Günther Geis

Günther Geis was born on 29 June 1948 in Obertiefenbach, a village in the Limburg-Weilburg district of Hesse that later became part of the municipality of Beselich. He attended the Fürst-Johann-Ludwig-Gymnasium in nearby Hadamar, where he passed his Abitur in 1967.

He then studied Catholic theology at the Philosophisch-Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen, the Jesuit college in Frankfurt am Main, graduating with a diploma in 1972.

Geis was ordained priest by Bishop Wilhelm Kempf in Limburg Cathedral in 1973 and served as a curate in Braunfels, Lahnstein, Flörsheim am Main and Wiesbaden. From 1981 he studied canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, receiving his doctorate in 1986. In Rome he was vice rector of the priests' college at Santa Maria dell'Anima and a pastor to the German-speaking Catholic community.

In 1986 Bishop Franz Kamphaus appointed him vice official and diocesan judge at the church court in Limburg, and until 1993 he was also parish priest of Balduinstein. In 1993 Kamphaus made him vicar general, the senior administrator of the diocese, and he became a member of the cathedral chapter. After Kamphaus retired in 2007 Geis led the diocese as diocesan administrator during the vacancy. Bishop Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst reappointed him vicar general in 2008, and he was succeeded by Franz Kaspar in 2009.

From 2009 Geis led the cathedral chapter as dean, and Pope Benedict XVI made him an honorary prelate in 2010. As episcopal vicar for the synodal bodies he worked for cooperation between clergy and lay people. From 2010 to 2017 he was also acting district dean, and in 2015 and 2016 he administered the parish of Taunusstein and the pastoral area of Bad Schwalbach. After the crisis over Bishop Tebartz-van Elst he steered the chapter through the diocese's renewal, and in 2016 the chapter elected Georg Bätzing as bishop. On 1 July 2016 Geis announced the appointment in the cathedral. He announced his retirement in November 2017 and was formally thanked by Bishop Bätzing on 24 June 2018.

As a Catholic priest Geis did not marry. Bishop Bätzing described him as an educated man with wide interests and a friend from their first meeting. In retirement he remained willing to help with pastoral work, saying at his farewell that offices in the church were tasks for a time, while his calling as a priest remained. He was an honorary citizen of Beselich, his home municipality.

Günther Geis died on 31 October 2026, aged 78, after a short and serious illness. The Diocese of Limburg announced his death on 1 November 2026. Bishop Georg Bätzing said he was shocked by how quickly death had come, and recalled that on his last visit Geis had said of his illness: "Then I accept what I believe and have proclaimed all my life." Cathedral dean Wolfgang Pax said he was deeply saddened and remembered his faithfulness to his priestly vocation and his rootedness in the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

The diocese remembered Geis as a man who knew the Diocese of Limburg like hardly anyone else and as a bridge builder who saw church leadership as a matter of people and relationships rather than administration alone. He was held in high regard in the diocese's synodal bodies, where he treated the participation of lay people as a theological conviction. In the diocese's review of sexual abuse he examined his own conduct in office critically and acknowledged his responsibility in one specific case.