Religious disaffiliation in Germany

In Germany, Kirchenaustritt (German, "church exit") is the voluntary termination of state-registered church membership. In this sense, it is only necessary where there are legal state consequences linked to a membership, but not all communities allow an exit. In Germany, the applicable state laws AbOUT "leaving the church" is therefore only for religious and ideological communities with corporate status, regardless of whether they refer to themselves as "church."

Withdrawal from associations governed by private law is governed by the civil right of association. Leaving the church in addition to demographic factors have a significant share of the decline in membership of the United Churches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In some countries where no state registration of church members exists however, the decline in public church membership unfolds (e.g., Poland, Spain) which is also reflected in the statistics of membership.

History

The right to leaving the church in Germany had arisen from the state of the basic right of the freedom of religion. It was enacted for the first time in 1847 by the Edict of Frederick William IV. This Prussian tradition was established by law after the newly formed nation state of Germany during the Kulturkampf. The research distinguishes several church exit movements in German history. The first happened before the First World War (supported by social democrats and bourgeois supporters of Ernst Haeckel), the second was from 1919 (also mainly from the working classes, but also the middle classes).

Between 1936 and 1940, a similar number was recorded as leaving the church after 1968 and after 1989 in both Germany and Austria. From 1933 to 1936 and from 1945 onwards in West Germany (Adenauer era) there were church entrance movements.

In 1936, on the notification and personnel records of the registration offices and the staff papers, the term "believer in God" was introduced. Since the membership was not considered to be a religious community as well as "free thinking" in National Socialism as a career asset, there was provided the official name "God believers" for non-denominational Nazis a way to document so that one could not automatically classify "disbelief" as church exit.

Leaving the church from 1937 to 1940 was strongly influenced by the "belief in God" by the Nazis and discussions about church-critical writings of authors such as Alfred Rosenberg (confession: "believe in God" or "German-believer in God") and Mathilde Ludendorff ("Federation of German knowledge of God") carried.

Reasons for leaving the church

The reasons for leaving the church vary greatly and are individually different, so scientific studies that attempted to fathom the reason for leaving the church came to different results.

A study by the Allensbach Institute on behalf of the German Catholic Bishops in 1992/93 came to the conclusion that the church tax is usually the only occasion. Thus, Catholics would not identify with the institution, would not understand the [...] morality and would often accuse their representatives of "hypocrisy".

After a church study from the Office of the EKD was published in 1992 in Germany there were significant differences between East Germany and West Germany. The three most common reasons for leaving the church in the West were therefore in the order of importance of the conservation of church tax, the statement "I can be Christian without a church", and the indifference to the Church. The three most common reasons for leaving the church in the East, however, were indifference to the church first, then followed by the statements "I do not need religion in my life" and "I can not do anything more with the faith". According to a recent study of the EKD, this east-west difference in 2006 was still clearly visible. Three quarters of the unchurched in West Germany were former Protestants who had left in the last 25 years of her church, while more frequent the unchurched were in the former East Germany for generations and a fundamental rejection of religion was expressed. There were statistically rare crossings to other large denomination and even less the change into smaller denominations as sects or free churches.

The religious sociologist Detlef Pollack led the 2012 [...] abuse scandal in the Catholic Church at. This should be added the demographic development and secularization of society.

In 2012 also, among others, Michael Ebertz, professor at the Center for Church Social Research at the Catholic University of Freiburg, who wrote study "exit or stay in the church" on the other hand sees the exit as the endpoint of a long process that eventually leds to the exit. Accordingly, the church exit is not an indicator of current dissent between members and their church, but the result of a long-term, often multi-year development, in particular the period of puberty, Confirmation an important role during which young people are increasingly concerned with the search for meaning. Therefore, the study concludes that: "Young adults are hardly addressed by the traditional offerings of the church and do not feel this to be attractive."

Consequences of leaving the church

Treatment in state law

Leaving the church in Germany has meant that the state may make any legal consequences of membership (e.g. church tax collection, participation in religious instruction), which from the freedom of religion of Article 4 Section 1 of the Basic Law and of Article 136 WRV in conjunction with Article 140 GG follows, from his point of view the member has made, regardless of the canonical point of view, an application to resign.

Consequences in labor

A church can also have employment exit consequences, unless the employer is a church organization (e.g. Charity, Social Service). In general, employment at these employers are bound to a church membership, so in cases of leaving the church, the employment relationship shall be repealed. In a similar community of faith, the confession would no longer match the religion of the employer and employee.

