Dorin Genpo

Hans Rudolf Döring (born 25 April 1955), better known as Dorin Genpo , is a German Buddhist priest.

Early life Döring was born in Altötting to a Catholic family. His father was sexually abusive and he first began doubting his birth religion at age nine. After the death of his father and remarriage of his mother, he left home at age 15 to work as an apprentice at a hotel in Munich. He worked as a police officer in Bavarian State Police's Bereitschaftspolizei between 1974 and 1978.

Religion Döring began practising Zen in 1977 and travelled to Japan to study at various temples. In 1985, Döring became a disciple under Zen master and in 1988, he founded Hakuin-Zen-Gemeinschaft e.V. in Munich. In 1990, Döring finished his studies under Hōzumi, becoming unsui and receiving the name Dorin Genpo.

The following year, he joined the monastery Empuku-ji in Kameoka, Kyōto, where he tutored under Nishikata Tansetzu Roshi. In 1992, he was fully ordained as oshō and received a teaching certification. Döring settled in Dinkelscherben, where he founded the Buddhist temple Bodaisan Shoboji ("Mount of Enlightenment, temple for the sincere worship of the Three Jewels"), heading religious education for prospective Zen teachers. By the time he moved there, he was married and had three children.

Döring was regarded as one of Germany's most prominent Buddhist clerics for his efforts to engaged Buddhism. He was frequently featured in magazines advocating for interreligious dialogue, particularly to his former Catholic faith. Döring was a board member of the Deutsche Buddhistische Union between 1985 and 2008, after which he retained an honorary seat, and one of fifteen Vice Presidents of the World Fellowship of Buddhists. He also organized trips to pilgrimage sites in Japan and invited practitioners of sadō and shodō to Germany. Döring was a frequent guest at Augsburg's "Round Table of Religions" and was responsible for the city receiving a peace award from South Korea. Additionally, Döring was active in local politics, as a board member and local councillor in Augsburg-Lechhausen for the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

In late 2011, Döring was briefly a suspect in the , but exonerated when a pair of brothers were arrested and tried for the killing. The youngest and most recent victim was Döring's 4-year-old grandnephew. Many of the victims' mothers, who included Döring's adult niece, had reached out to Döring as a grief counsellor following the deaths of their husbands. Some victims described being "seduced" by Döring who had inserted himself into their lives as a replacement father figure. He injured at least one child's genitals during a sexual assault and collected around 2800 images/videos depicting the boys nude and/or engaged in sexual acts; around 2000 digitalised files were classed as child pornography while another 800 were classed as youth/adolescent pornography.

Arrest In July 2016, a mother reported Döring to Kripo, saying her 11-year-old son had accused Döring of repeated oral rape perpetrated against him and his brother.

Trial and sentencing In 2017, Döring was tried at the youth chamber of Landesgericht Augsburg and charged with 25 counts of serious child molestation per Strafgesetzbuch § 176. On 8 July 2017, Döring was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to seven years and nine months imprisonment,

Following the verdict, Hakuin-Zen-Gemeinschaft and the Deutsche Buddhistische Union issued official responses offering condolences to the victims and condemning Döring's actions.