Great Christian churches in Germany, primarily Catholic and Protestant, they are losing members. Today, about 36,6 million people in Germany belong to the Catholic or Protestant churches. That is about 44 percent of the total population of 83,5 million, writes Deutsche Welle.
This is why Catholic or Protestant churches are closing, repurposing or downsizing more and more often. That's why headlines like: "Germany is becoming godless" or "More non-religious than church members" appear in the media.
But is it really so? According to data from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees from 2020, only Muslims in Germany there are more than 5,3 million. According to the 2024 survey of the Protestant Church, there are 3,8 million Orthodox Christians in Germany.
There have always been Jews, but now there are also Buddhists with 20 temples, Bahais - as well as an increasing number of Hindus. For most of these groups, there are only estimates, not precise statistical data.
Here is an example: Erlangen in Bavaria
Erlangen in the south of Germany has about 119.000 inhabitants and is an example of how religious diversity in Germany becomes visible in the urban area.
Of course, there are still traditional churches: Catholic and Protestant, as well as the Greek and Russian Orthodox communities.
A little more than three years ago, the Coptic Orthodox Church took over a Catholic church. Deacon Ragai Edward Mata tells DW: "Before there were 18 families with 50 or 60 members, and today there are about 60 families with more than 200 people living here." The tendency is still increasing. In addition, about 40 students belong to the community.
The city's two large mosques are planning expansion. One of them is the independent "Mosque of Peace" which gathers believers from different Muslim cultural circles and preaches in the German language.
Preparations are underway for the construction of a new synagogue, Bavaria has made available land near the university.
In one suburb, the association "Hindu Tempel Franken" bought a plot for a Shiva-Vishnu temple for Hindus. Construction should start in 2027 at the latest. More than 2.000 students from India study at the university - it is the largest non-German community in Erlangen.
More and more Hindu temples
The construction of Hindu temples in Germany is becoming more and more common. There are almost ten smaller temples in Frankfurt alone. There are also more in Cologne, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin. They represent different religious traditions and identities - Indian, Tamil or Afghan.
From 2014 to 2024, the number of Berlin residents with Indian citizenship increased more than tenfold – to more than 41.000.
In June of this year, the largest Hindu temple in Germany will be opened in Berlin. Vilvanathan Krishnamurthy, who has been involved in the project since the beginning, tells DW: "We are a growing community. There is a need for a religious center where young people can gather." Parents in India, he says, feel more at ease knowing their children abroad have such a place.
In Erlangen, many of the people working on the temple project are employed as engineers or managers, for example at Siemens. In Berlin, however, they are mostly employed by Amazon.
Mosques are being built and expanded
DITIB (Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs) states that there are 862 mosque communities in Germany that are affiliated with the Turkish Directorate for Religious Affairs (Diyanet) in Ankara.
"Last year, the mosques in Ferde, Kornwestheim and Kengen were completed and opened," the press service of the organization announced. In addition, foundation stones for new mosques were laid in Giessen and Willich. Some projects get stuck: The planned Krefeld mosque, once billed as the third largest in Germany, has been an unfinished construction site for years.
The Ahmadiyya Muslim community, which originated in Pakistan and was persecuted there, opens several new mosques in Germany every year. The last one was opened in February in Erfurt.
Community spokesman Suleiman Malik says that the mosque in Nordhorn was opened in December 2025, while work in Husum is still ongoing. In Erfurt, there were threats and attacks during the construction of the mosque. Today, says Malik, he guides visitors through the complex almost every day - school groups, but also elderly people.
Synagogues and "Jewish Academy"
There are also new projects in the Jewish communities. With new synagogues in Magdeburg (2023) and Potsdam (2024) all German provincial capitals now have Jewish places of worship. New ones are also planned.
The Jewish Academy is also being built in Frankfurt, which should be opened in November 2026. It consists of an old mansion that is under the protection of cultural monuments and a modern new building with Bauhaus elements.
"The academy will certainly have significance for the whole of Germany," its co-director Doron Kiesel tells DW. It speaks of a place of interdisciplinary and intercultural meeting of Jewish and non-Jewish participants. The architectural connection of old and new, he says, expresses the philosophy of the institution itself: "We build our identity on Jewish experiences, traditions and beliefs, but at the same time we direct our gaze towards future development processes, challenges and temptations."
More and more Orthodox communities
Although large churches are shrinking, new churches are still being built. The number of Orthodox communities in Germany is growing. The "Church of Saints Peter and Paul", the first newly built church of the Antiochian Orthodox Metropolis in Europe, was opened in Buchbach in the province of Hesse in 2024. It is mainly about Christians from Syria.
Many Orthodox communities - Serbian, Romanian, Russian or Greek - take over abandoned churches. This also applies to Serbs who have been praying in a Catholic church in Oberbach near Bonn for several months or are renovating the former monastery complex in Himmelstir near Hildesheim. The same applies to the Syrian Christians who are taking over places of worship in different parts of the country - even a few of them in Berlin.
Anyone who builds something new quickly learns the pitfalls of German construction law. In Filshofen on the Danube, in southeastern Germany, the Romanian Orthodox Church wants to build a place of worship. For almost three years, as priest Marius Jidvejan told DW, the application for a building permit has been sitting in the district office. The community, to which about 300 families belong, is still waiting for an answer. Many are disappointed by the delay.
Churches outside the big churches
Smaller Christian communities are also building new buildings. Ten years ago, the Old Catholic Church built the spectacular modern "Church of Saint Junia the Apostle" in Augsburg. Protestant Free Churches are also building new buildings.
Both the Alliance of Evangelical Free Churches (Baptist communities) and the Alliance of Evangelical Free Church Communities point to several current construction projects. One example: in Berlin's Wedding district, in 2024, an old red brick building was transformed into a modern church.
The New Apostolic communities also remain active. In 2025, the New Apostolic community moved into a simple but striking sacred building in the center of Bonn.
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