The German Bishops' Conference () is the

episcopal conference An episcopal conference, often also called a bishops’ conference or conference of bishops, is an official assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church in a given territory. Episcopal conferences have long existed as informal entities. The fir ...

of the

bishops A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

s in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Members include diocesan bishops,

coadjutor The term "coadjutor" (literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coadjutor bishop ...

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

s, and

diocesan administrator A diocesan administrator (also known as archdiocesan administrator, archiepiscopal administrator and eparchial administrator for the case, respectively, of an archdiocese, archeparchy, and eparchy) is a provisional ordinary of a Catholic partic ...

History

The first meeting of the German bishops took place in

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is, after Nuremberg and Fürth, the Franconia#Towns and cities, third-largest city in Franconia located in the north of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. It sp ...

in 1848, and in 1867 the ''

Fulda Fulda () (historically in English called Fuld) is a city in Hesse, Germany; it is located on the river Fulda and is the administrative seat of the Fulda district (''Kreis''). In 1990, the city hosted the 30th Hessentag state festival. Histor ...

Conference of Bishops'' ("next to the grave of St. Boniface") was established, which reorganized as German Bishops' Conference in 1966. The annual autumn conference of the German bishops still takes place in Fulda, while the meeting in spring is held at alternating places. After the construction of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

the ordinaries in the East

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

(GDR) were unable to participate in the ''Fulda Conference of Bishops''. In 1974 the GDR formally suggested talks with the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

. As one of the outcomes, the ''

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Conference of Bishops'' was established for the East German ordinaries on 26 July 1976. The Diocese of Berlin, also comprising

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

, was thereafter represented in the German Bishops' Conference and the Berlin Conference alike, in the former by its

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

, in the latter by the bishop personally. The Catholic Church did not consider the Berlin Conference as a national Bishops' Conference, since the Holy See officially conceived the East German ordinaries as part of the German Bishops' Conference as papally confirmed by its statute on 26 September 1976. East Germany's diocesan structure was complicated. Since 1972 three sees had their seat in East Germany, the dioceses of Berlin and of Dresden-Meissen and the Apostolic Administration of Görlitz. The rest of East Germany belonged to dioceses seated in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, which appointed commissaries for the East German parts of their dioceses. The Berlin Conference was disestablished in 1990. On 25 September 2018, the national Episcopal Conference threw the presentation of a self-commissioned study from which resulted at least 3.700 cases of sexual abuse in Germany from 1946 to 2014. More than a half were child abuse cases. In 2010, the New York Times published the allegations of sexual abuses committed by a priest of the Munich diocese in the 80s. It was preceded by the ones of

Lawrence Murphy Lawrence Gustave Murphy (1831 – October 20, 1878) was an Irish immigrant to the United States, Union Army veteran, Grand Army of the Republic member, Republican Party ward heeler, racketeer, Old West businessman and gunman, and a main in ...

in Wisconsin, happened in a school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974. The conference's maxim that, where other creatures are concerned, "we can speak of the priority of

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

''being'' over

''being useful''" was commended by

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

in his 2015

encyclical letter An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally fr ...

Laudato si' ''Laudato si'' (''Praise Be to You'') is the second encyclical of Pope Francis, subtitled "on care for our common home". In it, the Pope criticizes consumerism and irresponsible economic development, laments environmental degradation and gl ...

.Pope Francis
Laudato si': on care for our common home
paragraph 69, published 18 June 2015, accessed 4 July 2023, referring to German Bishops' Conference (1980), ''Zukunft der Schöpfung – Zukunft der Menschheit. Einklärung der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz zu Fragen der Umwelt und der Energieversorgung'' (''Future of creation - future of mankind. Clarification of the German Bishops' Conference on environmental and energy supply issues''), II, 2

Chairmen

Fulda Conference of Bishops (1848-1965)

* Johannes von Geissel,

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

, Archbishop of Cologne (1848) * Paulus Melchers,

, Archbishop of Cologne (1867-1883) * Philipp Krementz,

, Archbishop of Cologne (1884-1896) * Georg von Kopp,

, Prince-Bishop of Breslau (1897-1913) * Felix von Hartmann,

, Archbishop of Cologne (1914-1919) *

Adolf Bertram Adolf Bertram (14 March 1859 – 6 July 1945) was archbishop of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. Early life Adolf Bertram was born in Hildesheim, Royal Prussian Province of Hanover (now Lower Saxony), Germa ...

, Prince-Archbishop of Breslau (1920-1945) *

Josef Frings Josef Richard Frings (6 February 1887 – 17 December 1978), was a German clergyman and Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Cologne from 1942 to 1969. Considered a significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism, he w ...

, Archbishop of Cologne (1945-1965)

German Bishops' Conference (since 1966)

Julius Döpfner Julius may refer to: People * Julius (name), a masculine given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name) * Julius (nomen), the name of a Roman family (includes a list of Ancient Romans with the name) ** Julius Caesar (100– ...

, Archbishop of Munich and Freising (1965–1976) *

Joseph Höffner Joseph Höffner (24 December 1906 – 16 October 1987) was a German Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Archbishop of Cologne from 1969 to 1987 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1969. Biography ...

, Cardinal, Archbishop of Cologne (1976-1987) * Karl Lehmann, Cardinal, Bishop of Mainz (1987-2008) * Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg (18 February 2008-12 March 2014) * Reinhard Marx, Cardinal, Archbishop of Munich and Freising (12 March 2014-3 March 2020) *

Georg Bätzing Georg Bätzing (born 13 April 1961) is a German Catholic prelate who has served as Bishop of Limburg since 2016 and chairman of the German Bishops' Conference since March 2020. Early life and career Bätzing was born in Kirchen and grew up i ...

, Bishop of Limburg (3 March 2020-present)

Chairmen of the Berlin Conference of Bishops (1976-1990)

* Alfred Bengsch,

, Archbishop (personal title) of Berlin (1976–1979) * Gerhard Schaffran, Bishop of Dresden-Meissen (1980–1982) *

Joachim Meisner Joachim Meisner (25 December 1933 – 5 July 2017) was a German Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Cologne from 1989 to 2014. He previously served as Bishop of Berlin from 1980 to 1989, and was created a cardinal in 1983. He was wid ...

(in 1983), Bishop of Berlin and then Archbishop of Cologne (1982–1989) * Joachim Wanke, Administrator Apostolic of the Episcopal Office in Erfurt-Meiningen (1989, per pro) * Georg Sterzinsky,

, Bishop of Berlin (1989–1990)

Ecclesiastical provinces

References

External links

Deutsche Bischofskonferenz
– official website

– GCatholic.org website {{Authority control Catholic Church in Germany

Religious organizations established in 1848 Christian organizations established in the 1840s 1848 establishments in the German Confederation