page_title: Evangelical Church in Germany
section_title: Praesides of the Synod
hierarchical_section_title: Evangelical Church in Germany / Structure / Praesides of the Synod
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. 10.1.1991 Sitzung der FDP-Bundestagsfraktion im Bundeshaus (Neues Abgeordneten Hochhaus).
context_page_description: The Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed and United Protestant regional churches and denominations in Germany, which collectively encompasses the vast majority of Protestants in that country. In 2019, the EKD had a membership of 20,713,000 members, or 24.9% of the German population. It constitutes one of the largest national Protestant bodies in the world. Church offices managing the federation are located in Hannover-Herrenhausen, Lower Saxony. Many of its members consider themselves Lutherans.
  Historically, the first formal attempt to unify German Protestantism occurred during the Weimar Republic era in the form of the German Evangelical Church Confederation, which existed from 1922 until 1933. Earlier, there had been successful royal efforts at unity in various German states, beginning with Prussia and several minor German states in 1817. These unions resulted in the first united and uniting churches, a new development within Protestantism which later spread to other parts of the world.
context_section_description: 1949–1955: Gustav Heinemann
  1955–1961: Constantin von Dietze
  1961–1970: Hans Puttfarcken
  1970–1973: Ludwig Raiser
  1973–1985: Cornelius von Heyl
  1985–2003: Jürgen Schmude
  2003–2009: Barbara Rinke
  2009–2013: Katrin Göring-Eckardt
  since 2013: Irmgard Schwaetzer
caption: Irmgard Schwaetzer, praeses of the synod
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