The German Lutheran bishop Margot Kaessmann has given up on February 24 her posts as head of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and as bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover, but will continue as a pastor. She is resigning days after she was apprehended for an alleged drunk-driving offense.

Fifty-one-year-old Kaessmann has been elected only four month ago, as the youngest ever chairperson of the EKD council, to lead the 24-million Protestant members of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD). She was the successor of Bishop Wolfgang Huber, who retired at the age of 67. Kaessmann has been bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover since 1999.

Kaessmann was stopped by police while driving February 20 in Hannover, Germany. She allegedly ran a red traffic light, and her blood alcohol level was three times over the legal limit. She faces a fine of a month's salary and a one-year driving ban for the offence.

Until the election of a successor for bishop Kaessmann during the next Synod, the deputy chairperson, Nikolaus Schneider, Praeses of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland, will lead the EKD Council commissarial.