Germany - Religions



The reunification of Germany in 1990 ended some forty years of religious, as well as political separation. Freedom of religion is guaranteed, and although there is no official state religion, churches can receive financial support from the government. In 2002, the Evangelical Church, a federation of several church bodies including Lutheran, Uniate, and Reformed Protestant Churches, had some 27 million members, who constituted 33% of the population. The Catholic Church also had 27 million members, or 33% of the population. Muslims made up approximately 3% to 4% of the populace with 2.8 to 3.2 million practitioners. Orthodox churches claimed 1.1 million members, or 1.3% of the people. The Greek Orthodox Church is the largest, followed by Romanian, Serbian, Russian (Moscow Patriarchate and Orthodox), Syrian, and Armenian Apostolic. Other Christian churches had about 1 million subscribers, or1.2% of the population. The largest of these are the New Apostolic Church (430,000 members) Jehovah's Witnesses (165,000 members), Baptists (87,000 members), and Methodists (66,000 members). A total of some 87,500 members of Jewish congregations lived in Germany in 2002, making up 0.1% of the populace. According to press reports, the Jewish population is growing rapidly, with more than 100,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union joining the country's established Jewish population since 1990. There were also small numbers of Unification Church members, members of the Church of Scientology, Hare Krishnas, members of the Johannish Church, the International Grail Movement, Ananda Marga, and Sri Chinmoy. Approximately21.8 million people, or 26.6% of the population, belonged to smaller religious organizations or had no religious affiliation at all.

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