Germany's new religious diversity

In Germany, many Christian churches are abandoned.

In their place, other religious buildings are emerging.

Immigrants from India or Syria bring their matters of faith, making the urban landscape increasingly diverse.

In Erlangen, a city of 119,000 residents in northern Bavaria , a great deal is happening at once.

Preparations are underway for a new synagogue for which the state of Bavaria has provided a plot of land near the university.

The city's two major mosques are planning expansions.

And in one of the city's suburbs, an association has purchased land to build a Shiva‑Vishnu temple for the Hindu community.

Silvia Klein, who heads Erlangen's Department of Integration and Diversity, highlights the city's rich mix of cultures, languages — and religions.

When it comes to the temple project, she points to the association "Hindu Tempel Franken." Using donations, its own funds, and a loan, the group purchased land, and construction is expected to begin no later than 2027.

Many Indian students in Erlangen
Klein said the university now has more than 2,000 students from India.

The association itself points out that the Indian community is the largest non-German population group in Erlangen.

The city is a clear example of how religious diversity in Germany is becoming visible in the urban landscape.

The established churches are, of course, still present: Catholic and Protestant houses of worship, along with one Greek Orthodox and one Russian Orthodox church.

A new life for Germany's deconsecrated church buildings
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Just three years ago, the Coptic Church in the city's Bruck district took over a former Catholic house of worship.

"St.

Peter und Paul" became the Coptic Orthodox Church dedicated to St.

Mary and the Holy Apostles.

"In the past we had 18 families with 50 or 60 members," Coptic deacon Ragai Edward Matta told DW.

"Today there are around 60 families with a good 200 people." And the numbers continue to rise.

Another 40 students also belong to the congregation.

By contrast, Germany's major Christian churches are shrinking.

Only a few years ago, more than half of all Germans still identified as Christian.

Today, around 36.6 million people belong to the Catholic or Protestant Church — roughly 44% of the country's 83.5 million residents.

Increasingly, Catholic and Protestant churches are being closed, repurposed or scaled down.

According to Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, more than 5.3 million Muslims were living in the country as of 2020.

About 3.8 million Orthodox Christians live in Germany , according to a 2024 survey by the Protestant Church.

Added to this are Jews, Buddhists, Baha'i  — and a growing number of Hindus.

For all of these groups, the available statistics are only estimates rather than precise counts.

New houses of worship in German cities
One thing is clear: Germany's urban religious landscape is becoming more diverse.

That shift is visible in the construction of new houses of worship.

How many such buildings exist is almost impossible to quantify.

In the summer of 2024, Buddhist nuns opened a prominent new temple in Berlin-Mitte.

By now, there are roughly 20 Buddhist monasteries nationwide.

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In June 2026, the largest Hindu temple in Germany is set to open in Berlin .

Private individuals began planning the project in 2004 and started construction around 2010.

"We are a growing community," Vilwanathan Krishnamurthy, who has driven the project from the beginning, told DW.

According to official figures, the number of Berlin residents with Indian citizenship increased more than tenfold between 2014 and 2024, reaching over 41,000.

At the temple in Erlangen, several committed members work as engineers or managers, including at Siemens.

In Berlin, Amazon is frequently among the employers.

At both temples, donation levels have risen in recent years.

The construction of Hindu temples is becoming increasingly common.

In Frankfurt am Main alone, there are more than half a dozen smaller temple spaces.

Cologne, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin all have multiple temples.

They represent different religious traditions and origins — including Indian, Tamil and Afghan communities.

According to the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), the organization comprises 862 mosque congregations in Germany.

They report directly to the powerful Presidency of Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, in Ankara, which is subordinate to the Turkish president.

Some new construction projects in Germany appear to have stalled.

In Krefeld, for example, the planned mosque — once announced as the third-largest in the country — has remained an unfinished construction site for several years.

The Ahmadiyya community , which originated in Pakistan and faces persecution there, also opens several mosques in Germany each year — most recently in mid‑February in Erfurt.

Unlike DITIB, it places strong emphasis on openness and is willing to speak freely.

A building in Nordhorn was also opened in December 2025.

Construction is also underway in Husum, northern Germany, Suleman Malik, spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya community in Erfurt, told DW.

Not all projects are new constructions; at times, the community has also taken over buildings previously owned by church institutions.

Mosques, synagogues under construction
In Erfurt, the shell of the building was repeatedly targeted with threats and attacks.

Now, Malik told DW with pride that he leads visitor groups through the complex almost every day — school classes as well as seniors, all of them deeply interested.

Among the mosques experiencing growth is the independent "Peace Mosque" in Erlangen, which is moving ahead with its expansion.

Visitors there encounter worshippers from a range of Muslim cultural backgrounds and hear sermons delivered in German.

There are also new construction projects on the Jewish side.

With new synagogues opening in Magdeburg in 2023 and Potsdam in 2024, there are now Jewish houses of prayer in all German state capitals.

More buildings are on the way.

In Erlangen, a long‑awaited new synagogue project is gaining momentum.

In Berlin, the Chabad community plans to significantly expand its synagogue in the near future.

Several liberal Jewish communities — including in Munich — have also been working on construction plans for years.

At the same time, another construction project is taking shape — one that stands out as a powerful symbol of Jewish life in Germany .

In the heart of Frankfurt, in the shadow of the Messeturm, the Jewish Academy is set to open in November 2026.

The complex combines a historic, landmark‑protected villa with a modern new building inspired by Bauhaus design.

Back in 2021, the project's costs were estimated at €34.5 million ($40 million).

The number of Orthodox congregations in Germany is growing.

And it's no longer just a matter of taking over unused churches or former monastery complexes, as the Copts did in Erlangen.

New construction is on the rise as well.

In June 2024, the "St.

Peter & Paul Parish" opened in Butzbach, Hesse — the first newly built church of the "Antiochian Orthodox Metropolis of Germany and Central Europe" anywhere in Europe.

Its members are predominantly Christians with roots in present‑day Syria.

Many Orthodox congregations — Syrian, Greek, Russian, Romanian or Serbian — are taking over vacant church buildings across Germany.

And when they build from scratch, they quickly discover the quirks of German construction law.

In Vilshofen an der Donau, in the far southeast of Bavaria, the Romanian Orthodox Church is planning a new house of worship.

But for nearly three years now, Father Marius Jidveian told DW, the building application has been sitting at the district office — and the roughly 300 families in the parish are still waiting for a response.

The community, he said, is disappointed about the delays.

This article was originally written in German