The colourful head of Germany’s 25 million Protestants, dubbed by the media as a mixture of Mother Teresa and Demi Moore, resigned after being caught drunk-driving.

“Last Saturday, I made a big mistake,” Margot Kaessmann, 51, told reporters. “My heart tells me quite clearly that I cannot stay in office with the necessary authority . . . I hereby resign from all my church responsibilities.”

“I am very sorry to have disappointed many people who asked me to remain in office, and those who trustingly voted for me.”

Prosecutors said Kaessmann had been “completely unfit to drive” after police pulled over her luxury Volkswagen Phaeton saloon late on Saturday after she went through a red light 500 metres from her home.

Taken to a police station after failing a breathalyzer test, the bishop was found to be several times over the legal limit, and now faces a hefty fine and the loss of her driving licence for up to a year.

Mass circulation daily Bild also reported that an unidentified man had been next to the divorced mother of four in the car at the time.