The decision was made on October 28 by the EKD’s highest governing body, its synod, meeting in Ulm, southern Germany.
Fifty-one-year-old Kässmann, who is divorced, is the youngest ever chairperson of the EKD council, and is the successor of Bishop Wolfgang Huber, who is retiring at the age of 67.
The EKD is the umbrella organization for 22 regional Lutheran, United, and Reformed churches. It accounts for most of the country’s Protestant Christians.
Kässmann has been bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover since 1999.
The general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, the Rev. Ishmael Noko, praised Kässmann’s election.
“The election sends a signal to the church worldwide that God calls us to leadership without consideration of gender, color or descent,” Noko, a Zimbabwean theologian, told Ecumenical News International in Ulm.
