Number of Orthodox Christians in Germany is on the rise

Radoslav Tisma has lived in Hamburg for 34 years. He came to Germany from what was back then called Yugoslavia. "His" church, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Germany, recently consecrated the Church of St. Michael the Archangel in Hamburg. The Serbian Patriarch Porfirije Peric even traveled to Germany for its inauguration.

This Serbian Orthodox church in Hamburg is an example of how the Orthodox faith is thriving in Germany. The community purchased the building in 2001, and Tisma served as chairman of the community's board during its renovation.

"Since that time, ever more people have been coming to us — they have found their spiritual home here," he told DW.

While many Serbian families arrived in Hamburg in recent years, Tisma explains that a large number of Orthodox Christians moved to the city much earlier: they included engineers, medical specialists, and business people. The community has also recently grown as younger people converted from other churches. Tisma himself is an aircraft engineer and has been a German citizen for a long time.

Protestant and Catholic churches losing members

Orthodox churches across Germany have been growing substantially, while the Catholic and Protestant churches' membership has been declining.

In 2023, Germany's Catholic Church lost more than 591,000 members through church departures and deaths. It had 20.3 million members at the end of that year. The Protestant Church lost around 560,000 members, and its membership now stands at 18.5 million. The percentage of Germans belonging to either of those churches has fallen to about 47.5%. This starkly contrasts with just after German reunification in 1991 when the figure was over 70%.

While Catholic and Protestant churches keep precise records of membership due to the German "church tax" regulation, Orthodox churches can only estimate their numbers.

Orthodox Christians have lived in small numbers in Germany for centuries. Starting in 1960, their number grew with the arrival of what Germany refers to as "guest workers" from countries like Greece and Yugoslavia.

In 2014, the Orthodox Bishops' Conference in Germany (OBKD) estimated that up to 1.5 million Orthodox Christians were living in Germany.

Why is there growth?

The Protestant Church in Germany (EKD) is now reporting that 3.8 million Orthodox Christians are living in Germany. Emmanuel Sfiatkos, a Greek Orthodox vicar bishop who leads the parish in Berlin, puts the figure at 4 million. He says it is important to recognize that number does not represent people belonging to a specific branch of the Orthodox church but to "The Orthodox Church" as a whole.

"I represent the third generation of my family in Germany," Sfiatkos, who was born in Duisburg, tells DW. He adds that he now often baptizes children from third or even fourth-generation families.

He says that just before we spoke to him, he had blessed and welcomed a baby just a few weeks old into the church. The baby's mother has a Greek heritage.

"The Orthodox faith has incredible potential in this country. The number of Orthodox believers cannot be ignored — we can't refer to them as a minority. We are no longer a minority church. And we are no longer a migrant church. We are here," says Sfiatkos. There are more than 600 Orthodox communities speaking different languages in Germany.

In 2016, Sfiatkos and his entire bishops' conference were guests of then-German President Joachim Gauck. However, Sfiatkos says the Orthodox Christian community has yet to be properly reflected in the country's state and national parliaments—even though many church members are German citizens.

A few decades ago, the majority of Orthodox Christians living in Germany were from Greece and Russia. Today, the biggest Orthodox group is Romanian immigrants, says the OBKD, with 900,000 members. Russian, Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian Orthodox churches each have between 400,000 and 500,000 members.  

However, the figures might be higher: the Serbian Orthodox Church has applied for recognition as a statutory body in North Rhine-Westphalia, which would make it easier for the church to accept donations and deal with authorities. In its application, the church stated that it has at least 750,000 members nationwide.

Tensions with the Russian Orthodox Church

After Russia began its full-fledged war against Ukraine began in February 2022, tens of thousands of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians fled to Germany. However, a church leader refused to estimate the number for DW.

Russia's political course — enthusiastically supported by the Russian Orthodox Church and its Patriarch in Moscow — is also impacting Germany. In 2018, the three Russian Orthodox bishops in this country quit the OBDK. This was in response to efforts by the Constantinople Patriarchate to establish a regional church in Ukraine, meant to be independent from Moscow.

In some Orthodox churches, there is an obvious effort to integrate: sermons are delivered in German, prayers are spoken in the traditional language, and songs alternate between the two. 

Christians from Syria and Iraq

A church that has grown substantially since the arrival of many refugees, is the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch. It estimates that it has 100,000 members in Germany.

In Bietigheim-Bissingen, near Stuttgart in southwestern Germany, the congregation started out with members who were "guest workers," more than 50 years ago. In 2019, the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch finally inaugurated its own church.

One of its members is Linda Güven, a 35-year-old teacher whose family has long lived in the region. "Our church is growing in this country. Our numbers grew due to the wars in Syria and Iraq," she told us. Christians from other churches also occasionally join them.

"We feel accepted. The Catholic and Protestant communities help us with our many questions," she explained. Güven no longer views her church as a church of immigrants. Güven is the first state-approved religious teacher for Syrian Orthodox children in Germany — credentials she has had since mid-2023.

This article was originally written in German.

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