Religion in Germany

Martberg Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Lenus, rebuilt in Pommern, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Ancient Germanic paganism was a polytheistic religion practised in prehistoric Germany and Scandinavia, as well as Roman territories of Germania by the 1st century AD. It had a pantheon of deities that included Donar/Thunar, Wuotan/Wodan, Frouwa/Frua, Balder/Phol/Baldag, and others shared with northern Germanic paganism.[7] Celtic paganism and later Gallo-Roman syntheses were instead practised in western and southern parts of modern Germany, while Slavic paganism was practised in the east.

The Aula Palatina of Trier, a basilica constructed during 306–337 AD

The Palatine Chapel, Aachen, built during 800–814 AD

In the territories of Germany under the control of the Roman Empire (the provinces Germania Superior and Germania Inferior), early Christianity was introduced and began to flourish after the 4th century. Although pagan Roman temples existed beforehand, Christian religious structures were soon built, such as the Aula Palatina in Trier (then the capital of the Roman province Gallia Belgica), completed during the reign of Roman emperor Constantine I (306–337 AD).[1]

During the Carolingian period, Christianity spread throughout Germany, particularly during the reign of Charlemagne (r. 800–814 AD) and his expansionary military campaigns. Religious structures built during the Carolingian period include the Palatine Chapel, Aachen, a surviving component of the Palace of Aachen built by architect Odo of Metz during the reign of Charlemagne.[8]

Territories of the present-day Germany, like much of Europe, were entirely Roman Catholic with religious break-offs being suppressed by both the Papacy and the Holy Roman Emperor.

Martin Luther (1483–1546) was responsible for the Protestant Reformation

Religious fragmentation at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618

Roman Catholicism was the sole established religion in the Holy Roman Empire until the advent of the Protestant Reformation changed this drastically. In the early 16th century abuses (such as selling indulgences in the Catholic Church) occasioned much discontent, and a general desire for reform emerged. In 1517 the Reformation began with the publication of Martin Luther's 95 Theses detailing 95 assertions which Luther believed showed corruption and misguidance within the Catholic Church. The Reformation demonstrated Luther's disagreement both with the way in which the higher clergy used and abused power, and with the very idea of a papacy. In 1521 the Diet of Worms outlawed Luther, but the Reformation spread rapidly.[9] Luther translated the Bible from Latin to German, establishing the basis of the modern German language. A curious fact is that Luther spoke a dialect which had minor importance in the German language of that time. After the publication of his Bible translation, his dialect evolved into what is now standard modern German.

With the protestation of the Lutheran princes at the Imperial Diet of Speyer (1529) and rejection of the Lutheran "Augsburg Confession" at the Diet of Augsburg (1530), a separate Lutheran church emerged.[2]

From 1545 the Counter-Reformation began in Germany. Much of its impetus came from the newly founded (in 1540) Jesuit order. It restored Catholicism to many areas, including Bavaria.[10] The Holy Roman Empire became religiously diverse; for the most part, the states of northern and central Germany became Protestant (chiefly Lutheran, but also Calvinist/Reformed) while the states of southern Germany and the Rhineland largely remained Catholic. In 1547 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V defeated the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Protestant rulers. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 brought recognition of the Lutheran faith. But the treaty also stipulated that the religion of a state was to be that of its ruler (cuius regio, eius religio).[11]

In 1608/1609 the Protestant Union and the Catholic League formed. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), one of the most destructive conflicts in European history, played out primarily in German lands, but involved most of the countries of Europe. It was to some extent a religious conflict, involving both Protestants and Catholics.[12]

Glass window in the town church of Wiesloch with Martin Luther and John Calvin commemorating the 1821 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in the Grand Duchy of Baden.

Two main developments reshaped religion in Germany after 1814. There was a movement to unite the larger Lutheran and the smaller Reformed Protestant churches. The churches themselves brought this about in Baden, Nassau, and Bavaria. However, in Prussia King Frederick William III was determined to handle unification entirely on his own terms, without consultation. His goal was to unify the Protestant churches, and to impose a single standardised liturgy, organisation, and even architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralised royal control of all the Protestant churches. In a series of proclamations over several decades the Evangelical Church of the Prussian Union was formed, bringing together the more numerous Lutherans and the less numerous Reformed Protestants. The government of Prussia now had full control over church affairs, with the king himself recognised as the leading bishop. Opposition to unification came from the "Old Lutherans" in Prussia and Silesia who followed the theological and liturgical forms they had followed since the days of Luther. The government attempted to crack down on them, so they went underground. Tens of thousands migrated to South Australia and the United States, where they formed the Missouri Synod. Finally, in 1845 the new king, Frederick William IV, offered a general amnesty and allowed the Old Lutherans to form separate free church associations with only nominal government control.[13][14][15]

