Irreligion is prevalent in Germany. In a time of near-universal adoption of Christianity, Germany was an intellectual centre for European freethought and humanist thinking, whose ideas spread across Europe and the world in the Age of Enlightenment. Later, religious traditions in Germany were weakened by the twin onslaughts of Nazi rule during World War II and that of the Socialist Unity Party in East Germany during the Cold War. In common with most other European societies, a period of secularisation also continued in the decades that followed. While today Christianity remains prevalent in the west of Germany, in the east relatively few Germans identify with any religion whatsoever.
As of 2021, approximately 42% of Germans are irreligious, with a much higher concentration of irreligious citizens in the former East Germany. Eastern Germany, which was under communist rule,[1] [2] is by far the least religious region in the world.
One early irreligious German philosopher was Ludwig Feuerbach, who developed a theory of anthropological materialism in his book The Essence of Christianity. Feuerbach's work influenced contemporaries Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their writings against religion. The Freethought movement gained support in Germany during the 19th century. The secular coming of age ceremony Jugendweihe was developed in the 1850s, and Ludwig Büchner founded the German Freethinkers League in 1881.[3]
After its unification in 1871, the German Empire sought to resist attempts by the Catholic Church to impose its authority over the empire's sovereignty. During the Kulturkampf, Germany passed several laws that limited the power of religious authorities over the state.[4] [5] Friedrich Nietzsche was a notable voice in German irreligion at this time, famously declaring that "God is dead" in his works The Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, predicting further growth of irreligion as a result of Enlightenment ideas.
The Weimar Republic guaranteed freedom of religion when its constitution came into force in 1919. After the Nazi Party took control of the country in 1933, constitutional protections were ignored in Nazi Germany. Secular and Freethought movements were banned, including the German Freethinkers League, which by then had grown to about 500,000 members.[6] By 1939, 1.5% of Germans were irreligious.[7]
After World War II, Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany. While West Germany allowed for religious protection, East Germany enacted a system of state atheism and persecuted Christian groups for the first several years of its existence, resulting in East Germany having a much higher rate of irreligion than West Germany. This divide persisted after German reunification and still exists today.[8]
A 2021 estimate shows that 41.9% of the German population were non-confessional and not members of any religious group.[9] Christianity still has a notable presence in Western Germany, although the majority of the population in the northern states of Hamburg, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein are not registered members of the main Catholic and Protestant churches.[10] [11] When taken overall, Germany is one of the least religious countries in the world.[12]
The Cambridge Companion to Atheism estimated that in 2004 there were between thirty-three million and forty million non-believers in Germany.[13] As of 2009, much more Germans are non-believers in Eastern Germany than Western Germany.[14] [15] Eastern Germany, which was under communist rule, is by far the least religious region in the world.[16] [17] An explanation for this, popular in other regions, is the state atheist policy of the German Democratic Republic's Socialist Unity Party of Germany. However, the promotion of atheism existed only for the first few years. After that, the state allowed churches to have a relatively high level of autonomy.[18] Atheism is embraced by Germans of all ages, although irreligion is particularly common among younger Germans.[19] One study in September 2012 was unable to find a single person under 28 who was certain that Deity exists. A 2017 Pew Research Center survey in Germany found that Catholics were more likely than Protestants to attend religious service at least monthly and wear religious symbols. A higher share of Protestants than Catholics gave money to their church.[20]
| State[21] | Non-religious (2011) | Percentage of the population |
|---|---|---|
| 1,805,960 | 79.6% | |
| 1,229,350 | 77.5% | |
| 1,858,370 | 76.2% | |
| 2,908,420 | 72.6% | |
| 1,433,690 | 66.0% | |
| 2,045,340 | 62.6% | |
| 827,180 | 48.9% | |
| 251,770 | 38.9% | |
| 955,190 | 34.3% | |
 Germany | 26,265,880 | 33.0% |
| 1,610,090 | 27.1% | |
| 1,992,670 | 25.8% | |
| 3,930,270 | 22.5% | |
| 2,248,600 | 21.6% | |
| 2,317,860 | 18.8% | |
| 720,000 | 18.1% | |
| 131,120 | 13.2% | |