Archbishop of Berlin
Archbishop Dr. Heiner Koch was born on 13 June 1954 in Dusseldorf. Heiner Koch is a theologian with a doctorate; his dissertation bears the title: "Liberation for Being as a Fundamental Perspective of Christian Religious Education". After his priestly ordination on 13 June 1980, he first worked in pastoral care before moving to the Archbishop's General Vicariate in Cologne. There he first worked in adult pastoral care and then was head of the Main Department of Pastoral Care. Pope John Paul II appointed Koch Chaplain of His Holiness (Monsignor) on 19 September 1993 and Papal Honorary Prelate on 10 February 1996. Since 1995 Koch has been responsible for the Federation of Historical German Shooting Brotherhoods as federal president. Ordained a bishop in 2006, Koch was responsible for the southern pastoral district of the Archdiocese of Cologne, was episcopal vicar for international Catholic pastoral care in the Archdiocese of Cologne, and from April 2012 was also chair of the Diocesan Caritas Association for the Archdiocese of Cologne. From February 2010 to autumn 2016, Dr. Heiner Koch was responsible as the delegate of the German Bishops' Conference for Catholic German pastoral care abroad. From January 2013 he was the 49th Bishop of the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen. He was appointed Archbishop of Berlin on 8 June 2015. As tenth bishop of the Archdiocese of Berlin, he has connections to three of his predecessors: together with Cardinal Woelki he was auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Cologne under Cardinal Meisner. He had already worked with Cardinal Sterzinsky as auxiliary bishop in the Family Commission of the German Bishops' Conference, and he succeeded him as chair of this commission. His installation took place on 19 September 2015.