In a judgment of 2003 saw the Administrative Court of Baden-Württemberg, the dismissal of a senior nurse in a Protestant hospital was reasonable, which was withdrawn from the Catholic Church. Defendant in this case was the country's welfare association, which must give its consent to the termination of the Disabilities Act. [7] In a decision of the Regional Labour Court of Rhineland-Palatinate in Mainz from 2008 [8], the judges declared it permissible for a church home for the elderly allowed to dismiss a nurse who had left the church. In the case of an applicant to a point, however, the nurses decided Aachen Labour Court on 14.12.2012 that the rejection of reason, despite its denominational professional qualification constitutes discrimination. The nurses, 3,000 EUR damages awarded

Treatment in Canon Law

To distinguish from the effect of leaving the church in the public sector ("Civil action"), the question is whether the particular religious or ideological community recognizes the following statement to a government agency outlet for themselves. The membership rights of the individual communities (church law) here differs greatly.

Catholic church

The Catholic Church knows no exit from the Faith Community Church, since baptism can not be undone and the Catholic Church sees itself as the community of the baptized. Nevertheless, it attempts to link to the corresponding canonical consequences.

According to established practice, the church exit statement causes the excommunication, rather than exclusion from the Church, but the loss of certain membership rights as censure. Published in 1970 in the "Declaration of the diocesan bishops on matters of church financial system" and in the "Declaration of the German Bishops Conference of quitting the Catholic Church" of 24 April 2006, the Declaration of leaving the church is considered apostasy, heresy or schism evaluated in terms of a public defection from the Church and is therefore an act against the faith and unity of the church and is deemed an offense. According to the above explanations, the diocesan bishops cannot get to the bottom of this Statement. In particular, the statement evaluates the motives as to wanting to save church tax and as a gross violation of solidarity duty of every Catholic and insofar as difficult a culpable offense against the community and the unity of the Church, which does not preclude the excommunication if they were not discovered prior: the canonical offense is committed with the declaration no longer being regarded as a member of the Church - which is the precondition of the church tax to be freed. This application is controversial, since - as is claimed - it is not certain that the outlet is an outward expression of a full or partial apostasy in actuality. Here, however, it is to be noted that an excommunication for apostasy is not necessary, but a mere denial of the Church and its subordination.

The resignation has other legal consequences. However, it is far controversial, whether the church exit an actus formalis is, in principle, in contrast to the state leaving the church and whether it is to be made before the local bishop or the priest where the parish register was entered. On the other hand, the resignation of the government authority will be sent to the ecclesiastical authorities, and then entered in the baptismal register. Anyway, the contentiousness that the actus formalis concerns, is sometimes transmitted and connected with the claim that it cannot find the location of excommunication. This is, after noticing that the actus formalis defectionis, according to explicit legal text, a schism (or apostasy or heresy). Although one presupposes, this not cover all cases of church crimes.

On 24 September 2012 there was a "General Decree of the German Bishops' Conference for leaving the Church" which came into force with the internal church legal consequences of leaving the church clarified by law. The decree was approved by the Vatican (According to publication, it has been already adopted by the Conference of Bishops on March 15, 2011, but only on 28 August 2012 by the Congregation for Bishops "recognition" was given). The state legal consequences of quitting are enumerated as follows:

• Exclusion from the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, Confirmation, and Anointing of the Sick - except in danger of death,
• Exclusion of ecclesiastical offices and functions,
• Exclusion from the godfather - and the godfather Office
• Exclusion of membership in parish and diocesan councils (e.g. parish council and parish council and finance committee, etc.)
• Loss of active and passive suffrage in the church,
• Exclusion of the public church membership in associations,
• Church marriage only with permission of the local ordinal,
• Exclusion from ecclesiastical burial, to the extent not existed before the death of any sign of remorse.

Evangelical churches

The membership rights of Protestant state churches however, a church exit formula exists. The club, however, for example the Bremen, are not accepted at ecclesiastical authorities, but must be declared by the authority responsible under state laws when leaving the church. Thus, under § 10 of the law of church membership of the Evangelical Church in Germany, the church membership ends through one of the following:

1. Moving away from the scope of the Church law; or
2. By crossing to another church or religious community under the laws of the member churches; or
3. With the effective date of the resignation permitted by law.

