Friedrich Maassen

Friedrich Bernard Christian Maassen (24 September 1823 – 9 April 1900, age 76) was a German jurist, professor of law, and Roman Catholic scholar.

He was active in the constitutional conflict of 1848 between the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the Diet, defending the rights of the representatives in three pamphlets, and, together with Franz von Florencourt, founded the anti-revolutionary "Norddeutscher Korrespondent".

Later realizing that, as a Catholic, he was no longer eligible for public office in his native town, he travelled to Bonn, where he devoted himself to academic teaching.

During the Vatican Council he adhered to Ignaz von Döllinger, but was in no real sense an Old Catholic, and in 1882 explicitly retracted all his utterances in favour of that sect.

Maassen's Neun Kapitel über freie Kirche und Gewissenfreiheit (Graz, 1876) is written in a vehement style; a sweeping condemnation of the Prussian Kulturkampf.