German Religions II

 

Christianity

Referring to the previous post, one can understand that there are both Protestants and Roman Catholics in Germany, which falls under Christianity. Currently, there are almost equal numbers of the population of Protestant and Roman Catholic followers – “27.4 million” (Bernstein, Christianity, 2004)

Churches of Germany do not have to organize fund raising events as they benefit from Church taxes. This amount of money is used to help the needy, handicapped, and also to the young and old. Out of the 15 legal holidays, 12 of them are related to Christianity. The reason why Christianity is the largest religious group in Germany is due to the fact that “two of the largest political parties, the Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union”. (Bernstein, Christianity, 2004) The two parties helped shape Germany based on the principals of Christianity in half of a decade previously. 

Judaism

80 Jewish communities are located in all major German cities. Despite the Holocast under Hitler’s power, the Jewish community has drastically increased from 30,000 people to 100,000 in a decade. This naturally made the Judaism a part of Germany’s religion. In addition to the Jews, there was a mass influx of Russian Jews into Germany. This also led to an increase of Judaism believers in Germany.

Islamism

Considering Catholicism and Protestantism as variations of Christianity, Islam is the 2^nd-largest religion in Germany. The profiles of the Muslims are from 41 over countries, with ¾ of it coming from Turkey. During Germany’s rapid economy growth, there was a need of labour, and people from Italy, Spain, Yugoslavia, Turkey and Portugal were employed by the Germans. Most of the Turkish people then continued living there for the rest of their lives, and it is the same for their children. This is why there is a large group of Turkish in Germany.  

Out of all three religions, only the Islam community do not enjoy a privileged position. This is as Germany collects Church tax of 8-9% of a person’s income tax, which is also subjected to non-Christian communities. Judaism benefits from Church tax and also subsidized by the state.

Even though the Muslim community does not have any privileges in Germany, it does not mean that it is being discriminated. This can be proven as developments can be seen in Germany. “2,200 simple prayer rooms and 77 mosques in Germany; another 123 are under construction. Hamburg has more mosques than any other city in Europe.” (Bernstein, 2004) There are also laws that protect the freedom of Muslim believers. 

Bibliography:

Bernstein, E. (2004). Christianity. In E. Berstein, Culture and Customs of Germany (pp. 81-82). Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Bernstein, E. (2004). Islam in Germany. In E. Bernstein, Culture and Customs of Germany (pp. 93-95). Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Berstein, E. (2004). Religion. In E. Berstein, Culture and Customs of Germany (pp. 81-95). Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.

Gordeeva, T. (2009). Religion in Germany. Retrieved 6 December, 2010, from German Culture: http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/facts/bl_religion.htm