GEISSEL, JOHANNES von. - Cardinal, b. 5 February 1796 at Gimmeldingen (Palatinate), d. 18 September 1864 at Colonia. He studied at the Seminary of Magonza, then under the direction of L. B. Liebermann. Ordained priest in 1818, he taught at the royal lycée of Spira and was a canon of the Cathedral, until King Luigi I of Bavaria proposed him as bishop of Spira, and he was preconized by Gregorio XVI on 20 May 1837.
By his capacity for government he won the favour of the sovereign and of the diocesan faithful, as well as the respect of the Catholic population. Following the imprisonment of the archbishop of Colonia, Droste-Vischering, the appointment of a coadjutor became necessary; the choice of the Holy See and of the king of Prussia fell upon G., who, coadjutor from 1842 and then archbishop from 1846, governed that diocese until his death. He resolutely continued the struggle against the Hermesian doctrines taught at the University of Bonn and convened an episcopal conference at Würzburg in 1848, which marks a turning point in the history of nineteenth-century German Catholicism. In the Consistory of 30 September 1850 Pio IX created G. cardinal.