From the religious point of view of the typical Catholic or Protestant, major changes were underway in terms of a much more personalised religiosity that focused on the individual more than the church or the ceremony. Opposing the rationalism of the late 18th century, there was a new emphasis on the psychology and feeling of the individual, especially in terms of contemplating sinfulness, redemption, and the mysteries and the revelations of Christianity. Pietistic revivals were common among Protestants. Among Catholics there was a sharp increase in popular pilgrimages. In 1844 alone, half a million pilgrims made a pilgrimage to the city of Trier in the Rhineland to view the Seamless robe of Jesus, said to be the robe that Jesus wore on the way to his crucifixion. Catholic bishops in Germany had historically been largely independent of Rome, but now the Vatican exerted increasing control, a new "ultramontanism" of Catholics highly loyal to Rome.[16] A sharp controversy broke out in 1837–38 in the largely Catholic Rhineland over the religious education of children of mixed marriages, where the mother was Catholic and the father Protestant. The government passed laws to require that these children always be raised as Protestants, contrary to Napoleonic law that had previously prevailed and allowed the parents to make the decision. It put the Catholic Archbishop under house arrest. In 1840, the new King Frederick William IV sought reconciliation and ended the controversy by agreeing to most of the Catholic demands. However Catholic memories remained deep and led to a sense that Catholics always needed to stick together in the face of an untrustworthy government.[17]

Between Berlin and Rome, Bismarck (left) confronts Pope Pius IX, 1875

The religious situation in the German Empire about 1895. Tan, purple, and pink areas are predominantly Protestant, lilac and blue areas predominantly Catholic.

Chancellor Otto von Bismarck would not tolerate any base of power outside Germany – in Rome – having a say in German affairs. He launched a Kulturkampf ("culture war") against the power of the pope and the Catholic Church in 1873, but only in Prussia. This gained strong support from German liberals, who saw the Catholic Church as the bastion of reaction and their greatest enemy. The Catholic element, in turn, saw the National Liberals, who often happened to be Protestant, as its worst enemy and formed the Center Party.[18]

Catholics, although about a third of the national population, were seldom allowed to hold major positions in the Imperial government or the Prussian government. After 1871, there was a systematic purge of Catholics; in the powerful interior ministry, which handled all police affairs, the only Catholic was a messenger boy. Jews were likewise heavily discriminated against.[19][20]

Most of the Kulturkampf was fought out in Prussia, but Imperial Germany passed the Pulpit Law which made it a crime for any cleric to discuss public issues in a way that displeased the government. Nearly all Catholic bishops, clergy, and laymen rejected the legality of the new laws, and were defiant facing the increasingly heavy penalties and imprisonments imposed by Bismarck's government. Historian Anthony Steinhoff reports the casualty totals:

As of 1878, only three of eight Prussian dioceses still had bishops, some 1,125 of 4,600 parishes were vacant, and nearly 1,800 priests ended up in jail or in exile. ...Finally, between 1872 and 1878, numerous Catholic newspapers were confiscated, Catholic associations and assemblies were dissolved, and Catholic civil servants were dismissed merely on the pretence of having Ultramontane sympathies.[21]

The British ambassador Odo Russell reported to London in October 1872 how Bismarck's plans were backfiring by strengthening the ultramontane (pro-papal) position inside German Catholicism:

The German Bishops who were politically powerless in Germany and theologically in opposition to the Pope in Rome – have now become powerful political leaders in Germany and enthusiastic defenders of the now infallible Faith of Rome, united, disciplined, and thirsting for martyrdom, thanks to Bismarck's uncalled for antiliberal declaration of War on the freedom they had hitherto peacefully enjoyed.[22]

Bismarck underestimated the resolve of the Catholic Church and did not foresee the extremes that this struggle would entail.[23][24] The Catholic Church denounced the harsh new laws as anti-catholic and mustered the support of its rank and file voters across Germany. In the following elections, the Center Party won a quarter of the seats in the Imperial Diet.[25] The conflict ended after 1879 because Pius IX died in 1878 and Bismarck broke with the Liberals to put his main emphasis on tariffs, foreign policy, and attacking socialists. Bismarck negotiated with the conciliatory new pope Leo XIII.[26] Peace was restored, the bishops returned, and the jailed clerics were released. Laws were toned down or taken back (Mitigation Laws 1880–1883 and Peace Laws 1886/87), but the main regulations such as the Pulpit Law and the laws concerning education, civil registry (incl. marriage), or religious disaffiliation remained in place. The Center Party gained strength and became an ally of Bismarck, especially when he attacked socialism.[27]

