date_of_birth karl-heinz wiesemann
Karl - Heinz Wiesemann ( born August ___MASK76___ , ___MASK56___ ) is the 96th Bishop of Speyer . Wiesemann was born in Herford , North Rhine - Westphalia in the archdiocese of Paderborn . He became a chaplain on the 10th of October 1985 in Rome . He later served as a priest in Bösperde , a suburb of Menden and provost of St . Petrus and Andreas in Brilon . In 2002 Pope Pope John Paul II named him Auxiliary bishop , which he was ordained on the 8th of September 2002 in Paderborn cathedral . On the 19th of December 2007 , Pope Benedict XVI named him the successor to bishop Anton Schlembach . He ascended to the office on March 2 , 2008 in the Speyer cathedral . Karl - Heinz Wiesemann ( born ___MASK37___ ) is the 96th Bishop of Speyer . Speyer ( older spelling " Speier ", known as " Spire " in French and formerly as " Spires " in English ) is a town in Rhineland - Palatinate , Germany , with approximately ___MASK17___ , 000 inhabitants . Located beside the river Rhine , Speyer is south of Ludwigshafen and Mannheim . Founded by the Romans , it is one of Germany ' s oldest cities . The first known names were " Noviomagus " and " Civitas Nemetum ", after the Teutonic tribe , Nemetes , settled in the area . Around AD ___MASK6___ the name Spira first appeared in written documents and , as well as the French , this is still reflected in the names " Spira " and " Espira " used in Italian and Spanish . The city ' s name may be the origin of the Ashkenazi Jewish name , Shapiro , and its variants . The Bishop of Speyer is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Speyer , which is a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Bamberg . The diocese covers an area of ___MASK4___ , 893 km² . The current bishop is Karl - Heinz Wiesemann .