in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony in Germany. He studied theology at the University of Munich, the University of Innsbruck, and the University of Würzburg, 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. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1881. On April 26, 1906, he was elected bishop of Hildesheim and received his papal confirmation June 12, 1906. Eight years later, on May 27, 1914 Adolf Bertram became bishop of Breslau, a decision which was confirmed by the pope on September 8, 1914. While he held the title of a prince-bishop, the Prince-Bishopric of Breslau had long ceased to exist at this time.

On December 4, 1916 prince-bishop Bertram was created a cardinal in pectore, owing to fears that there would be Allied hostility to the Church if his promotion were revealed. After hositilities subsided, he was published on December 5, 1919 and received the title Sant' Agnese fuori le mura on December 18, 1919. In 1930, after Breslau became a metropolitan see, he was further elevated to archbishop.

From 1919 until his death, Adolf Cardinal Bertram was the Chairman of the Fulda Conference of Catholic Bishops and thus the highest representative of the Catholic Church in Germany. His role during Hitler's rule is presently a matter of debate. On the one hand, Bertram came into conflict with the Nazi government when he attempted to preserve the independence of the Church. On the other hand, he initially declared his support for Hitler and "in line with Rome’s policy" refused to publicly comment on the persecution of Jews.

Following the assassination attempt on Hitler in July, 1944, the Gestapo rounded up nearly everyone suspected of opposing the Nazi regime or having even remote connection with the plotters. Fearing for his own safety and on the advice from the Vatican, Bertram decided to leave Breslau a spent the rest of the War at his summer residence at castle Johannesberg in Jauernig. Adolf Cardinal Bertram died there on July 6, 1945 at the age of 86 and was buried at the cemetery in Ves Javornik. It is said that he died partly because of enormous stress caused by the bloody conflicts in post-WWII Sudetenland and the persecution of Germans by the Czech and Polish militia. His body was exhumed in 1991 and was reburied in his own metropolitan cathedral in Wrocław (Breslau), now in Poland. He was succeeded as Chairman of the Fulda Conference of Catholic Bishops by Josef Cardinal Frings.

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Preceded by
Georg von Kopp		 Bishop or Archbishop of Breslau
1914-1945		 Succeeded by
Bolesław Kominek
Preceded by
Wilhelm Sommerwerk		 Bishop of Hildesheim
1906-1914		 Succeeded by
Josef Ernst
Preceded by
Felix Cardinal von Hartmann		 Chairman of the Fulda Conference of Catholic Bishops
1919-1946		 Succeeded by
Josef Cardinal Frings
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