Berlin; the world capital of modern atheism. This is not only the definition given by American sociologist Peter L. Berger to a city in which over 65% of its citizens declare that they do not belong to any religion, but Berlin lived up to its reputation in facts too. On last April 26th the city said no to the ‘Pro Reli’ Referendum, which proposed the introduction of compulsory religious instruction for those aged between 12 and 16. Should these courses have been introduced, they would have had the same status (and effect) as the classes on secular ethics introduced in 2006.
This was primarily a political defeat for the CDU (Angela Merkel’s Party) and the German Churches (Catholic and Protestant), which campaigned openly in favour of the ‘Pro Reli’ group. After a scanty 14.1% of favourable votes (insufficient for reaching a quorum), a sigh of relief came from the ‘Pro Ethik’ committee, lead by social-democrat Klaus Wowereit (SPD), now held up as an example of Germanic secularism. However, the battle between these two sides was not only ‘frontal’ but also transversal, seeing that the fight involved believers and atheists as well as the inhabitants of former West Berlin and East Berlin, running the risk of a breakdown of Berlin’s dynamic and multi-ethnic society. Berlin voted ‘no’ in a compact and determined manner.
The advocates of this referendum wished Berlin students from religious families to be provided with an alternative to the classes on ethics. The massive campaign however did not provide the hoped-for results. Those who voted “yes” in this referendum were far fewer than the six hundred and twelve thousand needed to reach the quorum. In fact the ‘Pro Reli’ group hoped for a nudge mainly from the inhabitants of the districts in what was once East Berlin, (the former capital of the DDR). The German Church hence hoped for a repeat performance of what has happened in Russia immediately after the fall of the USSR with a boom of believers for the Orthodox Church. The situation in Russia, however, was substantially different. In spite of persecutions and material atheism even within the highest echelons of political power, the Orthodox Church still remained the bond in an archaic and little industrialised society.
In Germany instead, ever since reunification, Eastern Germans never expressed a real interest in religion and always remained indifferent to the forced evangelical proselytising of churches in Germany. And it was not enough for Christoph Lehmann (ex CDU) to baptise the referendum day as a ‘Day of Freedom’ or recruit ‘heavy weights’ such as Chancellor Angela Merkel, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the popular TV host Günther Jauch. Together with another ‘city-state’ Bremen, Berlin remains the only German city in which religious instruction is not compulsory in schools. In Germany, in fact, there is no real separation between church and state. In educational programmes, religious instruction is provided by teachers from the various religious (or atheist) communities. 2006 however was a watershed year, with the introduction of compulsory ‘Ethik’ classes (secular ethics) in educational programmes.
That year, Germany was shaken by a crime of passion when a young Turkish woman was killed by her brother because she was excessively ‘westernised’. This event dramatically emphasised the importance of introducing classes allowing an open debate on central issues such as moral and constitutional values, as well as tolerance and solidarity. ‘Ethik’ classes slowly became a platform for debating religions and tested the real integration between Christian and Muslim students (Muslims represent 43% of students with a denominational background). In the end, in spite of support from the Jewish community and a number of Muslim associations, it was clear to all that the limitation of the ‘Pro Reli’ referendum was that it had been organised following the guidelines of a strictly Christian agenda. Perhaps this was one of the reasons for its failure.
Translation by Francesca Simmons