The national constitution of 1919 determined that the newly formed Weimar Republic had no state church, and guaranteed freedom of faith and religion. Earlier, these freedoms were mentioned only in state constitutions. Protestants and Catholics were equal before the law, and freethought flourished. The German Freethinkers League attained about 500,000 members, many of whom were atheists, before the organisation was shut down by the Nazis in May 1933.[28]

When Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party seized power in January 1933, it sought to assert state control over the churches, on the one hand through the Reichskonkordat with the Catholic Church, and the forced merger of the German Evangelical Church Confederation into the Protestant Reich Church on the other. The concept of Positive Christianity and the Deutsche Christen movement sought to reconcile tenets of National Socialism with the Christian religion. This policy seems to have gone relatively well until late 1936, when a "gradual worsening of relations" between the Nazi Party and the churches saw the rise of Kirchenaustritt ("leaving the church").[29] Although there was no top-down official directive to revoke church membership, some Nazi Party members started doing so voluntarily and put other members under pressure to follow their example.[29] Those who left the churches were designated as Gottgläubig: they believed in a higher power, often a creator-God with a special interest in the German nation, but did not belong to any church, nor were they atheists. Many were Germanic neopagans.[29] This movement, especially promoted by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, remained relatively small and by 1939, 3.5% of Germans identified as Gottgläubig; the overwhelming majority of 94.5% remained Protestant or Catholic, and only 1.5% did not profess any faith.[30] Since January 1933, Jews in Germany were increasingly marginalised, expelled and persecuted for a combination of religious, racial and economic reasons. From 1941 to the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, they were actively massacred during the Holocaust.[31]

Since 2008[32] road signs have drawn attention to several denominations

In the aftermath of World War II, two states emerged in Germany in 1949: West Germany under the aegis of the Western Allies, and East Germany as part of the Soviet bloc. West Germany, officially known as the Federal Republic of Germany, adopted a constitution in 1949 which banned discriminated against people due to their faith or religious opinions, and stated that no state church exists in Germany;[33] consequently, secularisation in West Germany proceeded slowly. East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic, had a communist system which actively tried to reduce the influence of religion in society; the government restricted Christian churches.[34][35] In the 21st century, eastern German states, including the area of the former eastern capital, East Berlin, are less religious than western German states.[5]

Religious communities which are of sufficient size and stability and which are loyal to the constitution can be recognised as Körperschaften öffentlichen Rechtes (statutory corporations). This gives them certain privileges – for example, being able to give religious instruction in state schools (as enshrined in the German constitution, though some states are exempt from this) and having membership fees collected (for a fee) by the German revenue department as "church tax" (Kirchensteuer): a surcharge of between 8 and 9% of the income tax. The status mainly applies to the Roman Catholic Church, the mainline Evangelical Church in Germany, a number of free churches, and Jewish communities. There has been much discussion about allowing other religious groups (such as Muslims) into this system as well.[35] In the 21st century, eastern German states, including the area of the former eastern capital, East Berlin, are less religious than western German states.[5]

In 2018 representatives from the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Bremen concluded that a decision has to be made by their state parliaments on whether to make Reformation Day a permanent official holiday.[36] This initiative began after an all-German 500th Reformation anniversary in 2017 and also due to the fact that the northern German states have significantly fewer holidays than the southern ones. In 2018 Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Lower Saxony adopted resolutions making it an official holiday.

In 2019 the Catholic News Agency reported that the Catholic church in Germany had a net loss of 216,078 members the previous year. The Protestant churches in Germany had a similar net loss of membership – about 220,000 members left. While the total of Catholic and Protestant church membership as of 2019 stands at 45 million or 53%, demographers predict that based on current trends it will fall to 23 million by 2060.[37]

Throughout history, in modern Germany several census had been carried out. Since the reformation until the 1960s the majority of the German population was Protestant (mainly Lutherans belonging to the Evangelical Church in Germany) while approximatively one third of the population was Catholic.[42][43] After the German reunification, the religious landscape was significantly changed, as found by the 2011 Census, the first one since the 1960s.

