Religion in Germany is one of the things that international students should pay attention to when preparing to set foot here. Because Germany is a multicultural, multi-religious country, religious differences will lead to many different views along with taboos that should be avoided.

So, let’s learn about religions in Germany with My Career !

1. Overview of religion in Germany

In addition to the main religions in Germany, Christianity (Protestant and Catholic) and a number of other religions with smaller numbers of followers, about a third of the population in Germany is non-religious. The Christian Church, including Catholicism and Protestantism, is the dominant church in Germany. However, there are also many other religions in Germany that operate in parallel: Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism are popular in Germany.

At the end of 2020, 39-41% of people in Germany were non-religious . In previous years, only 38-39% of people in Germany were non-religious. In the former federal states, with the exception of the cities of Hamburg, Berlin and Bremen, there are more Christians than non-Christians in all federal states, in Schleswig-Holstein there is almost a balance between Christians and non-Christians.

With the Southeast (Bavaria) and West (Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland) being predominantly Roman Catholic (almost exclusively in Saarland). And the central North (Hesse and Lower Saxony) being predominantly Protestant .

In Baden-Württemberg (Southwest), the two main Christian denominations are almost equal, with a large Catholic majority . In the city-states and the new federal states, Catholics are in the minority and Protestants are the majority.

The large proportion of non-religious people in East Germany is also noteworthy. Nearly two-thirds of the population in Germany identified themselves with a Christian religious community in 2018. The proportion of Muslims in Germany in 2018 was 6%. All other religious communities in Germany make up less than one percent of the population. Aside from regional differences, it is important to note that membership in a religious community does not say anything about the depth of a person’s faith.

2. Which religion has the most followers in Germany?

Christianity in Germany

The main religion in Germany is Christianity, with two-thirds of the population identifying as Christian. However, church attendance among Christians is significantly lower.

At the end of 2021, the religious landscape in Germany was characterized by 26 percent Catholics and about 25 percent Protestants. At the same time, the Roman Catholic Church had about 21.6 million members (26 percent of the total population), and Protestant churches had about 19.7 million members (23.7 percent) in 2021. This means that about 49.7 percent of Germans belonged to one of the two major churches in Germany, the first time the figure has fallen below 50 percent. 

Are Germans Catholic or Protestant?

Unlike most European countries, which tend to be either largely Catholic (e.g. Ireland, Spain) or largely Protestant (e.g. Sweden, the United Kingdom), Christians in Germany are roughly evenly divided.

About half of Germany’s Christians are Protestant (a combination of Protestant religions including Lutheranism and Calvinism) and half are Roman Catholic. About 2% of the country follows other Christian religions – mainly Orthodox, including Eastern Orthodox.

While you will find both Catholics and Protestants in all parts of Germany, religion in Germany is more diverse in certain regions. As a rule, you will find more Catholics in the south and west of the country, including Bavaria, the Rhineland, Westphalia, and Saarland. In the north and east of the country, many people identify as Protestant.

3. Other religions in Germany

In addition to these smaller Christian congregations, the major minority religions in Germany are Islam (about 6% of the German population), Judaism, and Buddhism (both of which represent less than 1% of the German population).

Judaism

The atrocities of the Holocaust are overshadowing the history of Judaism in Germany. According to sources from Late Antiquity, Jews have lived in Germany since 321 AD. 

For more than a millennium and a half, relations between the Jewish Community and Germany’s majority population vacillated between quiet coexistence and religiously motivated persecution, between the social outcast status of the Jews and their slow integration into mainstream society. 

Before 1933, there were over 600,000 Jews in Germany. During the next twelve years, the vicious anti-Semitic Nazi regime killed most of those who did not emigrate.

Today, more than 65 years after the end of World War II, Germany’s Jewish community has more than 100,000 members. The increase in numbers is also due to Jewish immigration from the former Soviet Union. The majority of German Jews (the more observant and conservative ones) are represented by the Central Council of German Jews, while about 3,000 liberal Jews belong to the much smaller Union of Progressive Jews in Germany.

Islam

Islam is the largest non-Christian religion in Germany, with adherents accounting for around 5% of the population (around 4 million people). Compared directly to Judaism, Islam is a relatively latecomer to Germany. It dates back to the post-World War II migration of so-called Gastarbeiter (foreign workers) and refugees. 

Most Muslims in Germany are of Turkish, Kurdish, Iranian, Palestinian or Bosnian origin and have organised themselves into a variety of decentralized organisations. These include: the Turkish ? Muslim Alliance for Religious Affairs, supported by the Turkish government and representing Sunni Muslims in Turkey; the AABF (an umbrella organisation for Alevites from Kurdish areas); the Association of Bosnian Muslims, and many others. 

You will find that mosques are located in most major cities in Germany, but also in some smaller towns.

What are the remaining religions in Germany?

Christianity is the dominant religion in Germany while Islam is the largest minority religion. However, there are a number of other faiths that make up about 3-4% of the population. Other religions in Germany include:

• Buddhism
• Hinduism
• Sikhism
• Yazidi

Furthermore, for many citizens in Germany, other values ​​are much more important than religion: In a Eurobarometer survey in November 2019, respondents were asked to choose 3 out of 13 values ​​that were most important to them personally or best represented by the European Union, only 3% of respondents chose “religion”. 

When it comes to the most important personal values, no value was mentioned less often. “Peace” was mentioned most often in both questions (59% and 58%, respectively). This was followed by “human rights” (43% and 32%) and “democracy” (40% and 43%).

So, religious participation in Germany varies by denomination and region. And you should consider which denominations are present in the place you are going to in Germany and there may be many things to note! You can also visit famous religious shrines to learn more interesting things!
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