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Clemens August Graf von Galen (1878-1946) is popularly known as the "Lion of Münster" for his resolute opposition to Nazism, notably to Hitler's policy of euthanasia that was to cleanse Germany of the mentally retarded. Von Galen was the Bishop of Münster in Westphalia until he became a cardinal in 1946, shortly before his death. In the summer of 1941, he delivered three powerful sermons against euthanasia and the closing of monasteries. The sermons were secretly copied and distributed and also, much to the embarrassment of the Nazi regime, dropped as leaflets by the Royal Air Force over Germany. It is thanks to these sermons that Bishop von Galen has been widely recognized and indeed celebrated as a resister against National Socialism.