His Eminence Joseph Wendel
Cardinal, Archbishop of Munich and Freising
Joseph Wendel (right) next to Konrad Adenauer (center) on the final rally of the 77th Deutscher Katholikentag 1956 (German Catholic Day) in Cologne.
Archdiocese	Munich and Freising
See	Munich and Freising
Appointed	August 9, 1952
Installed	November 7, 1952
Term ended	December 31, 1960
Predecessor	Michael von Faulhaber
Successor	Julius August Döpfner
Other post(s)	Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria Nuova Bishop of Military Ordinariate of Germany
Orders
Ordination	October 30, 1927 by Basilio Pompili
Consecration	June 29, 1941 by Ludwig Sebastian
Created cardinal	January 12, 1953
Rank	Cardinal-Priest
Personal details
Born	(1901-05-27)27 May 1901 Blieskastel, Palatinate, Bavaria, German Empire
Died	31 December 1960(1960-12-31) (aged 59) Munich, Bavaria, West Germany
Nationality	German
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Previous post(s)	Coadjutor Bishop of Speyer (1941–1943) Titular Bishop of Lebessus (1941–1943) Bishop of Speyer (1943–1952)
Motto	veritati et caritati
Coat of arms

Styles of Joseph Wendel
Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Munich and Freising

Joseph Wendel (May 27, 1901 – December 31, 1960) was a German Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1952 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII.

Biography

Joseph Wendel was born in Blieskastel, and studied at the seminary in Speyer, and the Pontifical German-Hungarian College and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. From the Gregorian he obtained doctorates in philosophy and theology. Wendel was ordained to the priesthood on October 30, 1927, and then did pastoral work in Speyer, also serving as director of Caritas, until 1941.

On April 4, 1941, he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Speyer and Titular Bishop of Lebessus. He received his episcopal consecration on the following June 29 from Bishop Ludwig Sebastian, with Bishops Matthias Ehrenfried and Joseph Kolb serving as co-consecrators. Wendel succeeded Sebastian as Bishop of Speyer on May 20, 1943, being installed on June 4 of that same year. During World War II, he strongly defended the rights of the Church and humanity.^[1] Wendel became known as the "Bishop of Peace" following the war because of his efforts to restore West Germany's good will^[2]

Pope Pius XII named him Archbishop of Munich and Freising on August 9, 1952 (three Bishops of Speyer have become Archbishop of Munich and Freising, the others being Michael von Faulhaber and Friedrich Wetter), and created him Cardinal Priest of S. Maria Nuova in the consistory of January 12, 1953. On February 4, 1956, Wendel became the Apostolic Vicar of the Catholic Military Ordinariate of Germany. He was one of the cardinal electors in the 1958 papal conclave, which selected Pope John XXIII. The German prelate also made gestures of ecumenism to Protestants,^[3] and organized the International Eucharistic Congress in Munich in 1960.

Shortly after delivering his New Year's Eve sermon, Wendel died from a heart attack in Munich, at age 59.^[2] He is buried in the metropolitan cathedral of that same city.