Dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany

The Roman Catholic Church in Germany is divided into 27 (arch) dioceses of the Latin Church , which are grouped into seven church provinces . In addition, there is a military ordinariate for members of the Bundeswehr and an Apostolic Exarchate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church as immediate areas of jurisdiction . The current structure goes back to the reorganization in the course of German reunification .

The dioceses and archbishoprics are united in the Association of Dioceses of Germany , all bishops belong to the German Bishops' Conference .

history

Church provinces in Central Europe 1500

Most of the archdioceses date back to historical times; H. these are old, mostly large dioceses with territorial power of rule (e.g. Cologne , Paderborn and Freising ). Some bishoprics were archbishoprics in earlier times (e.g. Mainz and Trier ).

Rewriting after the Congress of Vienna

A major rewrite of the dioceses took place after the Congress of Vienna . A reorganization of the Catholic dioceses for the predominantly Protestant areas in the northeast took place in 1929 with the Prussian Concordat . In 1945 the Archdiocese of Breslau (apart from the Görlitz branch ) went to Poland with the eastern territories . Up to 1990 there were five archdioceses and thus five church provinces in Germany ( Bamberg , Freiburg , Cologne , Munich and Paderborn ).

Reorganization in 1994

After German reunification , the church landscape in Germany was reorganized. As a result, the Archdiocese of Berlin was created . To this end, in 1994 the Holy See concluded agreements with the new federal states concerned to establish the diocese of Magdeburg , the diocese of Görlitz and the diocese of Erfurt . In the same year the Archdiocese of Hamburg was re-established.

On June 27, 1994, the diocese of Berlin was elevated to an archbishopric by the apostolic constitution Certiori christifidelium . The new ecclesiastical province of Berlin includes the suffragan dioceses Dresden-Meißen (previously exempt ) and Görlitz (newly elevated to a diocese).

On June 27, 1994, with the Apostolic Constitution Solet usque, the Apostolic Administration Görlitz was raised to an independent diocese, which was assigned to the Archdiocese of Berlin as a suffragan.

According to a contract between the Holy See and the Free State of Thuringia on the establishment of the Diocese of Erfurt on June 14, 1994, the Episcopal Office of Erfurt-Meiningen was elevated to a diocese on July 8, 1994 with the Apostolic Constitution Quo aptius and assigned to the ecclesiastical province of Paderborn .

With the apostolic constitution Cum gaudio , which is dated June 27, 1994, the diocese of Magdeburg was separated from the Archdiocese of Paderborn with effect from July 8 of the same year and raised to an independent diocese and also assigned to the ecclesiastical province of Paderborn as a suffragan diocese.

The Archdiocese of Hamburg was re-established with the Apostolic Constitution Omnium Christifidelium of October 24, 1994 with effect from January 7, 1995 mainly from parts of the Osnabrück diocese (with the entire episcopal office of Schwerin ) and smaller areas of the Hildesheim diocese .

Dioceses in Germany

As of December 31, 2017, the 27 dioceses (7 archbishoprics and 20 dioceses) are listed. The archbishopric (in bold ) together with its suffragan dioceses form the respective church province.

In the last column the background colors mean: <10% over 10% but below the national average (30.1%) 30.1% –50% > 50% proportion of Catholics.

Catholic population by dioceses (in percent; as of December 31, 2012)

Over 70

60-70

50-60

40-50

30-40

20-30

10-20

Under 10

Diocese	Ecclesiastical province	Federal states	Areas [+/- exclaves ]	Area [km²]	Population (2018) [1000]	Catholics (2018) [1000]	Share (2018) [%]
Bamberg	Bamberg	BY	1	10,288	2139	669	31
Eichstatt		BY	1	6,025	984	392	40
Speyer		RP , SL	1	5,893	1570	519	33
Wurzburg		BY	1 -1	8,392	1309	735	56
Berlin	Berlin	BE , BB , M V , ST	1	28,962	5935	409	7th
Dresden-Meissen		SN , TH	1	16,934	4099	142	3
Goerlitz		BB , SN	1	9,700	703	30th	4th
Freiburg	Freiburg	B W	1	16,229	4782	1827	38
Rottenburg-Stuttgart		B W	1 -1	19,514	5150	1816	35
Mainz		R P , HE , BW	2 +1	7,692	2967	719	24
Hamburg	Hamburg	SH , HH , M V	1	32,520	5842	398	7th
Hildesheim		NI , HB	1	30,000	5262 (2016)	593	11 (2016)
Osnabrück		NI , HB	1	12,580	2187	553	25th
Cologne	Cologne	NW , RP	1 -1	6.181	5490	1943	35
Aachen		NW	1	3,937	2010	1021	51
eat		NW	1	1,878	2522	755	30th
Limburg		HE , R P	1	6,182	2480 (2016)	608	25 (2016)
Muenster		NW , NI	2	15,268	4305	1853	43
trier		R P , SL	1 +1	12,870	2423	1338	55
Munich and Freising	Munich and Freising	BY	1 +1	12,082	3750	1674	45
augsburg		BY	1 -1	13,250	2417	1285	53
Passau		BY	1	5,442	610 (2016)	463	76 (2016)
regensburg		BY	1	14,665	1742	1158	66
Paderborn	Paderborn	NW , HE , NI	1	14,750	4786	1492	31
Erfurt		TH	1	12,000	2155 (2016)	146	7 (2016)
Fulda		HE , TH , BY	1 +1	10,318	1723	382	22nd
Magdeburg		ST , BB , SN	1	23,000	2587 (2016)	81	3 (2016)
Germany as a whole			29 +5	329.763	81,929	23.002	28.1

