his teaching duties to become a rector. Muench was promoted to the rank of monsignor in September 1934. Bishop of Fargo (1935–1959) On August 10, 1935, Pope Pius XI appointed Muench the third bishop of the Diocese of Fargo, North Dakota; he was consecrated on October 15, 1935, and installed on November 6, 1935. Muench accompanied Archbishop Samuel Stritch to Rome when the latter was created cardinal by Pope Pius XII in 1946, and purchased the red hat Stritch received in the ceremony. In a meeting with the pope, Stritch recommended Muench for the role of apostolic visitor in Germany, because of his "sympathy" for the "suffering of the German people". When Muench returned to the United States, he was offered the additional position of liaison between the U.S. post-war occupation authorities in Germany (the Office of Military Government, United States Zone, OMGUS) and the German Catholic Church, also on the recommendation of Stritch, after Anthony Strauss, the first choice of the Truman administration, turned the appointment down. Post-war Germany (1946–1951) Pope Pius XII appointed Muench apostolic visitor to Germany in 1946. From 1946 to 1949, he served as military vicar delegate of the United States armed forces, and from 1949 to 1951, he was the regent of the nunciature in Germany; back in Fargo, from 1947 onward, Leo Ferdinand Dworschak, the auxiliary bishop, served as apostolic administrator. Muench also served as "liaison consultant for religious affairs to the military governor", appointed by Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson. The German nunciature had been vacant since the death of Cesare Orsenigo in 1946. Muench assumed the de facto role of nuncio before he received the title on March 6, 1951. According to Barry's biography, Muench focused on three goals: the Vatican mission for Catholic displaced persons and prisoners of war (funded by American donations brokered by Muench); maintaining the validity of the Reichskonkordat (a 1933 treaty between the Vatican and Germany); and the autonomy of German Catholic schools. Historian Michael Phayer views Muench's dual appointment as significant: "Muench's position was extraordinary. At one and the same time, he was President Truman's Catholic liaison to OMGUS and Pius XII's personal envoy to zonal Germany. Serving two masters, he listened to Rome, not Washington from the moment of his arrival in Germany". One World in Charity Muench's pastoral letter One World In Charity was published in installments (in the U.S. first in