Religions in Munich
Traditionally, the Roman Catholic Church is predominant among the religions in Munich ; Protestant churches have only been present since the beginning of the 19th century . After the expulsion of the Jews in the 15th century, Jewish citizens were not found in Munich again until the beginning of the 18th century .
The Munich Statistical Office reported that as of December 31, 2018, 30.9% of the population were Roman Catholic, 11.1% Protestant and 0.3% Jewish. 1.2% belonged to other religious communities, while for a majority of 56.5% no religious information was available. The number of Protestants as well as Catholics has been falling for many years, while the number of non-denominationalists is increasing. In 2018, 7% of the population was Muslim, 4% Orthodox and 4% belonged to other denominations or religions, and around 43 percent were non-denominational. In 2019, 10,744 Munich residents left the Catholic Church, the number of members fell to 468,070.
Christianity
Catholic churches
Roman Catholic Church
The city of Munich belonged from the beginning to the diocese of Freising , the suffragan diocese of Salzburg . The efforts to found a separate diocese in Munich failed several times. In 1817, however, in connection with the political changes of that time, the Freising bishopric was moved to Munich. At the same time the diocese was elevated to an archdiocese . Since then, the name has been the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising , whose Archbishop has been Reinhard Marx since 2008 . Bischofskirche became the parish church of Our Lady ( Frauenkirche ), the most famous landmark of the city. Today the urban area of Munich is divided into several deaneries , which consist of several parishes.
Uniate churches
Munich is the seat of the Apostolic Exarchy for Catholic Ukrainians of the Byzantine Rite in Germany and Scandinavia .
Other Catholic Churches
The Old Catholic Church has an important congregation in Munich. The Sankt Willibrord church is located on Blumenstrasse, near Sendlinger Tor . The Episcopal Church in the USA has a congregation that celebrates its services in Harlaching , in the Emmauskirche . This congregation also regularly celebrates church services in Sankt Willibrord.
The Free Catholic Church has its seat in Munich .
The Society of St. Pius X is also represented .
Orthodox and ancient oriental churches
St. Salvator , the former cemetery church of the Frauenkirche, was given to the Greek Orthodox community in 1829 . At that time it was the second in Germany (after the congregation in the Greeks' House in Leipzig founded around 1700 ) and is now the oldest Greek Orthodox congregation in Germany. It is subordinate to the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Germany and is called in Greek "Transfiguration of the Redeemer" (Salvator), another community was formed in Schwabing.
There are also several other places of worship for Orthodox churches, also because Munich has a strong Balkan community. The Russian Orthodox Church , the Serbian Orthodox Church , the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church have their own church buildings. The East-West Peace Church by Timofei Wassiljewitsch Prokhorov is located in the Olympic Park .
Of the ancient oriental churches , the Copts are represented in Munich with their own congregation.
Protestant churches
Evangelical Lutheran Churches
Martin Luther's teaching found a certain level of sympathy in Munich at first, but after the Worms Reichstag in 1522 it could not prevail and was severely persecuted in the years and decades that followed. Above all through the work of the Jesuits , any emergence of Protestant endeavors was suppressed. Therefore, Munich remained an invariably Catholic city. It was not until 1799 that a small Protestant parish could be formed around the then Electress of Bavaria ( Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine von Baden ), which led to the establishment of the first parish in 1806, the number of which kept increasing. The Salvator Church was granted to Protestants, but was not used as such because it was too small. The community belonged to the Protestant Church of the Kingdom of Bavaria , which was established at the beginning of the 19th century for all Lutheran and Reformed communities in the Kingdom of Bavaria . In 1817 Munich became the seat of the “ Upper Consistory ” of this “Protestant General Congregation ” of the Kingdom of Bavaria. In 1833 the St. Matthew Church was the first Protestant church to be built. The St. Mark's Church as the second and at that time still neo-Gothic church, but meanwhile rebuilt several times, followed in 1877. In the following decades more churches were built and in 1920 the entire parish of Munich was created with several parishes. They belong to the dean's office in Munich, which was divided into four vice-dean's districts in 1968 and is part of the Munich church district .
