Erlangen illustrates how Germany’s social landscape is changing. In this northern Bavarian city of about 119,000, plans are underway for a new synagogue on state‑provided land near the university, the two main mosques are planning expansions, and a suburban association has bought land to build a Shiva‑Vishnu temple for the Hindu community.
Silvia Klein, head of Erlangen’s Department of Integration and Diversity, points to a varied mix of cultures, languages and faiths. The Hindu Tempel Franken association bought the site using donations, its own funds and a loan, with construction expected by 2027 at the latest. The city’s university now has more than 2,000 students from India, and the Indian community is the largest non‑German group in Erlangen.
Religious diversity is increasingly visible in German cities. Traditional churches remain — Catholic, Protestant, Greek and Russian Orthodox — but major Christian churches are shrinking. Only a few years ago a majority of Germans identified as Christian; today roughly 36.6 million people, about 44% of the 83.5 million population, belong to the Catholic or Protestant churches, and many church buildings are being closed, repurposed, or scaled down.
At the same time, other faith communities are growing. 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 official figures are often estimates.
New houses of worship are appearing in many cities. In summer 2024 Buddhist nuns opened a temple in Berlin‑Mitte; there are roughly 20 Buddhist monasteries across the country. In June 2026, Germany’s largest Hindu temple is due to open in Berlin — a project conceived in 2004 with construction beginning around 2010. Vilwanathan Krishnamurthy, a long‑time project leader, stresses the temple’s role as a meeting place for young people and as reassurance for parents far from home.
Hindu temple projects are multiplying in urban areas. Frankfurt am Main has more than half a dozen small temple spaces; Cologne, Hamburg, Munich and Berlin have multiple 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 donations have increased.
Islamic congregations vary. The Turkish‑Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) reports 862 mosque congregations in Germany and answers to Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet). Some large projects have stalled — for example, a planned mosque in Krefeld has remained an unfinished construction site for years. Other groups, like the Ahmadiyya community, which faces persecution in Pakistan, continue to open mosques across Germany; recent openings include Erfurt in early 2024 and Nordhorn in December 2025, with further projects such as one in Husum underway. The Ahmadiyya often take over former church buildings and are publicly open about their work.
Local experiences vary. In Erfurt a mosque shell was targeted by threats and attacks but now hosts daily visitor groups — school classes and senior groups — who tour the complex. In Erlangen, the independent “Peace Mosque” is expanding; services there draw worshippers from diverse Muslim backgrounds and sermons are delivered in German.
Jewish life is also expanding physically. New synagogues opened in Magdeburg (2023) and Potsdam (2024), meaning every German state capital now has a Jewish house of prayer. Erlangen’s synagogue project is progressing; 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 major cultural project, the Jewish Academy — combining a historic villa with a modern Bauhaus‑inspired building — is scheduled to open in November 2026. Its costs were estimated at €34.5 million in 2021.
Orthodox Christianity is growing too, through both reuse and new construction. In Erlangen the former Catholic church “St. Peter und Paul” became a Coptic Orthodox church, serving around 60 families (some 200 people) plus students — a rise from about 18 families a few years earlier. In June 2024 the Antiochian Orthodox Metropolis opened St. Peter & Paul Parish in Butzbach, Hesse — the first newly built church of that metropolis in Europe — serving mainly Christians with roots in present‑day Syria. Many Syrian, Greek, Russian, Romanian and Serbian congregations are converting vacant church buildings nationwide.
New builds can encounter bureaucratic hurdles. 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 roughly 300 parish families waiting and disappointed.
Overall, Germany’s urban religious map is shifting: established 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, growing diaspora communities, and the repurposing of existing religious buildings.
This article was translated from German.