Early Life and Education
Muench was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Joseph Muench and Theresa Kraus on February 18, 1889, the first of seven surviving children. His father's ancestors were from Sankt Kathrina, along the Bavarian–Austrian border. His father, a baker, emigrated to Milwaukee at age 18 in 1882. His mother was born in Kemnath in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria and emigrated to Milwaukee in 1882 at age 14; Muench's parents married in 1888.
The family lived on the north side of Milwaukee among other German Catholic immigrants, his parents speaking only German in the home. Muench began his training for the priesthood at age 14, entering Saint Francis Seminary in 1904. He was ordained on June 8, 1916 in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and assigned to Saint Michael's parish.
He left Milwaukee in 1917 to become the assistant chaplain of Saint Paul's University Chapel at the University of Wisconsin (now University of Wisconsin–Madison), where he obtained a masters in economics in 1918.
In 1919 Muench entered the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, earning a doctorate magna cum laude in July 1921 in the social sciences, focusing on theological disciplines of economics, social morality, and social ethics. He was a member of K.D.St.V. Teutonia Fribourg (Switzerland), a Catholic student fraternity that is part of the Cartellverband der katholischen deutschen Studentenverbindungen.
The archbishop of Milwaukee granted Muench permission to remain in Europe to study at University of Louvain (Belgium), Cambridge, Oxford, the London School of Economics, the Collège de France, and the Sorbonne. Muench returned to St. Francis Seminary in 1922 as a professor. In 1929, he ceased his teaching duties to become a rector. Muench was promoted to the rank of monsignor in September 1934.
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