In addition to the communities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria consists in Munich since the 1960s, a community of altkonfessionell authored Independent Evangelical Lutheran Church .
Evangelical Reformed Church
Under the influence of the Reformed Queen Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine von Baden, there were Reformed people in Munich as early as the beginning of the 19th century. On July 30, 1801, the Reformed Mannheim merchant Johann Balthasar Michel (1755-1818) was the first Protestant Christian to receive Munich citizenship. However, a Reformed Church was not officially established until 1926. Today there are three Reformed congregations that belong to the Evangelical Reformed Church . Like the Lutheran regional church of Bavaria, the Reformed regional church is a member of the Evangelical Church in Germany . In addition to the two German Reformed communities, there is also a Dutch (founded in 1977) and a Hungarian.
Evangelical Free Churches
The first Anabaptist congregation arose in Munich as early as 1527, but it was brutally persecuted in the following years. The last execution of a Munich Baptist took place in September 1586. Only in 1892 could a Mennonite congregation be founded again, which in the first few years mainly consisted of Palatinate and Lorraine Mennonites who had emigrated to southern Bavaria . In addition to this, there are also churches of the Baptists , the Methodists , the Seventh-day Adventists , the Salvation Army and several Free Evangelical churches and Pentecostal churches in Munich . The Methodists are represented by four churches and community centers within Munich.
Other Christian creeds
New Apostolic Church
The New Apostolic Church is represented in the city of Munich with 28 congregations. In 2014, the first International Church Congress of the New Apostolic Church took place in the Olympic Park with around 50,000 participants.
Apostolic Community
The apostolic community has a congregation on Westendstrasse. The Catholic Apostolic Congregation has a place of worship near Nymphenburg Palace .
Jehovah's Witnesses
The Jehovah's Witnesses are represented by 59 congregations in Munich, which operate 16 Kingdom Halls and hall centers in the city. There is also a congress hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Riesstrasse, where national meetings take place regularly.
Mormonism
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is represented in Munich with four congregations in two meetinghouses.
Judaism
For the first time, the residence of Jews in Munich can be proven in 1229. The first pogrom took place on October 12, 1285 , after a woman "confessed" that the Munich Jews had killed a baptized Christian child and drank his blood ( ritual murder legend ). An angry crowd set fire to the synagogue , killing 180 Jews who had fled to the first floor in the flames. Two years later, the Jews were allowed to return to the city. In 1442 the Jews were expelled from Munich and all of Upper Bavaria . In 1816 the Jewish community received permission to build a cemetery . In 1882, King Ludwig II provided the Jewish community with a plot of land across from Maxburg for the construction of a new synagogue, in place of the synagogue on the outskirts of the city at that time, today's Westenriederstrasse (see Synagogue on Westenriederstrasse in Munich ). In 1910, 11,083 Jews were among the approximately 590,000 inhabitants of the city. Numerous Jewish artists, poets, writers, scientists, merchants and politicians enriched the cultural life and made a decisive contribution to the reputation of the state capital: Lion Feuchtwanger , Bruno Walter , Hermann Levi , Max Reinhardt , Julius Spanier , Max Littmann , Otto Bernheimer , Kurt Eisner and many others lived and worked in Munich. In January 1933 the policy of state-imposed discrimination and pogroms began. Adolf Hitler personally gave the order to demolish the main synagogue on June 9, 1938, with the Jewish community bearing the cost of demolishing the building. Two other synagogues fell victim to the SA during the November pogroms on the night of November 9-10, 1938 . From now on, all synagogues and facilities of the Israelite religious community were missing in Munich's address book . Years of defamation, expulsion, deportation and the Shoah followed .
