Erlangen, a northern Bavarian city of about 119,000 people, offers a clear snapshot of how religion in Germany is changing. On state‑provided land near the university the city is planning a new synagogue; the two main mosques are seeking to expand; and a suburban association has purchased land for a Shiva‑Vishnu temple to serve the growing Hindu community.
Silvia Klein, head of Erlangen’s Department of Integration and Diversity, describes a city marked by many cultures, languages and faiths. The Hindu Tempel Franken association financed its site with donations, its own funds and a loan, with construction expected by 2027 at the latest. Erlangen’s university now enrolls more than 2,000 students from India, and the Indian community is the largest non‑German group in the city.
Those local changes reflect wider trends across German cities. Traditional Christian churches—Catholic, Protestant, Greek and Russian Orthodox—remain visible, but the major Christian denominations are shrinking. Where a majority of Germans once identified as Christian, today about 36.6 million people (roughly 44% of an 83.5 million population) belong to the Catholic or Protestant churches, and many church buildings are being closed, repurposed or downsized.
Meanwhile, other faith communities are growing and building new places of worship. Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees estimated more than 5.3 million Muslims in 2020, and a 2024 Protestant Church survey counted about 3.8 million Orthodox Christians. Jews, Buddhists, Bahá’ís and a rising number of Hindus are also present, though exact counts are often estimates.
New houses of worship are appearing in many cities. In summer 2024 Buddhist nuns opened a temple in Berlin‑Mitte, and there are roughly 20 Buddhist monasteries across the country. Germany’s largest Hindu temple, a project first conceived in 2004 and built in phases since about 2010, is due to open in Berlin in June 2026. Project leader Vilwanathan Krishnamurthy highlights the temple’s role as both a meeting place for young people and a source of reassurance for parents far from home.
Hindu temple initiatives are multiplying in urban areas: Frankfurt has more than half a dozen small temple spaces, and Cologne, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin host several temples representing Indian, Tamil, Afghan and other traditions. In Erlangen and Berlin many temple supporters work as engineers or managers at companies such as Siemens or Amazon, and local donations have increased.
Islamic congregations are diverse in origin and organization. The Turkish‑Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) reports 862 mosque congregations across Germany and is linked to Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). Some large mosque projects have stalled—an unfinished mosque in Krefeld is one example—but other groups are continuing to open new sites. The Ahmadiyya community, which faces persecution in Pakistan, has opened mosques in Erfurt (early 2024) and Nordhorn (December 2025) and has further projects such as one in Husum underway. The Ahmadiyya often repurpose former church buildings and are publicly active about their outreach.
Local experiences differ. A mosque shell in Erfurt was once targeted by threats and attacks but now welcomes daily visitor groups, including school classes and seniors. In Erlangen, the independent “Peace Mosque” is expanding; its services draw worshippers from varied Muslim backgrounds and sermons are given in German.
Jewish life is also expanding in visible ways. New synagogues opened in Magdeburg (2023) and Potsdam (2024), so every German state capital now has a Jewish house of prayer. Erlangen’s synagogue project is moving forward; in Berlin the Chabad community plans a major expansion, and several liberal Jewish communities, including in Munich, have long‑term construction plans. In Frankfurt a large cultural center, the Jewish Academy—combining a historic villa with a modern, Bauhaus‑inspired building—was scheduled to open in November 2026, with costs estimated at €34.5 million in 2021.
Orthodox Christianity is growing through both reuse of existing buildings and new construction. In Erlangen the former Catholic church of St. Peter und Paul has become a Coptic Orthodox parish, serving about 60 families (roughly 200 people) plus students—up from about 18 families a few years earlier. In June 2024 the Antiochian Orthodox Metropolis opened St. Peter & Paul Parish in Butzbach, Hesse—the metropolis’s first newly built church in Europe—primarily serving Christians with roots in present‑day Syria. Across the country many Syrian, Greek, Russian, Romanian and Serbian congregations are converting vacant church buildings into active parishes.
Not all projects proceed smoothly. Bureaucratic delays can frustrate communities: in Vilshofen an der Donau the Romanian Orthodox community’s application for a new church has been stalled at the district office for nearly three years, leaving about 300 families waiting.
Overall, Germany’s urban religious map is shifting. Historic Christian majorities are contracting while Muslim, Orthodox, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and other communities increasingly shape cityscapes through new synagogues, mosques, temples and monasteries. These developments reflect changing migration patterns, the growth of diaspora communities and the repurposing of existing religious buildings.
This article was translated from German.