Legal framework on freedom of religion and actual application
Germany’s Constitution (Basic Law) provides for equality before the law and guarantees that no one may be disadvantaged or favoured on the grounds of faith or religious opinion (Article 3). Article 4 of the Basic Law protects freedom of faith and of conscience, as well as the freedom to profess a creed and practise religion and the right to conscientious objection to military service.
The Basic Law prohibits an official state church. It also provides that religious groups may organise themselves freely and are not required to register with the government. However, to qualify for tax-exempt status, religious groups must register as non-profit associations. Religious societies may apply to organise themselves as public law corporations (PLC) and, if granted this status, may levy church taxes and appoint prison, military, and hospital chaplains. According to the Basic Law, the decision to grant PLC status, and provide state subsidies, is made at the state level and is based on factors including the group’s size, activities, and respect for the constitutional order and fundamental rights.
There are around 180 religious groups who enjoy PLC status, including the Roman Catholic Church, the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), Baha’is, Baptists, Christian Scientists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Mennonites, Methodists, the Church of Jesus Christ, the Salvation Army, and Seventh-day Adventists. Ahmadi Muslim groups have PLC status in two federal states, they are the only Muslim communities with PLC status.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (OPC), (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV) and some state offices (Landesbehörde für Verfassungsschutz, LfV) continue to monitor the activities of numerous Muslim groups, which they suspect of furthering extremist goals. According to the Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW) Interior Ministry, 114 mosques in the federal state were being monitored in 2021, with 66 of them “on suspicion of Salafism” and 19 on suspicion of being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood or having Salafist members. Six of those mosques seem to belong to the forbidden Caliphate State.
Section 130 of the Criminal Code prohibits incitement to hatred against a religious group and dissemination of material which incites hatred. It is against the law to disturb the exercise of religion or worship (Section 167).
In 2017, the Federal Constitutional Court held that blanket headscarf bans for public school teachers violates religious freedom, but states could decide whether circumstances warranted a ban. Each state applies this ruling differently, as some states render decisions on a case-by-case basis, and others have prohibitions or exceptions under certain circumstances.
Following a case of a federal police officer with Nazi tattoos, a new “Law Regulating the Appearance of Civil Servants” was introduced in July 2021, which makes it possible to prohibit the use of headscarves, Kippas or a Christian cross. Also in July 2021, the EU court allowed the conditional ban on headscarves at work, which addressed a case brought by two Muslim women in Germany. The ban on religious attire at the workplace must follow certain conditions, like showing that a neutrality policy is essential for the business. In Berlin, a Neutrality Act prevents civil servants from wearing religious symbols or clothing since 2005. In February 2020, the Constitutional Court upheld a ban on headscarves for trainee lawyers in courts, finding the rule was justified to maintain “religious neutrality.” In July 2020, Baden-Württemberg banned full-face coverings for all school children; such a ban was previously instituted for teachers. As of June 2018, all public buildings in Bavaria were required to display a Christian cross, a law that some critics saw as political and divisive.
Religious instruction and ethics courses for those who opt out of religious education in public schools are available in all states. Religious groups are permitted to establish private schools, provided they meet state curriculum requirements.
A 2021 report from the NGO Open Doors conducted a survey with 5 207 Christians who had converted from Islam to Christianity. The study shed light on discriminatory or arbitrary treatment by officials who decided on asylum claims for converts from Islam to Christianity due to religious persecution. According to the study, the decisions rendered by the authorities tend to be based on outdated information, which did not acknowledge the severe persecution that Christian converts would face if deported. Another major issue appears to be that officials do not fully trust affirmations made by Church leaders. Open Door writes: “A uniform objective standard of review in the processing of asylum applications from converts seeking protection does not seem to be guaranteed.”
Similar remarks regarding Iranian Christians were made by another human rights NGO called the International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) in July 2022. They reported that during the deportation procedures, representatives of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) would make fun of the statements made by Iranian Christians about their faith. Martin Lessenthin, spokesman of IGFM stated: “The assessments and decisions of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and of administrative courts ignore the persecution to which dissenters and those with different beliefs are constantly subjected in the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Due to a steep rise in anti-Semitism, then Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her concerns and condemned anti-Semitism publicly in May 2021. In November 2022, the German government announced a new national strategy to counter anti-Semitism and “protect Jewish life” (NASAS). This strategy will concentrate on five pillars: research, prevention through education, enhancing historical memory in the culture, increasing security, and supporting the present Jewish community.
