Ralf Meister

Ralf Meister (born 5 January 1962 in Hamburg-Neugraben)[1] is a German Lutheran theologian, former General Superintendent (regional bishop) of Berlin,[2] and Landesbischof of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover.

On Pentecost 2008 he was invested as General Superintendent of Berlin at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church,[2] succeeding Martin-Michael Passauer, who retired.

[8] At the beginning of June 2024, more than 200 pastors and other church employees signed an open letter criticizing Meister's handling of sexual abuse cases.

[9] In June 2024, the a survivors’ initiative named “Meisterhafte Vertuschung beenden” - a wordplay on Meister’s surname, meaning “end the masterly cover-up”' called for his resignation.

In fact, survivors themselves had discovered through inspection of files that the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover had not included all cases that were known to it in the official statistics and in the ForuM study.