If you went back to the Germany of the 1400s, you'd find a highly enthusiastic group of religious people....mostly all Catholic in nature. Around the 1525 era, things began to shift with the arrival of Martin Luther, the printed Bible being available to the public, and after the 1619-1650 Thirty Years War....a religious evolution was playing out.
Today's Germany? Out of the 82-million in population....between the Catholic Church and Lutherans....they make approximately 56-percent of the country. If you go state to state (using all 16 German states), it's a varied picture. Islamic population? It's nearing 5-percent of the population, and again....state-by-state, there is a varied picture. So you come to remainder....either non-religious or atheists, roughly 35-percent.
Why so many non-religious types? I think there are three common denominators. The first has to do with the two world wars, and the personal anger that mounted with the death and destruction. Some people simply loss their trust in religion to provide answers. The second reason has to do the church tax business, which was the replacement for people to donate to the church. If you felt disagreement with the spending methods of your religious group....the only way to avoid the tax....was to become non-religious. Finally, the third reason has to involve the Thirty Years War and this general negativity that existed after that era. Roughly half of the general population of Germany in the mid-1600s....compared against 1615....didn't exist anymore. Between the war, starvation, and the plague....a major part of the population weren't there. I think for decades after that....hostility brewed and to some degree....a lack of trust exists even today.
How big of a difference exists in each of the sixteen German states? This is a curious thing. In most of the states of old DDR (East Germany), non-religious numbers are a minimum of 60-percent. If you were looking for the majority of Muslims? Hamburg and North Rhineland Westphalia have the bigger population (nearing 10-percent). Looking for the more Catholic population? Bavaria is near 50-percent, and the Saarland is approaching 70-percent of the local population.
The Jews? It's not something that widely discussed, but when you go back to the 1920s to 1930s....the population of the Jewish population only numbered in the 600,000 to 700,000 in Germany (the number varies based on which historian is discussing the matter). Today? It's estimated that the number is between 100,000 to 200,000.
The Muslim numbers? Few ever grasp that there are nine separate and recognized Muslim groups in Germany today....the smallest being the Ibadi group with less than 300 members, and the largest being the Sunni group with 2.6-million. The idea that religion speaks with one voice? No. The Sunni folks might make up near 50-percent of the religious group but the combined numbers of the eight other groups make almost 50-percent of the group.
Cults and sects? In the mid-1990s, the German government came to realize that various groups existed and some were a 'threat' to society. Around twenty years ago, the German court system came to say that the government did have the right to monitor and oversee any religion that they felt was a potential threat to the safety of people.
It's safe to say that whatever evolution started in the early 1500s.....still continues on today.
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