After the first general lockdown in response to the Covid-19 pandemic at the start of 2020, then chancellor Angela Merkel announced that the government would not impose new lockdowns on religious sites and public worship, given that freedom of religion is a fundamental right. The government worked together with religious leaders to set general rules and safety measures. Further restrictions took place at state level. In December 2022, the Court of Minden ruled that a ban on public worship in the city of Lage during Easter 2021 had been unjustified. The ban had been imposed due to a high number of Covid infections among members of a Protestant Church. The complaint brought forward by the congregation was dismissed at the first instance, however, in the main proceedings the court ruled in favour of the applicants.
In 2021, two German cities faced court cases challenging censorship zones that would prohibit prayer assemblies by a Christian pro-life group in the vicinity of abortion facilities. The Administrative Court of Frankfurt ruled in December 2021 that the restrictions imposed on the prayer group in 2020 were unlawful. A similar ruling took place at the Mannheim Administrative Court in September 2022 over a ban on silent prayer gatherings near an abortion facility in Pforzheim in 2019.
At the end of 2021, the new governing coalition published an agreement introducing changes in the state-Church relationship. It seeks to end (with a last payment) the state benefits given to the Church every year, which were intended as compensation for the expropriation of Church property and land in the process of secularisation. Whether to maintain or not the position of the freedom of religion commissioner was also under discussion. The new Commissioner for Religious Freedom, Frank Schwabe, was appointed. Unlike in previous years, the coalition’s new agreement neither mentions a focus on international religious freedom nor the persecution of Christians as a priority guiding their foreign policy. Nevertheless, it keeps the promise to protect the life and liberty of Jews and Muslims in Germany. Furthermore, the state will become more involved in the monitoring of the labour law of the Catholic Church.
Incidents and developments
In its 2021 report, the national Constitutional Protection Report (OPC) documented 409 “politically motivated crimes with a religious ideology,” the same as the previous year. Most of the crimes had an “Islamist-fundamentalist” background (378). During the reporting period, the OPC identified 54 anti-Semitic crimes, including eight acts of violence and 23 crimes of incitement to violence. The report did not include information regarding violence or bias towards other religious groups.
The report documented a 1.5 percent decrease in “potential Islamists” from 2020 to 2021 but stated that the threat posed by Islamists “remains present”. Following the escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas in May 2021, the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose sharply. The OPC registered mostly anti-Semitic postings on the internet but also registered physical assault offences and attacks on synagogues. The report indicated Salafism has become less visible or promoted but noted that Salafist and jihadist threats might not have lessened.
The OPC also mentioned the deeply rooted anti-Semitism in Germany’s right-wing extremist political scene. Between 2020 and 2021, anti-Semitic narratives were strengthened through the Covid-19 pandemic as conspiracy theories became popular on social media. Other groups identified as part of the right-wing scene in Germany like “identitarian” movements were described as xenophobic.
The Federal Criminal Police (BKA) reported 3027 anti-Semitic crimes in 2021, an increase of 28.75 percent from 2020. As in previous years, most of the crimes were attributed to right-wing extremists. However, ministers from two states, Herbert Reul and Thomas Strobl, said it was necessary to improve the classification of anti-Semitic incidents, as crimes are automatically labelled as “right-wing extremism” even when the perpetrator is unknown.
The German government reported 2351 anti-Semitic crimes to the OSCE 2020 hate crime report. Civil society groups reported 643 incidents in the same year (395 property crimes, 121 threats, and 127 physical assaults). In 2021, the government numbers rose to 3027 anti-Semitic hate crimes, and civil society groups reported 882 incidents, including 698 attacks on property, 105 threats, and 79 physical assaults.
