Franz Justus Rarkowski

Who was Franz Justus Rarkowski?

Franz Justus Rarkowski, S.M. was the Catholic military bishop of Nazi Germany. The existence of such a role was provided for by the Reichskonkordat, and Rarkowski had been acting head of the military chaplaincy since 1929, before he was officially consecrated on February 29, 1938 as episcopus castrensis. Rarkowski's title was translated into English as "Field Bishop of the German Army".

The first draft of the Apostolic Brief to regulate the military chaplaincy was given to the German government on June 26, 1934. The brief was issued on September 19, 1935.

Rarkowski was born in Allenstein, East Prussia. He was a former associate of President Paul von Hindenburg, and Ambassador Diego von Bergen was informed in July 1935 that he was the favored candidate of the Nazi Party. Rarkowski had not graduated from high school, but was admitted to study theology for the priesthood in Switzerland, where he left his religious order. According to historian Guenter Lewy, the German bishops' opposition to Rarkowski's candidacy "stemmed from the episcopate's feeling that he was their inferior and a threat to their status rather than from the unacceptability of his political ideas".