Andreas Rohracher (1892 - 1976)

In this second installation of the "color-week", the prelate who was archbishop of Salzburg/Austria from 1943 to 1969. The archbishops of Salzburg have or had some interesting privileges:

Already in 1027 the archbishop Thietmar II. (or Dietmar) was allowed to make decisions that would have been reserved for the pope in the diocese of Salzburg in extremely urgent matters. Connected with that was the right to use a horse covered in red which later developed into the privilege of assuming the title "legatus natus". Archbishop Eberhard I. became "legatus a latere" in 1162. His successor Konrad III. became "legatus apostolicae sedis in Noricum". From that year on the archbishops of Salzburg used to wear the "purple of the legate". Until today all the archbishops receive with the pallium the title "legatus natus". It is said that the archbishops of Salzburg never really cared about becoming cardinals because they already were allowed to wear the purple (which, of course, developed into the cardinalatial red later on).

Also until today the archbishops of Salzburg have the title "Primas Germaniae", although officially they never received it. The whole story started with a quarrel between the archbishops of Magdeburg and Salzburg about who gets presidency on the bench of the clerical princes during the "Reichstage". When Magdeburg was secularized in 1648 and the last administrator died in 1680, Salzburg made use of position and title, an honor which was affirmed by the Rota Romana in 1691.

Another privilege was the title of "prince-archbishop" until 1951 (when archbishop Rohracher officially renounced it) although after the Secularization in 1803 the archbishops didn't hold any worldly power anymore.