No. 3 thus builds on the declared civil action with exit after leaving the church laws of the countries, the church membership then terminates by operation of law. Nevertheless, even after the Protestant understanding makes the completion of the church membership, baptism is not reversed - with a re-entry so baptism would not be repeated. The consequences of withdrawal are in the basic orders, the orders of life or the labor of the individual regulated countryside churches. After church exit, any prior admission rights to communion are lost such as the right to vote on church governing bodies or the ability of a patent office. In addition, the church membership in the Protestant areas has a requirement to enter into an employment relationship (see about § 3 letter of the Ecclesiastical Law on the Employment of church workers in the Lutheran Church and the Social Service Agency of the Evangelical Church in Baden, however, with exceptions in § 4).

Reentry

For the reentry, there are no separate provisions in state law in Germany. It ties instead, in the baptism of the membership rights of the respective religious community. A church re-entry is possible if the respective community is willing to take up the spillage again. It is legally enforceable in state courts the right to re-entry with as little as a corresponding right to baptism (i.e., the original entry). However, most churches are forced by their self-understanding and their own regulations, to include a former member that brings the corresponding belief again.

Exit fees

• In 14 of the 16 states, the authorities charge a fee for leaving the church. It is
• In Baden-Württemberg between 10 and 60 €
• In Bavaria 31 €
• In Bremen 5 €
• In Hamburg 31 €
• In Hesse 25 €
• In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 10 €
• In Lower Saxony 25 €
• In North Rhine-Westphalia 30 €
• In Rhineland-Palatinate 20,45 €
• In Saarland 32 €
• In Saxony 20-23 €
• In Saxony-Anhalt 25 €
• In Schleswig-Holstein 20 €
• In Thuringia 30 €

No fee is collected in Brandenburg.

In Berlin, a bill is proposed (to be decided in the spring of 2013) of 30 €

Exit of minors

The withdrawal of children under 12 years alone is determined by their guardians. If the child is 12 or 13 years old, according to the Law on the Religious Education of Children the resignation is carried out by the guardians only with his consent. For minors over the age of 14 years, the decision lies solely at escaping, see Religious Maturity.

Discharge for those legally incapable

For an adult who is legally incapable, their caregivers may apply for the exit, where his Supervisor duties are applicable. He is, however, according to § 1901 BGB bound to the wishes of the person concerned. This is governed by the laws of the states leaving the church, only Bavaria prohibits an appropriate representation.

Procedure in the payroll tax

A discharge certificate will either be passed immediately or sent a few days after the resignation with the registration office, since the beginning of 2011 it is the only competent tax office responsible for the cancellation, the cancellation of religion on the tax card can be made so that no more church tax is deducted from the individual. The discharge certificate should not be lost, because often it must be proved by the individual after a move that they are no longer a member of the religious community, so that one is not used again to pay church tax.

Statistics on leaving the church (church exit)

German Empire 1932-1944 (rounded to the nearest thousand)

Federal Republic of Germany 1950-2010 (1990 total German)

A continuous constant in the numerical evolution of leaving the Church consists in confession ratio: in absolute terms and relative proportions ever-more Protestants than Catholics leave the Church.

The number of leaving the church from 1970-1989 in West Germany was between 110,000/50,000 and 220,000/90,000 (Protestant / Catholic) year after she was significantly lower in the 1950s and 1960s. These figures increased during the reunion again sharply in 1992 and reached its peak with about 360,000/190,000 (Protestant / Catholic) in the whole of Germany. After the exit numbers were up from the year 2005/2006. From this period it grew again, especially from the Catholic Church.

In the year 2010 provided an exception of developers working with 181,193 Catholics were in Germany for the first time there were more Catholics than Protestants within the Church. The number of resignations of Catholics, reached its highest level in the history of the Federal Republic.

The number of re-admissions and transfers is the Evangelical Church which is significantly higher (60,000) than in the Roman Catholic Church (about 15,000). According to a representative survey conducted in December 2011, approximately one million German were determined to leave the Church, 1.6% and 3.2% of the Catholics and Protestants respectively. Thoughts about a church exit is made according to the survey of 4.5 million Germans, so that there would be a total "potential loss" of 5.5 million church members.

The exit numbers, together with factors such as the demographic development and A- or emigration, meant that in 2009 Germany, 59.2% of the total population still belonged to the two large churches. The percentage of Catholics and Protestants was, according to the "Research Group Worldviews in Germany" at 29.6% each, while the unaffiliated comprised 34.8% of the total population. According to the Evangelical Church in Germany around the end of 2011 58.8% of the population were Protestant or Catholic. A year earlier it was 59.4 percent

References

de:Kirchenaustritt