Deans

Cathedral Dean Dr. Petra Zimmermann, Cathedral Dean Michael Kösling (Directing Cathedral Dean)  and Cathedral Dean Stefan Scholpp are the Pastors of Berlin Cathedral. They lead the services of worship on Sundays and public holidays, as well as Saturday Vespers and the Taizé services. Our Deans celebrate the daily Vespers, bear responsibility for baptisms, weddings and funerals of parish members, and hold pastoral counselling sessions. They also lead various congregations and other working groups, and fulfil a representative function for the Cathedral in ecclesiastical committees.

The Cathedral Deans also have their own area of expertise in their preaching work, which is of particular importance to them. Cathedral Dean Zimmermann is committed to a dialogue with the Evangelical Academy (‘Evangelischen Akademie’) as well as for the visual arts at Berlin Cathedral. Highly acclaimed exhibitions and installations help to expand the imagery of Berlin Cathedral. Cathedral Dean Kösling is the Head Cathedral Dean, leads the period of confirmation, plans and conducts church-wide services of worship for school pupils, organises the children’s services of worship and develops services of worship for families.

Those with the authority to preach at Berlin Cathedral include, with the exception of the Cathedral Deans who sit on the advisory board of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Präses Dr. Annette Kurschus, Head of the Union of Evangelical Churches (UEK), Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber as well as Berlin Regional Bishop Dr. Stäblein. Furthermore, the Cathedral enjoys a significant number of prominent guest preachers. This includes, in addition to the Bishops of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), the professors from the Faculty of Theology at Humboldt University as well as other preachers at home and abroad.

But it is not just Evangelical preacher who visit Berlin Cathedral, but also representatives of other denominations and Judaism. For example, it has already become a tradition on Israel's Sunday for a Jewish Rabbi to preach at Berlin Cathedral.