Religion in Berlin

Religion in Berlin – 2010
Non religious
  
 60.0%
EKD Protestants
  
 18.7%
Roman Catholics
  
 9.1%
Muslims
  
 8.1%
Other Christian
  
 2.7%
Other religion
  
 1.0%

More than 60 percent of Berlin residents have no registered religious affiliation. As for the other nearly 40 percent, 30.0 percent identify with some form of Christianity, approximately 6-10 percent are Muslim, 1.0 percent are Jewish, and 1.0 percent are another religion.

Secularism

About 60 percent of Berlin residents have no registered religious affiliation. Berlin has been described as the "atheist capital of Europe" in 2009.[1] There are a number of humanist groups in the city. Although not officially documented in religious communities a certain percentage of these people do have religious believes. Most of the statistically non-religious inhabitants have Protestant roots.

Christianity

Berliner Dom, held by a congregation and the Protestant umbrella UEK.

Evangelical Church

The largest denominations as of 2010 are the Protestant regional church body of the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia (EKBO), a united church comprising mostly Lutheran, a few Reformed and United Protestant congregations. EKBO is a member of both the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and Union Evangelischer Kirchen (UEK) claiming 18.7 percent of the city population.[2] Since 2010 the leader of the church is bishop Dr. Markus Dröge (2010).

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church claims 9.1 percent of the city's registered members.[2] Berlin is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin covering the northeast of Germany. As of 2004 the archdiocese has 386,279 Catholics out of the population of Berlin, most of Brandenburg (except of its southeastern corner, historical Lower Lusatia) and Hither Pomerania, i. e. the German part of Pomerania. This means that a little over 6% of the population in this area is Roman Catholic. There are 122 parishes in the archdiocese.

The current Archbishop is Archbishop Heiner Koch, formerly Bishop of Dresden, who was appointed by Pope Francis on Monday, June 8, 2015, to replace the former Archbishop, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki.

Orthodox Church

About 2.7 percent of the population identify with other Christian denominations, mostly Eastern Orthodox.[3] Berlin is also the seat of Orthodox cathedrals, such as the Cathedral of St. Boris the Baptist, one of the two seats of the Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of Western and Central Europe, and the Resurrection of Christ Cathedral of the Diocese of Berlin (Patriarchate of Moscow).

Islam

In 2009, Islamic religious organizations in Berlin reported 249,000 members.[4] As of the end of 2015, 352,667 officially registered residents of Berlin had immigrated after 1955 from Arabic and Islamic countries, the largest part from Turkey, or were children of such immigrants.[5]

The Berlin Mosque (German: Berliner Moschee, Wilmersdorfer Moschee, Ahmadiyya Moschee) in Berlin is Germany's oldest mosque in use, situated on Brienner Straße 7-8 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. It was designed by K. A. Hermann and was built between 1923 and 1925. Berlin Mosque, which has two 90 feet (27 m) tall minarets.

Judaism

Neue Synagoge. Since 1990 Berlin has a constantly growing Jewish community. [6]

Of the estimated population of 30,000-45,000 Jewish residents in 2014,[7] approximately 12,000 are registered members of religious organizations.[3] Berlin is considered to have one of the fastest growing Jewish communities in the world due to Russian, Eastern European, Israeli and German Jewish immigrants.[8][9]

Jewish life in the capital Berlin is prospering, the Centrum Judaicum and several synagogues—including the largest in Germany—have been renovated and reopened in 2007.[10] Berlin's annual week of Jewish culture and the Jewish Cultural Festival in Berlin, held for the 21st time in the same year, featuring concerts, exhibitions, public readings and discussions partially explain why Rabbi Yitzhak Ehrenberg of the orthodox Jewish community in Berlin states: "Orthodox Jewish life is alive in Berlin again." [11][12]

Places of worship

There are many places of worship in Berlin for the variety of religions and denominations. For example there are 36 Baptist congregations (within Union of Evangelical Free Church Congregations in Germany), 29 New Apostolic Churches, 15 United Methodist churches, eight Free Evangelical Congregations, four Churches of Christ, Scientist (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 11th), six congregations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), an Old Catholic church and even an Anglican church. The Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church has eight parishes of different sizes in Berlin.[13] Berlin has more than 80 mosques,[14] as well as two Buddhist temples.

Interfaith initiatives

Over the past years, Berlin has seen a considerable increase in interfaith initiatives, including the House of One project which looks at building a joint place of worship for adherents to different religions. In 2016, Berlin celebrated its first ever Interfaith Music Festival ("Festival der Religionen") which was organised by the international non-profit initiative Faiths In Tune and made possible with funds from the Berlin Lottery Foundation. The Festival der Religionen combined live music and dance performances by artists from 13 different religions, an interfaith fair and several exhibitions on faith subjects.[15][16][17]

References

  1. ↑ Connolly, Kate (26 April 2009). "Atheist Berlin to decide on religion's place in its schools". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  2. 1 2 Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland: Kirchenmitgliederzahlen am 31. Dezember 2010. EKD, 2011, (PDF; 0,45 MB) Abgerufen am 10. März 2012.
  3. 1 2 Amt für Statistik Berlin Brandenburg: Die kleine Berlin-Statistik 2010. (PDF-Datei). Abgerufen am 4. Januar 2011.
  4. ↑ "Die kleine Berlin-Statistik 2015" (PDF). Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg (in German). December 2015. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner im Land Berlin am 31. Dezember 2015" [Residents of the State of Berlin as of December 31, 2015] (PDF). Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg (in German). March 2016. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Epicenter of Holocaust Now Fastest-growing Jewish Community". Haaretz. 2014-04-08. Retrieved 2016-08-25.
  7. ↑ Mike Ross (November 1, 2014). "In Germany, a Jewish community now thrives". The Boston Globe. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  8. ↑ JEWS IN BERLIN? www.berlin-judentum.de. 16 August 2016.
  9. ↑ Germany: Berlin Facing Challenge Of Assimilating Russian-Speaking Jews. Radio Free Europe. 6 September 2012.
  10. ↑ "World | Europe | Major German synagogue reopened". BBC News. 2007-08-31. Retrieved 2013-04-16.
  11. ↑ Die Bundesregierung (Federal government of Germany): "Germany's largest synagogue officially reopened." 31 August 2007
  12. ↑ Axelrod, Toby. "Cantor who led Berlin's Jews for past 50 years dies." j.. 21 January 2000
  13. ↑ "Lutheran Diocese Berlin-Brandenburg". Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche. Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  14. ↑ "Berlin′s mosques". Deutsche Welle. April 16, 2014. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  15. ↑ "FAITHS IN TUNE Interfaith Music Festival". FAITHS IN TUNE Interfaith Music Festival. Retrieved 2016-08-02.
  16. ↑ "Public Praying in Berlin". www.tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved 2016-08-02.
  17. ↑ Lombard, Jerome (14 July 2016). "Glauben im Einklang: Das Festival der Religionen will durch Musik Respekt und Dialog fördern". Retrieved 2 August 2016 – via Jüdische Allgemeine.
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