"dangerously thin ice". According to Phayer, it was Muench's discretion that "saved the Vatican from becoming publicly associated with former Nazis". Muench wrote: "I have not dared to advise the Holy See to intervene, especially if such intervention would eventually become public". Muench often preferred to work behind the scenes; for example, a letter from one of Muench's secretaries provided Father Franz Lovenstein the contact information he had requested "with the understanding, of course, that you are not to use his name in connection with any letters or briefs that will be sent to those gentlemen". For example, in the case of Hans Eisele, former SS doctor convicted of experimentation on prisoners, there is some evidence that Muench's intervention with General Clay in the summer of 1948 resulted in the commutation of Eisele's execution (scheduled for June 1948) and Eisele's eventual release in 1952. Nunciature (1951–1959) Muench's role as apostolic visitor was upgraded to nuncio when the Allied High Commission permitted the Federal Republic to form an independent foreign affairs ministry in March 1951. On March 9, 1951, Pope Pius XII appointed Bishop Muench papal nuncio to Germany with the title of archbishop. 1886 Muench viewed it as no small honor to hold the nunciature formerly occupied by Pius XII himself. On March 12, Pius XII moved the nunciature from Eichstätt to Bad Godesberg, outside of Bonn. By April 4, 1951, Muench was named dean of the German diplomatic corps, the first diplomat accredited by the Federal Republic. Relationship with Pius XII There is much evidence of genuine camaraderie between Pius XII and Muench. He met Eugenio Pacelli (the future pope) for the first time while Pacelli was nuncio to Bavaria, when Muench visited Munich as a student representative of the Catholic Central Verein of America (CCVA). As pope, Pius XII received Muench in several audiences, and after their second audience on July 12, 1946, the two always conversed in German. Muench also wrote many reports on the events in Germany directly to Pius XII between 1946 and 1958, and there is some evidence that Pius XII read many of them personally, even in 1953 when his health began to deteriorate. The reports spoke not only of the immediate, material needs of German Catholics, but also of the spread of communism, a fear shared by Muench and Pius XII, and the subject of another 1954 audience between the two. Muench