page_title: Religion in Germany
section_title: Sekten and new religious movements
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Germany / Other religions / Sekten and new religious movements
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Deutschland-Zentrale der „Scientology Kirche“ in Berlin-Charlottenburg English: "Church of Scientology": German head office in Berlin
context_page_description: Christianity is the largest religion in Germany, and was introduced to the area of modern Germany with the conversion of the first Germanic tribes in the 4th century. The area became fully Christianized by the time of Charlemagne in the 8th and 9th centuries. After the reformation started by Martin Luther during the 16th century, a significant part of the population had a schism with the Catholic Church and became Protestant, mainly Lutherans and Calvinists.
  Nowadays around 55% of the population identifies as Christian, however only 10% of German people say they believe in God as absolutely certain, and 50% say they believe in God as less certain, with about half of those being Catholic, most of them Roman Catholics, stronger in the southern and the western part of the country, half belonging to the Evangelical Church of Germany predominant in the northern regions, and the rest to several small Christian denominations such as the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church or the Jehovah's Witnesses. Between 5 and 6% are Muslims, while much smaller religions include Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism and Yazidis.
context_section_description: The German government provides information and warnings about cults, sects, and new religious movements. In 1997, the parliament set up a commission for Sogenannte Sekten und Psychogruppen  (literally "so-called sects and psychic groups"), which in 1998 delivered an extensive report on the situation in Germany regarding NRMs. In 2002, the Federal Constitutional Court upheld the governmental right to provide critical information on religious organisations being referred to as Sekte, but stated that "defamatory, discriminating, or falsifying accounts" were illegal.
  When classifying religious groups, the Roman Catholic Church and the mainline Protestant Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) use a three-level hierarchy of "churches", "free churches" and Sekten:
  Kirchen (churches) is the term generally applied to the Roman Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church in Germany's member churches (Landeskirchen), and the Orthodox Churches. The churches are not only granted the status of a non-profit organisation, but they have additional rights as statutory corporations (German: Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts), which means they have the right to employ civil servants (Beamter), do official duties, or issue official documents.
  Freikirchen (free churches) is the term generally applied to Protestant organisations outside of the EKD, e.g. Baptists, Methodists, independent Lutherans, Pentecostals, Seventh-day Adventists and others. However, the Old Catholics can be referred to as a free church as well. The free churches are not only granted the tax-free status of a non-profit organisation, but many of them have additional rights as statutory corporations.
  Sekten is the term for religious groups which do not see themselves as part of a major religion (but perhaps as the only real believers of a major religion).
  Every Protestant Landeskirche (church whose canonical jurisdiction extends over one or several states, or Länder) and Catholic episcopacy has a Sektenbeauftragter (Sekten delegate) from whom information about religious movements may be obtained.
caption: Church of Scientology in Berlin.
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