Michael Rackl

[1] Rackl was ordained a priest on 29 June 1909 at the age of 25 in Eichstätt by Cardinal Konrad von Preysing.

During the Second World War, Rackl allowed British Officers in a local prisoner-of-war camp to use the printing press of the diocese to produce a camp magazine entitled "Touchstone", which was notable for including three ghost stories by Alan Noel Latimer Munby.

In 1933, he signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.

In 1936, Rackl declared that Catholicism and National Socialism were incompatible, having been at odds with the Nazis since his inauguration as bishop the year before.

In April 1937, he defended a priest, Johann Kraus, who had been ordered to leave Eichstätt by the Nazis.