INNITZER, THEODOR

Cardinal archbishop of Vienna; b. Vejprty (Weipert), Bohemia, Dec. 25, 1875; d. Vienna, Oct. 9, 1955. Theodor, son of a lacemaker, studied at Vienna and was ordained in 1902. From 1913 until 1932 he was professor of the New Testament at the University of Vienna and general secretary of a Catholic cultural society, the Leo-Gesellschaft. In the Schober cabinet (1929–30) he served as minister of social welfare. He became archbishop of Vienna (Sept. 20, 1932) and cardinal (March 1933). Innitzer was a strong supporter of the authoritarian regime of Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt von Schuschnigg. He and the other Austrian bishops declared their support for the Anschluss in the faint hope of preserving Austria's Church liberties and tradition. Pope Pius XI and the German hierarchy did not approve of this optimistic policy, which was soon rendered meaningless by the Nazi refusal to honor agreements and by the attack on the archiepiscopal palace by members of Nazi youth organizations (Oct. 8, 1938). Promises made by Hitler to Innitzer in the course of two interviews were intended merely to win Catholic support in the plebiscite. In his last years Innitzer devoted himself to rebuilding the Church in Austria, especially to restoring the Stefansdom, damaged in the last days of World War II. He also remained more aloof from Austrian politics. Long a pioneer in providing advanced theological training for the laity, he established for this purpose the Vienna Catholic Academy (1945). Innitzer was outstanding for his love of his fellow men and for his awareness of social problems. Much less impressive was his political sense, which had developed in the tradition of josephinism and under the influence of German national feeling in Bohemia.

Bibliography: Geschichte der Republik Österreich, ed. h. benedikt (Munich 1954). j. wodka, Kirche in Österreich (Vienna 1959). j. kosnetter, Theodor Kardinal Innitzer zum Gedächtnis (Vienna 1957); Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche 5:685.

[w. b. slottman]