In 2021, the Federal Association RIAS reported several cases of anti-Semitic violence. For example, in September 2021, during a vigil for Israel and against antisemitism in Hamburg, a Jewish participant was beaten up by a passer-by, who called him a “son of a bitch”. The victim received hospital treatment. In October in Berlin, three youths told a man he should shout “Free Palestine” on the street. After he refused, they kicked and punched him, leaving him severely injured. Synagogues have also been subject to attacks and vandalism. In September 2021, plans for an attack against a synagogue were discovered in Hagen; in response, police protected the synagogue for “Yom Kippur”, a Jewish holiday. The RIAS organisation also reported 450 anti-Semitic cases from January to June in Berlin only.
In May 2022, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) published a study on anti-Semitic beliefs in Germany present among the Muslim community, apart from people supporting right-wing parties. The AJC commented that quantitative research has devoted insufficient attention to this form of anti-Semitism.
Official figures on anti-Muslim hate crimes as reported to the OSCE in 2020 included 1026 incidents, while civil society groups reported 99 attacks, including 46 property crimes, 36 threats and 17 violent attacks against people. For the year 2021, the government reported 732 anti-Muslim hate crimes, which corresponded to a 28.67 percent decrease from the previous year. Civil society groups reported 55 such incidents, broken down into 31 attacks against property and 21 threats. The vast majority (88.33 percent) of the government-reported anti-Muslim crimes in 2021 were attributed to a motivation by a “right-wing” ideology. A study conducted in Germany’s train stations and published in July 2021 showed that women wearing a hijab were treated differently or discriminated against by bystanders in comparison to women without hijab.
The organisation “Brandeilig” reported several attacks against mosques. In July 2021, a mosque in Hamburg was defaced with paint bombs with unknown perpetrators throwing red paint at the entrance of the mosque, including the staircase and walls. In January 2022, during midday prayer, an Islam cultural centre in Halle was shot at with airgun bullets. According to witnesses, three bullets were shot from a private building across the street and aimed at the windows of the cultural centre.
In August 2022, a pregnant Muslim woman wearing a headscarf was attacked by a man inside a bus in Berlin. According to the police report, the man insulted the woman and showed her the middle finger, he then followed her, spat on her face, struck her in the upper body and belly and tried to take her headscarf away.
Regarding anti-Christian hate crimes, official numbers sent to the OSCE in 2020 revealed 141 incidents, while civil society groups reported 173 hate crimes, including 155 property crimes, 12 threats and six violent attacks. In 2021, the police reported 109 anti-Christian hate crimes, and civil society groups reported 117 incidents, which included 108 attacks on property and eight threats. The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) reported 286 anti-Christian hate crimes in the reporting period, including arson attacks, vandalism of property, graffiti containing insults, theft of sacred religious objects and physical assault.
A high number of property crimes reported were arson attacks, including in May 2022, when fire was set inside the Catholic church in Nonnenweier. Another arson attack in March took place in Singen, where an Evangelical church was completely burnt down resulting in several million euros in damage. Another desecration occurred in Bad Rappenau, where violent attacks by unidentified perpetrators damaged the altar and furniture repeatedly between March and July 2021.
In June 2022, perpetrators vandalised a church in Postdam, damaging the historical building with extensive graffiti, painting slogans like “No God; No State, No Patriarchy” and anarchist symbols. Due to the high amount of hate crimes and repeated incidents of vandalism, arson or thefts that happen in churches, some Catholic churches are closing their doors outside service hours, which affects the free exercise of faith for Catholic Christians.
A violent crime occurred in October 2022, when a woman was spat on and struck by a 22-year-old man. The 59-year-old lady was at church when a young man entered and started to smoke inside the church. As she told him to stop smoking, he attacked her and ran away.
Prospects for freedom of religion
During the reporting period, important legal developments took place as well as debates concerning Church – state relationships, secularisation, religious attire at the workplace and the impact of these on religious freedom. Positive court decisions included those upholding religious freedom by removing “buffer zones” that criminalized silent prayer, though other rulings tended to move towards bans or restrictions in the use of religious attire and symbols at work. The treatment of Christian converts seeking asylum for religious reasons has also not improved, despite discussions within civil society over the last years. The rise of anti-Semitism and ongoing social hostility towards Muslims and Christians remains a cause for concern. Although religious freedom is generally protected and a new Commissioner for Religious Freedom was appointed, ongoing hostility towards religious communities from extremists on both sides of the political spectrum, as well as increasing secularist trends, necessitate observation. The status of religious freedom remains unchanged.
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