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Facts About Germany German History German Recipes |
Religion in Germany: Protestantism In the mid-1990s, most of the country's roughly 30 million Protestants
were organized into twenty-four member churches of the Evangelical Church
in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland--EKD), headquartered in
Hanover. Later in the decade, the church's headquarters is scheduled to
relocate to Berlin. The mainline Protestant churches belong to one of
three groups: Lutheran (ten); Reformed, or Calvinist (two); and United,
or Lutheran-Calvinist (twelve). The largest number of congregations is
in Saxony, Berlin, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Bavaria, Thuringia, and
Baden-Württemberg. Protestant clergy are permitted to marry, and
women are actively engaged in the ministry. One of the most prominent
women in the EKD and in Germany in the mid-1990s was Maria Jepsen, bishop
of Hamburg. In the early 1990s, about 5 percent of German Protestants attended weekly
services. Annual baptisms declined from about 346,000 in 1970 to around
257,000 in 1990. Of the 257,000 baptisms in 1990, only about 12 percent
took place in the former East Germany. Out of 219,000 confirmations in
1990, about 10 percent involved East German youth. Like their Roman Catholic
counterparts, Protestant churches are well supported by taxes and contributions.
The EKD also runs numerous hospitals and other social institutions and
is a vitally important member of the country's system of social welfare.
The main Protestant charitable organization is the Diakonisches Werk;
it has about 350,000 employees. - Roman Catholicism - Immigration
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