The latest census in 2011 found that Christianity was the religion of 53,257,550 people or 66.8% of the total population, among whom 24,869,380 or 31.2% were Catholics, 24,552,110 or 30.8% were Protestants of the Evangelical Church in Germany, 714,360 or 0.9% were members of Protestant free churches, and 1,050,740 or 1.3% were members of Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches. Afurther 2.6% was affiliated to any other Christian denomination. Jews were 83,430 people or 0.1%, and 4,137,140 or 5.2% were members of other religions. The remaining 22,223,010 people, or 27.9% of the total German population, were not believers in or not members of any religion (including atheists, agnostics and believers in unrecognised religions).[3]

German major religious bodies publish yearly updated records of their membership.[49]

Only certain religious group publish updated figures on their official membership, and this kind of data is collected in order to levy taxes on the registered membership of those churches, which corresponds to 9% of the total income tax (8% in Baden-Württemberg).[50] Many members choose not to formally register to their church anymore in order to have lighter taxes, since that those who opt out don't have the duty to pay it. According to a study, approximately 44% of the persons who unregistered to their church in 2018 did so in order to avoid to pay the church tax.[51] According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, around 20% of people who are not registered to any church consider themselves Christians.[52] Therefore, the official church count may underestimate the actual number of people who consider themselves as Catholic or Protestant, as noted by the 2011 Census, which provides comparable data on the religious statistics based on self-identification[53] and the church register.[54]

According to these church stats, Christianity is the largest religious group in Germany, with around 46.7 million adherents (56.2%) in 2018 of whom 23.0 million are Catholics (27.7%) and 21.1 million are Protestants (25.5%).[4][49]

According to other estimates, Orthodox Christianity has 1.6 million members or 1.9% of the population.[4][39][49] Other minor Christian religions counted together have approximately 0.9 million members, forming 1.1% of the total population.[4][39][49]

The second largest religion in Germany is Islam, with around 4.3–4.7 million adherents (5.1–5.7% of the population), almost all of whom have full or partial foreign background.[55][4][39] Smaller religious groups include Buddhism (0.2–0.3%), Judaism (0.1%), Hinduism (0.1%) and others (0.4%).[4][39] At the end of 2018, 37–38% of the country's population were not affiliated with any church or religion.[4]

Demographers estimate that in Germany there are around 100,000 religious Jews (Judaism), and a further 90.000 ethnic Jews with no religion, around 100,000 Yazidis, 130,000 Hindus, and 270,000 Buddhists.[39]

Distribution of religious and irreligious populations in Germany (2011 Church data)[3]

Protestants

Catholics

Other religions and unaffiliated

• In 2017, a survey conducted by Pew Research Center found that 71% of German adult population consider themselves Christians when asking about their current religion (irrespective of whether they are officially members of a particular Christian church). The same survey shows that most of Christians in Germany are non-practicing (defined as people who identify as Christians, but attend church services no more than a few times per year). 5% of people questioned state they have a non-Christian religion and 24% are of no religion.[61]
• In 2016, the German Politbarometer, found that 34.2% of the adult population entitled to vote were Protestants, 31.9% were Catholics, 28.8% were unaffiliated, 2.5% were Muslims, 0.02% were Jews and 1.8% were affiliated with another religion. A further 0.9% did not answer to the question.[62]
• In 2016, the German General Social Survey found that 64.5% of Germans declared themselves to be affiliated to a Christian denomination, 30.5% were Catholics, 29.6% were members of the Evangelical Church, 1.7% were members of the Evangelical Free Church, 1.4% were Orthodox and 1.3% were other Christians. Non religious people comprised the 32.4% of the population, Muslims were the 2.6% and 0.5% were members of other religions.[63]
• In 2015, Eurobarometer found that 72.6% of the adult population were Christians, the largest Christian denomination being Protestantism, comprising 33.1% of the population, followed by Catholicism with 31.1%, and Eastern Orthodoxy with 0.9%, and unspecified other forms of Christianity with 7.5%. A further 2.2% were Muslims, 0.4% were Buddhists, 0.1% were Jews and 1.3 belonged to other religions. A further 23.5% of the population were not religious, comprising 12.8% who were atheists and 10.7% who were agnostics.[64] The Eurobarometer Poll 2010 found that 44% of German citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", 25% responded that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 27% responded that "they don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force". 4% gave no response.[65]
• According to a 2015 Worldwide Independent Network/Gallup International Association (WIN/GIA) poll,[66] 34% of adult citizens said that they are religious, 42% said that they are not religious and 17% said that they are convinced atheists. 7% gave no response.[67]
• In 2018, according to a study jointly conducted by London's St Mary's University's Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society and the Institut Catholique de Paris, and based on data from the European Social Survey 2014–2016, among 16 to 29 years-old Germans 47% were Christians (24% Protestant, 20% Catholic, 2% Orthodox and 1% other Christian), 7% were Muslims, 1% were of other religions, and 45% were not religious.[68] The data was obtained from two questions, one asking "do you consider yourself as belonging to any particular religion or denomination?" to the full sample of 900 people, and the other one asking "which one?" to the sample who answered "yes".[69]