But as early as March 1946, Munich's Jewish community had around 2,800 members again. In addition to the few returnees from the liberated concentration camps and exile, a larger number of “ displaced persons ” came. The Israelitische Kultusgemeinde München, newly founded on July 19, 1945, was able to inaugurate the restored synagogue in Reichenbachstrasse on May 20, 1947 . During the 1990s, the number of its members rose to around 8,000, in particular due to the high level of immigration from the former Soviet Union . Apart from the orthodox guided unified community there in Munich, the liberal community Beth Shalom .
On November 9th, 2006, exactly 68 years after the pogrom night, the new main synagogue Ohel Jakob (Jakobs tent) was opened on Sankt-Jakobs-Platz in downtown Munich. It is part of the new Jewish Center .
Islam
The first Muslims came to the city in the 17th century with the Turkish prisoners of war Max Emanuel . After paying a ransom or in exchange for prisoners, many later returned to the Ottoman Empire , but a smaller number stayed in Munich and converted to Christianity.
With the influx of guest workers since the 1960s and other immigrant groups , the proportion of Muslim citizens rose sharply. The largest mosque in the city, the Freimann Mosque , which was built from 1967 to 1973, is located in Großlappen near the sewage treatment plant and the landfill.
There are a total of 43 mosques and Muslim prayer rooms in Munich, some of which are aimed specifically at believers from certain countries of origin, such as Turkish , Albanian , Bosnian , Afghan or Bengali . Some of these prayer houses, like the Sendling mosque as a backyard mosque , cannot be recognized from the outside. A planned new building with two minarets on Gotzinger Platz is highly controversial among residents and was given up in February 2010 for financial reasons.
Under the leadership of Imam Benjamin Idriz , a large mosque, including a cultural center and training center for imams, is to be built in Munich under the name “Center for Islam in Europe - Munich”. In 2011, the emirate of Qatar signaled to finance this Islamic center. The town hall factions of the SPD, Greens, CSU and FDP are behind this plan, whereas the right-wing populist party “ Freedom ” is trying to get a referendum on the building project. A plot of land at Stachus and on Dachauer Strasse at the Olympiapark are being discussed as locations.
In 2014, a good 100,000 Muslims lived in Munich, which corresponds to around 7% of the population.
Buddhism
Several thousand Buddhists live in Munich, but they are even less organized than Muslims. The Buddhist Society Munich eV (BGM) is the umbrella organization with a wide range of lectures. The centers of the Thai Buddhists in Munich are Wat Buddhadhamma in Milbertshofen and Wat Thai Munich in Giesing. These are supplemented by the Buddhist monastery Bodhi Vihara in Freising, founded in 2009 . Together they form the three Theravada monasteries in the greater Munich area. The Sala Thai in West Park is also used for religious ceremonies. The Vesakh festival (May) and the Buddhist full moon celebrations in summer take place here every year. The Soka Gakkai International operates a cultural center in Schwabing.
Hinduism
The Hindu SRF religious community of Yogananda has existed in Munich since 1957 . And in 1980 the Sri Chinmoy Group started meeting. The non-profit "Association for Vedic Culture" was founded in 1997 for the purpose of promoting the Hindu Bhakti tradition in Munich. There is also a Krishna temple in the club's premises. The Hindu Festival of Lights is also celebrated in Westpark.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The population in the city districts according to selected denominations on December 31, 2018 (PDF; 389 kB). Statistical Office of the State Capital Munich. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
- ^ Munich religious affiliations 1925 - 2018
- ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Munich: Wave of exit at the Catholic Church. Retrieved June 3, 2020 .
- ^ Website Old Catholic Congregation Munich , accessed on March 18, 2016.
- ^ Website Anglican Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Munich , accessed on March 18, 2016.
- ^ New Apostolic Church - Apostle area Munich: Apostle area (Munich). Retrieved December 26, 2014 .
- ↑ The mosque dispute enters the hot phase. In: Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung , August 5, 2013, accessed on October 2, 2013.
- ↑ Qatar is to finance the Munich mosque. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , July 2, 2012.
- ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung of July 25, 2014.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. SGI-D regional cultural centers
- ↑ de.srichinmoycentre.org: History of the Munich Sri Chinmoy Center. Retrieved October 12, 2017 .
