Overview
- About 1,000 people attended the Requiem at Erfurt Cathedral, with the service also transmitted to the adjacent Severikirche and to an outdoor screen, according to the diocese.
- The Mass was led by Erfurt Bishop Ulrich Neymeyr, and Magdeburg Bishop Gerhard Feige delivered the homily praising Wanke as one of the most formative figures in East German Catholicism.
- Family members, politicians, bishops from across Germany, and priests joined local faithful to pay their respects.
- After the liturgy, the coffin was carried in procession to the cathedral cloister for interment, with the famed Gloriosa bell planned to ring at the burial’s close.
- Wanke died on March 12 at age 84 and led the Erfurt church region from 1981 to 2012, during which it was raised to diocesan status in 1994.