Anne Burghardt (néeLiiber; born 19 November 1975) is an Estonian theologian. Since November 2021, she has served as the General Secretary of theLutheran World Federation and is the first woman to hold this position.

Burghardt studied theology at theUniversity of Tartu from 1994 to 1998. After graduating, she went to theUniversity of Erlangen–Nuremberg (1998/1999) and to theHumboldt University of Berlin (1999/2000) to earn a master's degree.^[2] She then returned to the University of Tartu, where she received her master's degree in 2002. As of 2009, she holds a doctorate from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in the field of Orthodox liturgical studies with Karl Christian Felmy and Hacik Rafi Gazer.

Since 2013, Burghardt has been the head of the research department at the Theological Institute of theEstonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (EELK) and an adviser to that church on international and ecumenical relations. From 2013 to 2018, she was Secretary for Ecumenical Relations at the Office of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Geneva.

On 19 June 2021, the Lutheran World Federation Council elected Burghardt as the new General Secretary.^[3] She prevailed in the elections with 28 votes in favor and 20 against Kenneth Mtata (Zimbabwe) and thus succeeded the general secretaryMartin Junge. Burghardt is the first woman and the first representative from Central and Eastern Europe to hold this post. She took office on 1 November 2021.^[3][4]

Burghardt is married to Matthias Burghardt, a pastor of the EELK; the couple have two children.^[5]

• 1975 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Lutheran theologians
• Estonian Lutheran clergy
• Women Christian clergy
• University of Tartu alumni
• University of Erlangen–Nuremberg alumni
• Humboldt University of Berlin alumni
• 21st-century Estonian women writers

• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from February 2022