Erfurt/Gotha (dpa/th) - The former Thuringian state bishop Werner Leich is dead. He died on Saturday at the age of 95 after a short illness in a Gotha hospital, as the family announced. Born in Mühlhausen, Leich was Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia from 1978 to 1992. From 1983 to 1986 he was also leading bishop of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in the GDR and from 1986 to 1990 he was chairman of the conference of church leaders in the GDR.
He stood for a distanced course to the GDR government. He was also considered a strong advocate of ecumenism. Leich - already retired at the time - was critical of the merger of the Thuringian Church with the Church Province of Saxony in 2009.
The regional bishop of the Evangelical Church in Central Germany, Friedrich Kramer, announced that Leich was a great Lutheran theologian. "In all, even the most difficult situations, he always insisted on comparing his own positions with what the Bible tells us to do," said Kramer. As the leading bishop in the GDR, this allowed him to courageously enter into talks with the state.
Leich is to be credited with pushing for greater independence of the church in negotiations with the SED regime and critically addressing the repression of the population. "I will never forget how, when asked how one should behave in elections, he answered with the Bible verse: "Let your speech be yes! Yes! No! No! Everything else is bad," said Kramer.
Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow called Leich a "helmsman in difficult times and a strong personality in contemporary history". "We will keep Werner Leich in honorable memory," said Ramelow.
