Ratzinger, a Catholic priest, led the famous Regensburger Domspatzen cathedral choir for three decades before his retirement in 1994.

He and his brother Benedict, with whom he had a close relationship throughout his life, were ordained together as priests in 1951.

The former pope returned to his native Germany in a rare visit to bid farewell to his ailing brother over a week ago.

Born on January 15, 1924, in the town of Pleiskirchen, Georg Ratzinger lived through the best part of Germany’s turbulent 20th century.

He prepared for priesthood in his youth by attending the archbishop’s boys’ seminary of Traunstein. After serving his military service in the Nazi Wehrmacht, he went on to study theology in Freising from 1946.