In 2016, the survey Politbarometer provided data regarding religion in each of the states of Germany for adults who are entitled to vote (18+), as reported in the table below.[70] Christianity is the dominant religion of Western Germany, excluding Hamburg, which has a non-religious plurality. Irreligion is predominant in Eastern Germany, which was the least religious region amongst 30 countries surveyed in a study in 2012.[71][72][73]

Religion by state, 2016[70]	Protestants	Catholics	Not religious	Muslims	Others
Baden-Württemberg	37.6%	40.6%	16.4%	2.5%	3.0%
Bavaria	23.4%	58.6%	15.6%	1.1%	1.3%
Brandenburg	24.9%	3.5%	69.9%	0.0%	1.5%
Bremen	51.8%	7.8%	39.1%	0.0%	1.3%
former East Berlin	14.3%	7.5%	74.3%	1.5%	2.4%
former West Berlin	32.0%	12.4%	43.5%	8.5%	3.5%
Hamburg	34.3%	9.0%	44.1%	10.9%	1.7%
Hesse	50.2%	21.7%	22.2%	3.8%	2.1%
Lower Saxony	53.8%	18.7%	24.1%	2.5%	0.9%
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern	24.9%	3.9%	70.0%	0.3%	0.9%
North Rhine-Westphalia	30.9%	44.6%	18.1%	4.4%	2.0%
Rhineland-Palatinate	34.8%	42.4%	19.6%	1.0%	2.1%
Saarland	22.3%	68.1%	8.2%	1.4%	0.0%
Saxony	27.6%	4.0%	66.9%	0.3%	1.1%
Saxony-Anhalt	18.8%	5.1%	74.7%	0.3%	1.2%
Schleswig-Holstein	61.5%	3.2%	31.3%	2.2%	1.7%
Thuringia	27.8%	9.5%	61.2%	0.0%	1.5%
Germany	34.5%	32.2%	29.0%	2.5%	1.8%

According to a survey by Pew Research Center in 2017, 60% of German adult population believe in God, while 36% do not believe in God (9% don't believe in God but in a higher power, 27% do not believe in God or any higher power):[74]

Ulm Minster

Source for all data: REMID[39]

• Evangelical Church in Germany — 21,141,000 (2018) — 25.5% of the German population[49]
• Free Baptist and Mennonite Groups — 290,000 (2007)
• Baptists (mostly Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in Deutschland KdöR) — 82,000 (2016)
• Methodists — 52,031 (2016)
• Pentecostals (Bund Freikirchlicher Pfingstgemeinden) — 51,896 (2015)
• Mennonites — 44,714 (2017)
• Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden — 41,203 (2017)
• Seventh-day Adventist Church — 34,811 (2014)
• Independent Evangelical-Lutheran Church — 33,175 (2014)
• Independent African Churches — 30,000 (2005)
• Evangelical Lutheran Free Church — 1,300 (2017)[76]

Cologne Cathedral in Cologne is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Catholic churches in full communion:

• Roman Catholic Church in Germany — 23,002,000 (2018) — 27.7% of the German population[49]
• Maronite Church Catholics — 6,000[39]

Church not in communion:

• Old Catholic Church — 15,715[39]

The Coptic Orthodox Monastery of St. Antonious in Waldsolms-Kröffelbach, Germany.