The largest diocese in terms of area is the Archdiocese of Hamburg with 32,520 km², the smallest is the Diocese of Essen with 1878 km². Most Catholics live in the Archdiocese of Cologne with 2.04 million, the fewest in the Diocese of Görlitz with 29,466. The Diocese of Passau has the highest proportion of Catholics with 76.5%, the lowest is the Diocese of Dresden-Meißen with 3.3%. The oldest diocese is the Trier diocese from 270, the youngest the Görlitz diocese from 1994.

capital

Overview of the assets (total assets) of the individual German dioceses:


Diocese	Assets (in million euros)
Archdiocese of Paderborn (2016)	4282
Archdiocese of Cologne (2016)	3644
Archdiocese of Munich and Freising (2018)	3493
Diocese of Mainz (2018)	1271
Diocese of Limburg (2018)	1155
Archdiocese of Freiburg (2014)	968
Diocese of Fulda (2018)	705
Archdiocese of Berlin (2015)	592
Archdiocese of Hamburg (2016)	457
Diocese of Passau (2018)	426
Diocese of Trier (2018)	132

Web links

German Bishops' Conference

Individual evidence

^ Paul Leibinger: III. Federal Republic of Germany . 1. Introduction: The basic constitutional relationship between the state and the churches. In: Wilhelm Rees (Ed.): Catholic Church in New Europe: Religious Education, Financing and Marriage in Church and State Law - with a view of two African countries . Austria: Research and Science - Theology, Volume 2 . LIT Verlag , Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0244-8 , pp. 91 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

^ Paul Leibinger: III. Federal Republic of Germany . 1. Introduction: The basic constitutional relationship between the state and the churches. In: Wilhelm Rees (Ed.): Catholic Church in New Europe: Religious Education, Financing and Marriage in Church and State Law - with a view of two African countries . Austria: Research and Science - Theology, Volume 2 . LIT Verlag, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0244-8 , pp. 98 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

^ Ioannes Paulus II : Constitutiones Apostolicae Certiori christifidelium. In: AAS 87 (1995), n.3 June 27, 1994, pp. 217-218 , accessed on November 5, 2019 (Latin).

^ Ioannes Paulus II: Constitutiones Apostolicae Solet usque. In: AAS 87 (1995), n.3 June 27, 1994, pp. 219-221 , accessed on November 6, 2019 .

^ Ioannes Paulus II: Constitutiones Apostolicae Quo aptius. In: AAS 87 (1995), n. June 3 , 1994, pp. 221–224 , accessed on November 6, 2019 (Latin).

^ Ioannes Paulus II: Constitutiones Apostolicae Cum gaudio. In: AAS 87 (1995), n.3 June 27, 1997, SS & 225–228 , accessed November 6, 2019 (Latin).

^ Ioannes Paulus II: Constitutiones Apostolicae Omnium Christifidelium. In: AAS 87 (1995), n.3 October 24, 1994, pp. 228-230 , accessed on November 5, 2019 .

^ Population, area and Catholics according to (arch) dioceses. (PDF; 27.71 kB) The ecclesiastical provinces 2010. Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference, accessed on October 9, 2019 .

^ Catholic Church in Germany. (PDF: 1,041 kB) Statistical data 2018. Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference, July 19, 2019, p. 3 , accessed on July 19, 2019 .

↑ Archbishopric Paderborn: Annual Report 2016 (PDF; 3,967.57 kB) Accessed on October 9, 2019 .

↑ Archdiocese of Cologne: Annual Report 2016 (PDF; 4,681.6 kB) Retrieved on October 9, 2019 .

↑ Archdiocese of Munich and Freising: Annual financial statements 2018. May 24, 2019, accessed on April 13, 2020 .

^ Diocese of Mainz: Annual Report 2018. Accessed April 8, 2020 .

↑ Diocese of Limburg: Annual Report 2018. Retrieved January 27, 2020 .

^ Archdiocese of Freiburg: Budget 2014 (PDF; 4.3 MB) Retrieved on October 9, 2019 .

^ Diocese of Fulda: Financial Report 2018. Accessed April 30, 2020 .

^ Archdiocese of Berlin: Annual Report 2015. Accessed April 5, 2018 .

↑ Archbishopric Hamburg: Annual Report 2016 (PDF; 271.22 kB) Retrieved on October 9, 2019 .

^ Diocese of Passau: Balance sheet and income statement of the Diocese of Passau 2018. Accessed on April 30, 2020 .

↑ Diocese of Trier: Annual Report 2018 (PDF; 1.5 MB) Retrieved on April 30, 2020 .

[1] Paul Leibinger: III. Federal Republic of Germany . 1. Introduction: The basic constitutional relationship between the state and the churches. In: Wilhelm Rees (Ed.): Catholic Church in New Europe: Religious Education, Financing and Marriage in Church and State Law - with a view of two African countries . Austria: Research and Science - Theology, Volume 2 . LIT Verlag , Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0244-8 , pp. 91 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[2] Paul Leibinger: III. Federal Republic of Germany . 1. Introduction: The basic constitutional relationship between the state and the churches. In: Wilhelm Rees (Ed.): Catholic Church in New Europe: Religious Education, Financing and Marriage in Church and State Law - with a view of two African countries . Austria: Research and Science - Theology, Volume 2 . LIT Verlag, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0244-8 , pp. 98 ( limited preview in Google Book search).