Joannes Baptista Sproll was born in
Schweinhausen, near
Biberach, the son of street mender Josef Sproll and Anna Maria (
née Freuer). He attended the Latin school in Biberach and
Gymnasium Ehingen before studying
Catholic theology at the
University of Tübingen from 1890 to 1894. In 1898, he received his doctorate for work on the history of law and constitution at
Tübingen's St. George Monastery. He became
Bishop of Rottenburg on 14 June 1927.
Nazi-era opposition Though initially welcoming the 1933
Reichskonkordat between Nazi Germany and the Holy See, Sproll later became a public opponent of the regime. His demonstrative abstention from the April 1938
Reichstag election – which included a referendum on the
Anschluss – prompted Nazi-orchestrated demonstrations and legal proceedings against him. On 23 July 1938,
SA men stormed Rottenburg Bishop's Palace, and Sproll was expelled from his diocese, living under
Gestapo surveillance in
Krumbad (
Diocese of Augsburg) until 1945. His refusal to resign despite pressure from Nuncio
Cesare Orsenigo earned him the epithet "
Martyr Bishop". He himself summed up this period: Sproll articulated his resistance in theological terms during a 1934 sermon at the Fulda Bishops' Conference, later cited as inspiration for Cardinal
Faulhaber's encyclical "Mit brennender Sorge": On October 4, 1938, amid the
Sudeten Crisis, Sproll wrote to his diocesan flock: "A war more terrible than humanity has ever experienced has been averted from us."
World War II and death On 1 August 1940, Archbishop
Conrad Gröber of
Freiburg and
Vicar General Max Kottmann (acting for Sproll) formally protested the Grafeneck
euthanasia program – preceding Bishop
Clemens August Graf von Galen famous denunciation. Despite a 1939
pastoral letter praising German troops' loyalty: Church historian Franz X. Schmid maintains Sproll remained "an avowed
pacifist" and member of the "Peace Association of
German Catholics." ==References==