A leading woman bishop in Germany has surprised her nation's Lutheran Christians by filing for a divorce from her husband of 26 years.

Margot Kaessmann, 48, who leads more than three million Evangelical Lutherans in the German state of Lower Saxony, will go down in history as the first serving bishop in Germany to file for divorce.

She is a member of the federation of evangelical churches in Germany and her church like most of them is organised along similar lines to Anglican and Roman Catholic dioceses.

Auburn-haired and charismatic, Bishop Kaessman is popular with the media and is often invited onto television to comment on current affairs. Of other German clergy, only Cardinal Karl Lehmann, the most senior Roman Catholic bishop in the country, has a media profile equal to hers.

The man she is divorcing is also a Protestant pastor, Eckhard Kaessmann. They have four daughters, all in their late teens or older. Other recent traumas she has borne include surviving an operation for breast cancer last year. She was also voted Woman of the Year by one German magazine.

Although another Protestant bishop is divorced, Baerbel Wartenberg-Potter’s marriage ended before her consecration in 2000.

When Bishop Kaessmann was consecrated eight years ago, she was the country’s youngest bishop.

Her announcement was followed by a formal declaration from the Hanover synod: “The church senat declares unanimously that it supports Bishop Margot Kaessmann in this difficult situation, and supports also with all its force the continuation of her proven record in office.”

After ordination Margot and Eckhard Kaessmann shared a country vicar’s post for some years. She then became general secretary of the German Protestant Church council, and he became a student chaplain. He now works as a pastor in Kassel.

Margot Kaessmann was elected to the protestant bishopric of Hanover, the largest protestant diocese in Germany, on June 4, l999. She was only the second woman to be elected to an episcopal post in Germany. According to the constitution of the Hanoverian church, she can remain in office until she is 68.

Lutherans, like Anglicans but unlike Catholics, are permitted to divorce and remarry.

Bishop Kaessmann declined to make any further comment.