Ignaz Anton Demeter (1 August 1773 – 21 March 1842) was a Roman Catholic priest, talented as a teacher and church musician, who served as the archbishop of Freiburg im Breisgau from 1836 till his death five years later.

His father, Johann Nepomuk Demeter was originally from Höchstädt an der Donau, across the river and then in the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg.

On 11 February 1802, on the recommendation of his sponsor from his time at university, Baron Schenk von Stauffenberg, Demeter was presented the incumbency of Lautlingen and Margrethausen in the Swabian Jura.

[2] Lautlingen already had a school, but it operated only during the winter season because the agricultural economy of the place needed everyone working on the land through the summer.

[3] He also found time while in Rastatt to produce several school textbooks, though little trace of these remains due to the destructive chaos imposed by subsequent warfare.

[6] The appointment required him to be based in Karlsruhe, and he stayed only a year before returning to his parish at Sasbach, but there is abundant evidence in the archives that his relations with the Grand Duke remained more than cordial up till the latter's death in 1830.

There followed almost immediately a foretaste of the political ructions within the chapter which would be a feature, at Freiburg, of the final nine years of Demeter's life.

There was immediate uproar in the chapter and the local church news sheet sharply criticised the nepotism involved and Demeter's "nephew household" (Vetternwirtschaft).

Keen to avoid further difficulties for Demeter, Pfister left Freiburg, returning to live with his parents, and later securing an appointment as priest at Steinhofen (today subsumed into Bisingen).

As Minster priest (Münsterpfarrer) he lost no time in updating the liturgy, which in 1833 was embellished with large amounts of flowery and sugary syntax, of which he purged it.

Eventually, on 11 May 1836, Ignaz Anton Demeter received the overall majority of votes required and was elected archbishop of Freiburg.

[3] For his motto Demeter chose the somewhat portentous assertion "This will be the hour that brings me closer to death" (Diese Stunde wird es sein, die mich dem Tode näher bringt).