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Religion Germany is the home of the Reformation launched by Martin Luther in the early 16th century. Today, Protestants (particularly in the north and east) comprise about 33% of the population and Catholics (particularly in the south and west) also 33%. The current pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, is German. In total more than 55 million people officially belong to a Christian denomination. The third largest religious identity in Germany is that of non-religious people (including atheists and agnostics (especially in former GDR)), who amount to a total of 28.5% of the population (23.5 million). Approximately 3 million Muslims (predominantly from Turkey and the former Yugoslavia) live in Germany. Most are Sunnis and Alevites from Turkey but there are a little number of Shiites. Today's Germany has Western Europe's third-largest Jewish population. In 2004, twice as many Jews from former Soviet republics settled in Germany as in Israel, bringing the total influx to more than 200,000 since 1991. About half joined a settled Jewish community, of which there are now more than 100, with a total of 100,000 members—up from 30,000 before reunification. Some German cities have seen a revival of Jewish culture, particularly in Berlin, where there are also 3,000 Israelis. Jews have a voice in German public life through the Zentralrat der Juden in Deutschland (Central Council of Jews in Germany). Other cities with significant Jewish populations are Frankfurt and Munich.
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The German social market economy helped bring about the "economic miracle" (the German "Wirtschaftswunder") that rebuilt Germany from ashes after World War II to one of the most impressive economies in Europe. Still today, Ludwig Erhard, minister of economics in the Adenauer administration (1949-1963) and later federal chancellor (1963-1966), is widely recognized as having been the "father" of this profound rise in the country's economic and social wealth. Germany continues to struggle with a number of social issues, although problems created by the German Reunification of 1990 have begun to diminish. The standard of living is higher in the western half of the country, but easterners now share a reasonably high standard of living. Germans continue to be concerned about a relatively high level of unemployment, especially in the former East German states. The country has passed several reforms to curb unemployment. For centuries, a woman's role in German society was summed up by the three words: Kinder (children), Küche (kitchen), and Kirche (church) - Kinder, Küche, Kirche. Throughout the twentieth century, however, women have gradually won victories in their quest for equal rights. Despite significant gains, discrimination remains in united Germany. Women are noticeably absent in the top tiers of German business. They only hold 9.2% of jobs in Germany's upper and middle management positions[4]. Until 2001 women were barred from serving in combat units in the Bundeswehr, being restricted to the medical service and the administration. The first woman to become chancellor is Angela Merkel, who was elected in 2005. Since World War II, Germany has experienced intermittent turmoil from various groups. In the 1970s leftist terrorist organizations like the Red Army Faction engaged in a string of assassinations and kidnappings against political and business figures and there has been a recent surge in right-wing nationalist crimes. According to former Interior Minister Otto Schily, the number of these crimes rose 8.4% to 12,553 cases in 2004, which the minister attributed to such crimes as the display of illegal Nazi symbols being reported more frequently. Germany is also burdened with an extremely low fertility/birthrate. In recent times Germany's birth rate has plunged to the lowest level ever recorded, prompting lawmakers to ask what the state can do to encourage women to have more children. According to provisional figures from the Federal Statistics Office, 680,000 babies were born in Germany in 2005, down from a peak of 1.36 million in 1964 and fewer even than in 1945, when nearly all the country lay in rubble. Germany has failed to implement EU laws prohibiting racial discrimination. The European Court of Justice ruled on April 29, 2005, that Germany had breached EU law by failing to transpose fully the 'Racial Equality Directive' prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnic origin. Immigrants to Germany may generally face integration issues and other difficulties. In addition to the challenges of adapting to a new language and culture, they may be subject to security-related police inquiries and violence from right-wing nationalist groups. Some German states have banned Muslim teachers from wearing head scarves in class and all except Bavaria have banned crosses from the classroom as well, generally by prohibiting the use of all religious symbols by teachers. This is legitimate by combining the German states' privilege of educational laws with the principle of separation of church and state, both provided for in the German federal constitution: According to this legal view, teachers in their vocational function within a state administered educational system are obliged to maintain and publicly exhibit religious neutrality when on duty. As this status of employment does not hold for pupils, whose constitutional right to religious freedom thus remains unencumbered by these provisions, this ban cannot legally be extended to them as it is in France. |
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Germany has one of the world's highest levels of education and many famous universities. The most important foreign languages taught at school are English, French, Latin, Italian and Ancient Greek. Some languages, such as Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic are taught less widely. Since the end of World War II, the number of youths entering universities has more than tripled, but university attendance still lags behind many other European nations. In the annual league of top-ranking universities compiled by Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2004, Germany came 4th overall, but with only 7 universities in the top 100 (to compare, the United States had 51). The highest ranking university, at #45, was the TU Munich. Most German universities are state-owned and were free of charge, however a recently passed education reform calls for fees between €300 and €500 per semester from each student, starting in 2007. Additionally university students are often supported by the so called BAföG, a federal subsidy, running as high as €290 per month as interest free credit plus €290 as direct payment. German educational ideals differ considerably from Anglo-Saxon educational ideals, emphasizing socialization, debate, vocal participation in class and critical faculties. Consequently the results of the PISA student assessments, that revealed comprehension of the respective subject matters only, were a shock to the German public but no surprise to many educational experts. Participation in the official school system is compulsory; however, home-schooling is still practiced by a number of people. There has been some publicity to government prosecution of this practice. |
Germany Information: Inside
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