Gebhard F�rst is the Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. F�rst began his career attending the Collegium Ambrosianum in Stuttgart, where he studied Greek and Hebrew, in 1969. He then studied theology at the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of T�bingen and at the University of Vienna. In 1975, he passed the necessary theological exams. He then entered the Seminary of Rottenburg-Stuttgart in Rottenburg am Neckar. He was ordained as a deacon in N�rtingen in 1976 and, a year later, he was ordained as a priest by Bishop Georg Moser in the Basilica of St. Vitus in Ellwangen an der Jagst. That same year, he became the vicar at St. Joseph's Church in Stuttgart. In 1986, F�rst became the Director of the Academy of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart and a member of the Caucus of Bishop Ordinaries. The next year, he received his doctorate in fundamental theology for his work Sprache als metaphorischer Prozess. Johann Gottfried Herders hermeneutische Theorie der Sprache. In 1993, he was Chairman of the leadership circle of the Catholic Academy of Germany. F�rst was made an honorary chaplain to the Pope in 1999 and, a year later, the eleventh Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. 

December 2nd, 1948 in Bietigheim-Bissingen (Age 75)