Archdiocese of Hamburg Archidioecesis Hamburgensis Erzbistum Hamburg |
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Cathedral of Our Lady, Hamburg
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Location | |
Country | Germany |
Ecclesiastical province | Hamburg |
Deaneries | 17 |
Statistics | |
Area | 32,493 km2 (12,546 sq mi) |
Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2013) 5,797,975 397,331 (6.9%) |
Information | |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Established | 23 July 1973 (As Apostolic Administration of Schwerin) 24 October 1994 (As Archdiocese of Hamburg) |
Cathedral | Cathedral of Our Lady, Hamburg |
Patron saint | St Ansgar |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Metropolitan Archbishop | Stefan Heße |
Suffragans |
Diocese of Hildesheim Diocese of Osnabrück |
Auxiliary Bishops | Rev. Msgr. Horst Eberlein (Auxiliary Bishop-elect; Titular Bishop-elect of Tisedi; appointed by Pope Francis Feb. 9 '17) |
Vicar General | Rev. Ansgar Thim |
Emeritus Bishops |
Werner Thissen Norbert Werbs Hans-Jochen Jaschke |
Map | |
Map of the Archdiocese |
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Website | |
Website of the Archdiocese |
The Archdiocese of Hamburg (Lat. Archidioecesis Hamburgensis; Ger. Erzbistum Hamburg) is a diocese in the north of Germany and covers the Federal States of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein as well as the Mecklenburgian part of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In terms of surface area it is the largest in Germany. It is characterized by its situation as a diocese in the Diaspora. Seat of the archbishop is the New St. Mary's Cathedral in Sankt Georg, Hamburg. On January 26, 2015 Stefan Heße, Generalvikar of the Archdiocese of Cologne, was appointed Archbishop of Hamburg.
In 831 Hamburg was elevated to an archbishopric by Pope Gregory IV and in 834 the Benedictine monk Ansgar was elected as the first archbishop. After the looting of Hamburg by Vikings in 845 the archbishopric of Hamburg was united with the bishopric of Bremen, and the archbishop's seat moved to Bremen. Still, there was a cathedral chapter in Hamburg with several special rights, which started to build St. Mary's Cathedral. The incumbents of the Hamburg-Bremen see are usually titled Archbishop of Hamburg and Bishop of Bremen between 848 and 1072, however, some later archbishops continued the tradition of naming both dioceses until 1258. During Reformation the bishopric underwent steady deterioration and finally, with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, it ceased to exist.