community with the aforementioned scholars served to "talk the Münster Catholics out of their distance from National Socialism". Pieper agreed with Schmaus and Lortz that "Hitler and the Pope [...] had the same main enemies", namely "liberalism on the right, this hereditary evil of modernity which underlies the current crisis, and Bolshevism on the left, before Hitler saved us". "He, Pieper, proves to the Catholic Christians that Hitler's and the Pope's goals are identical." Pieper's book, Das Arbeitsrecht des Neuen Reiches und die Enzyklika Quadragesimo anno ("The Labor Law of the New Reich and the Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno") (1934), says: "The very far-reaching, in individual points astonishing correspondences between the model of the encyclical and the socio-political goals and realizations of the National Socialist state should be clarified so emphatically, so that the Catholic Christians outside the bridge that connects the ideas of Christian social teaching with National Socialist social policy, the core of the domestic policy of the Third Reich.” Hans Maier wrote in a review that Flasch, in his writing on Pieper, refutes the assumption that Pieper was a "pioneer of National Socialism". Pieper gave the Third Reich "no impetus, no suggestions", but was initially deceived by Nazi attempts to hide the criminal character of that state. However, immediately after the publication of the book Das Arbeitsrecht des Neuen Reiches und die Enzyklika Quadragesimo, Pieper recognized his mistake and asked the publisher on July 21, 1934 and again on September 22, to refrain from a new edition. According to Hans Maier, Pieper quickly distanced himself from Das Arbeitsrecht and his positive assessment of Nazi social policy. In his work on the cardinal virtue of bravery, also published in 1934, Pieper, referring to the situation in Germany, was already warning of a “destructive counterattack of […] irrationalism” that “declares war on the primacy of […] the Spirit itself.” Pieper also criticized the "conversion of society into a community" operated by the Nazis. Because of the increasingly visible rejection of Nazism in his writings, Pieper was eventually banned from publishing. The philosopher Fernando Inciarte therefore classifies Pieper as an opponent of National Socialism, who, however, did not cross the line into open resistance and therefore "never claimed the honor of being considered an opposition member". However, Pieper's writings have been shown to have influenced members of the opposition such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Awards In 1981 Pieper received the Balzan Prize