“Non-denominational people in the Federal Republic of Germany must see themselves as second-class citizens in many respects.” This is what the President of the Humanist Association of Germany said today on the occasion of the publication of the “Glass Walls” report. The new report on the discrimination of non-denominational and non-religious people in Germany was officially presented at a press conference in Berlin on Thursday. The compact brochure documents for the first time in summary form how people of no religious denomination are placed in a worse position than members of religious denominations in numerous areas by legislation and politics.
At the press conference, Michael Bauer, Managing Director of the Humanist Association in Bavaria and one of the authors of the report, used numerous topics and examples to show how diverse and sometimes serious the forms of structural discrimination are in Germany: for employees due to church labor law, for parents due to the monopolistic distribution of church-run daycare centers, or for parents and students due to the lack of philosophical and value-forming alternatives to the various religious teachings. Other aspects were the consistent exclusion from inclusion in public broadcasting bodies, the inadequate ideological neutrality of legal standards and the official refusal on the part of the federal government to engage in dialog with representatives of non-religious views of life. Bauer emphasized that the current practice in legislation and jurisdiction contradicts the requirements of the Basic Law, which demands both equal treatment of denominational and non-denominational citizens as well as equal treatment of religious and ideological communities. Furthermore, although certain laws often grant people without a religious denomination equal rights on paper, in practice they are often unable to actually exercise their rights. “The impossibility for non-denominational citizens to actually exercise a certain right or opportunity in the same way as denominational citizens is often due to the fact that the corresponding legal foundations and political structures are often based on the model of the Christian ‘church’. But neither other religions nor non-denominational and non-religious people are familiar with the forms of mass formal communitization such as those of the churches,” says Bauer. However, an ideologically neutral state and an ideologically neutral policy must not prescribe or demand that non-denominational citizens organize themselves like churches in order to achieve equal rights and equal inclusion. However, this is still often the case today, according to Bauer. “Legislation and politics must finally begin to act in a comprehensible and open manner towards the growing proportion of unchurched and non-religious people in the German population,” continued the President of the Humanist Association, Frieder Otto Wolf, at the presentation of the report in Berlin. It is therefore by no means sufficient for federal and state policy to focus increasingly, and in some cases with great commitment, on the inclusion, participation and equal rights of citizens of the Muslim faith. “One-sided political and legal developments or reforms towards a kind of cartel of religious communities, which are becoming increasingly visible, not only contradict the requirements for equal treatment contained in the Basic Law. They also show a lack of respect and appreciation for the countless valuable contributions of non-religious people to a pluralistic society and its cohesion,” says Wolf. The simple principle of “equal duties, equal rights” must also be consistently implemented in relation to the approximately 25 million people in Germany who do not belong to a religious denomination.
More on the topic
The report “Glass Walls” on the discrimination of non-religious people in Germany was published on the occasion of the survey “Discrimination in Germany 2015” by the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency, which runs until November 30, 2015, and can be obtained online as a free PDF at:
The report can also be ordered as a printed brochure on the website at a price of €7 plus postage. The website also offers various testimonials from those affected and a reporting point for experiences of discrimination.
