page_title: Freiburg im Breisgau
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Freiburg im Breisgau / Religion
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Freiburger Münster
context_page_description: Freiburg im Breisgau is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000, Freiburg is the fourth largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, and Mannheim. The population of the Freiburg metropolitan area was 656,753 in 2018. In the south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain. A famous old German university town, and archiepiscopal seat, Freiburg was incorporated in the early twelfth century and developed into a major commercial, intellectual, and ecclesiastical center of the upper Rhine region. The city is known for its medieval minster and Renaissance university, as well as for its high standard of living and advanced environmental practices. The city is situated in the heart of the major Baden wine-growing region and serves as the primary tourist entry point to the scenic beauty of the Black Forest.
context_section_description: Christianity
  Freiburg belonged to Austria until 1805 and because of this stayed Catholic, even though surrounding villages like Haslach, Opfingen, Tiengen, and the surrounding land ruled by the Margrave of Baden turned Protestant as a result of the Reformation. The city was part of the Diocese of Konstanz until 1821. That same year, Freiburg became an episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Freiburg. Due to a dispute between the government of Baden and the Holy See, the archbishop officially took office in 1827.
  The borders of the archdiocese correspond with the borders of the former province of Baden and the former Margraviate of Hohenzollern. The cathedral, in which the Bishop resides, is Freiburg Minster. Also part of the ecclesiastical province of Freiburg are the suffragan dioceses of Mainz and Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Until 1929 the dioceses of Limburg and Fulda also belonged to this ecclesiastical province. The Archbishop of Freiburg holds the title of metropolitan and the German headquarters of the Caritas International is in Freiburg.
  Saint George (the flag of Freiburg has the cross of George), Lambert of Maastricht and the catacomb saint, Alexander, are the patron saints of Freiburg. Many works of art depicting these saints are in the Freiburg Minster, on the Minster square, just as in the museums and archives of the city, including some by Hans Baldung Grien, Hans Holbein the Younger and Gregorius Sickinger.
  In 1805, with the attack of Breisgau on the Grand Duchy of Baden by a Catholic ruler, many Protestants moved into the city. Since 2007, any Protestants who are not part of a ‘free church’ belong to the newly founded deanery of Freiburg as part of the parish of Südbaden which in itself is a part of the Landeskirche Baden.
  The seat of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Baden, a free Lutheran church, is situated in Freiburg. There are multiple other free Protestant churches: e.g. the Calvary Chapel or Chrischona International. An old congregation has existed in Freiburg since the late 1900s, which utilizes the old monastery church of the Ursulines in the black monastery at the border of the old city center. The Catholic Church of St. Maria Schutz has been made available for Masses by Greek, Serbian, Russian and Rumanian Orthodox congregations.
  Judaism
  Jews are said to have lived in the city before 1230, but it was only after 1230 that they supposedly founded an official community in the Webergasse (a small street within the city center). The counts of Freiburg bought the lucrative Schutzjude, which means that all personal information on Jews living in Freiburg was directly sent to Konrad II and his co-reigning son Friedrich. The two issued a comprising letter promising safety and liberty to all local Jews on 12 October 1338. It lost all value shortly after, however, on 1 January 1349. Even though the plague had not yet broken out in the city, Jews were accused of having spread it and taken into custody. All Jewish people with the exception of pregnant women were burned alive on 31 January 1349. The remaining children were forced to be baptized. This pogrom left Jews very hesitant to settle in the city again. In 1401 the city council decreed a regulation to ban all Jews from Freiburg (orig. Middle High German dialect: “daz dekein Jude ze Friburg niemmerme sin sol”[27]. This was also officially reaffirmed by King Sigismund with a ban for life (orig. German: “Ewige Vertreibung”) in 1424. It was only in 1809 that Jews were once again allowed permanent residence within the city. They subsequently founded a Jewish community in 1836.
  At the Kristallnacht in 1938, the synagogue, built in 1870, was set afire. Numerous shops and apartments of Jewish citizens of Freiburg were devastated and plundered by National Socialists without the intervention of police or fire department. Male, wealthy, Jewish citizens were kidnapped and taken to concentration camps (in Buchenwald and Dachau) where they were subjected to forced labor or executed and their money and property stolen. On October 22, 1940 the remaining Jews of 
caption: The Freiburger Minster: one of Freiburg's most famous landmarks
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