• Orthodox Christians — around 1.6 million (1.9%)[77]
  • Eastern Orthodox Churches
    • Churches of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople — 570,000[77]
      • Greek Orthodox Church — 410,000[77]
      • Ukrainian Orthodox Eparchy of Western Europe — 10,000[77]
      • Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of the Russian Tradition in Western Europe — 200[77]
    • Serbian Orthodox Church — 337,000[77]
    • Russian Orthodox Church — 270,000[77]
    • Romanian Orthodox Church — 150,000[77]
    • Ukrainian Orthodox — 143,000[77]
      • Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate — 110,000[77]
      • Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate — 33,000[77]
    • Bulgarian Orthodox Church — 130,000[77]
  • Oriental Orthodox Churches
    • Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch — 100,000[77]
    • Armenian Apostolic Church — 35,000[77]
    • Coptic Orthodox Church — 22,000[77]
    • Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church — 20,000[77]
    • Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church — 15,000[77]
• Nestorians
  • Assyrian Church of the East — 10,000[77]

• New Apostolic Church — 341,202 (2015)
• Jehovah's Witnesses — 168,763[39]
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — 38,739[39]

Between 10,000 and 20,000 Sikhs are living in Germany.[39] Many Sikhs in Germany have their roots from Punjab region in the north of India, as well as from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Germany has the third highest Sikh population in Europe after United Kingdom and Italy. The city Frankfurt is also known to the Sikhs, as Mini Punjab, because of a great Sikh Population, residing there.

There is a large Yazidi community in Germany, estimated to be numbering around 100,000 people.[39] This makes the German Yazidi community one of the largest Yazidi communities in the Yazidi diaspora.

A 1997–8 estimate is of 4000 Bahá'ís in Germany (40 in Hannover). In 2002 there were 106 Local Spiritual Assemblies. The 2007-8 German Census using sampling estimated 5–6,000 Bahá'ís in Germany. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 11,743 Bahá'ís.Following the German reunification in 1989–91 the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany handed down a judgment affirming the status of the Bahá'í Faith as a religion in Germany. Continued development of youth oriented programs included the Diversity Dance Theater (see Oscar DeGruy) which traveled to Albania in February 1997. Udo Schaefer et al.'s 2001 Making the Crooked Straight was written to refute a polemic supported by the Evangelical Church in Germany written in 1981. Since its publication the Evangelical Church in Germany has revised its own relationship to the German Bahá'í Community. Former member of the federal parliament Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker commended the ideas of the German Bahá'í community on social integration, which were published in a statement in 1998, and Chancellor Helmut Kohl sent a congratulatory message to the 1992 ceremony marking the 100th Anniversary of the Ascension of Bahá'u'lláh.

Bahá'í House of Worship in Langenhain near Frankfurt

Matronen altar with offerings in Nettersheim.

Neopagan religions have been public in Germany at least since the 19th century. Nowadays Germanic Heathenism (Germanisches Heidentum, or Deutschglaube for its peculiar German forms) has many organisations in the country, including the Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft (Communion of Germanic Faith), the Heidnische Gemeinschaft (Heathen Communion), the Verein für germanisches Heidentum (Association for Germanic Heathenry), the Nornirs Ætt, the Eldaring, the Artgemeinschaft, the Armanen-Orden, and Thuringian Firne Sitte.

Other Pagan religions include the Celto-Germanic Matronenkult grassroots worship practiced in Rhineland, Celtoi (a Celtic religious association), and Wiccan groups. As of 2006, 1% of the population of North Rhine-Westphalia adheres to new religions or esoteric groups.

Church of Scientology in Berlin.

The German government provides information and warnings about cults, sects, and new religious movements. In 1997, the parliament set up a commission for Sogenannte Sekten und Psychogruppen (literally "so-called sects and psychic groups"), which in 1998 delivered an extensive report on the situation in Germany regarding NRMs.[88] In 2002, the Federal Constitutional Court upheld the governmental right to provide critical information on religious organisations being referred to as Sekte, but stated that "defamatory, discriminating, or falsifying accounts" were illegal.[89]

When classifying religious groups, the Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) use a three-level hierarchy of "churches", "free churches" and Sekten:

1. Kirchen (churches) is the term generally applied to the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church in Germany's member churches (Landeskirchen), and the Orthodox Churches. The churches are not only granted the status of a non-profit organisation, but they have additional rights as statutory corporations (German: Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts), which means they have the right to employ civil servants (Beamter), do official duties, or issue official documents.
2. Freikirchen (free churches) is the term generally applied to Protestant organisations outside of the EKD, e.g. Baptists, Methodists, independent Lutherans, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists and others. However, the Old Catholics can be referred to as a free church as well.[90] The free churches are not only granted the tax-free status of a non-profit organisation, but many of them have additional rights as statutory corporations.
3. Sekten is the term for religious groups which do not see themselves as part of a major religion (but perhaps as the only real believers of a major religion).[91]

Every Protestant Landeskirche (church whose canonical jurisdiction extends over one or several states, or Länder) and Catholic episcopacy has a Sektenbeauftragter (Sekten delegate) from whom information about religious movements may be obtained.