The Evangelical Church in Germany (German: Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, EKD) is a federation of twenty Lutheran, Reformed, and United Protestant regional Churches in Germany, collectively encompassing the vast majority of the country's Protestants. In English, it uses the name Protestant Church in Germany. In 2025, the EKD had a membership of 17.4 million members, or 20.8% of the German population. It constitutes one of the largest Protestant bodies in the world. Church offices managing the federation are located in Herrenhausen, Hanover, Lower Saxony. Many of its members consider themselves Lutherans.
Historically, the first formal attempt to unify German Protestantism occurred during the Weimar Republic era in the form of the German Protestant Church Confederation, which existed from 1922 until 1933. Earlier, there had been successful royal efforts at unity in various German states, beginning with Prussia and several minor German states (e.g. Duchy of Nassau) in 1817. These unions resulted in the first united and uniting churches, a new development within Protestantism which later spread to other parts of the world. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, his administration tried to reorganize the old confederation into a unified German Evangelical Church as Hitler wanted to use a single Protestant church to further his own ambitions. However, a division emerged between the Reichskirche, led by the pro-government German Christians, and the Confessing Church, which opposed state control of the church. Other Protestant churches aligned themselves with one of these groups, or stayed neutral in this church strife. The postwar church council issued the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt on 19 October 1945, confessing guilt and declaring remorse for indifference and inaction of German Protestants in the face of atrocities committed by Hitler's regime. In 1948, the Protestant Church in Germany was organized in the aftermath of World War II to function as a new umbrella organization for German Protestant churches. As a result of tensions between West and East Germany, the regional churches in East Germany broke away from the EKD in 1969. In 1991, following German reunification, the East German churches re-joined the EKD.
The member churches (Gliedkirchen), while being independent and having their own theological and formal organisation, share full altar and pulpit fellowship, and are united in the EKD synod, but they act as individual members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Communion of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE). Boundaries of EKD churches within Germany partially resemble those of the states of the Holy Roman Empire and successor forms of German statehood (to the most part 1815 borders), due to the historically close relationship between individual German states and churches. As for church governance, the Lutheran churches typically practise an episcopal polity, while the Reformed and the United ones a mixture of presbyterian and congregationalist polities. Most member churches are led by a (state) bishop. Only one member church, the Evangelical Reformed Church, is not restricted to a certain territory. In some ways, the other member churches resemble dioceses of the Catholic, Scandinavian Lutheran and Anglican churches, from an organisational point of view.
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Name
Etymologically, the German word evangelisch means "of the Gospel", denoting a Reformation emphasis on sola scriptura, "by scripture alone". Martin Luther encouraged the use of this term alongside Christian.
The German term evangelisch corresponds to the broad English category of Protestant rather than to the narrower term evangelical, a subset of Protestantism distinct from mainline Protestantism. Accordingly, the Church uses the name Protestant Church in Germany in English.
History
From the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 to the end of the First World War and the collapse of the German Empire, some Protestant churches were state churches. Each Landeskirche (state or regional church) was the official church of one of the states of Germany, while the respective ruler was the church's formal head (e.g. the King of Prussia headed the Evangelical Church of Prussia's older Provinces as supreme governor), similar to the British monarch's role as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.
This changed somewhat with growing religious freedom in the 19th century, especially in the republican states of Bremen, Frankfurt (1857), Lübeck, and Hamburg (1860). The greatest change came after the German revolution of 1918–1919, with the formation of the Weimar Republic and the abdication of the princes of the German states. The system of state churches disappeared with the Weimar Constitution (1919), which brought about disestablishment by the separation of church and state, and there was a desire for the Protestant churches to merge. In fact, a merger was permanently under discussion but never materialised due to strong regional self-confidence and traditions as well as the denominational fragmentation into Lutheran, Reformed, and United and uniting churches.
During the Revolution, when the old church governments lost power, the People's Church Union (Volkskirchenbund) was formed and advocated unification without respect to theological tradition and also increasing input from laymen. However, the People's Church Union quickly split along territorial lines after the churches' relationship with the new governments improved.
It was realised that one mainstream Protestant church for all of Germany was impossible and that any union would need a federal model. The churches met in Dresden in 1919 and created a plan for federation, and this plan was adopted in 1921 at Stuttgart. Then in 1922 the then 28 territorially defined Protestant churches founded the German Evangelical Church Confederation (Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchenbund, DEK). At the time, the federation was the largest Protestant church federation in Europe with around 40 million members. Because it was a federation of independent bodies, the Church Union's work was limited to foreign missions and relations with Protestant churches outside Germany, especially German Protestants in other countries.
In July 1933, the German Evangelical Church (Deutsche Evangelische Kirche, DEK) was formed under the influence of the German Christians, a pro-Nazi religious movement. They had much influence over the decisions of the first National Synod, via their unambiguous partisanship in successfully backing Ludwig Müller for the office of Reich bishop. He did not manage, however, to prevail over the Landeskirchen in the long term. The Confessing Church arose in resistance to the Nazi regime's ideology. After the installation of Hanns Kerrl as minister for church matters in a Führer-directive of 16 July 1935 and the foundation of the – in the end not materialising – Protestant Reich Church, the DEK played more or less no further role.
Membership
Protestantism is the major religion in Northern, Eastern and Middle Germany, with the Reformed branch predominating in the extreme northwest and Lippe, the Lutheran branch in the north and south, and the United branch in Middle and Western Germany. While the majority of Christians in Southern Germany are Catholic, some areas in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria are predominantly Protestant, e.g. Middle Franconia and the government region of Stuttgart. The vast majority of German Protestants belong to a member church of the EKD. With 20,236,000 members in 2020, around 24.3 percent of all Germans belong to a member church of the EKD. Average church attendance is lower, however, with only around a million people (1.2% of all Germans) attending a service on Sunday.
The regional Protestant church bodies accept each other as equals, despite denominational differences. No member church runs congregations or churches in the area of another member church, thus preventing competing with each other for parishioners. The only exception is the Evangelical Reformed Church, which combines Reformed congregations within the ambits of usually Lutheran member churches, which themselves do not include the eventual local Reformed congregations. Thus, for example, a Lutheran moving from a place where their parish belongs to a Lutheran member church, would be accepted in their new place of domicile by the locally competent congregation within another member church, even if this church and its local parish are Reformed or of united Protestant confession, with Lutheran being exchangeable with the two other respective Protestant confessions within the EKD. This is due to full altar and pulpit fellowship between all EKD member churches.
In this the ambits of the member churches resemble dioceses of the Anglican or Roman Catholic churches, however, else there is no common hierarchy supervising the member churches, who are legally independent equals with the EKD being their umbrella. Members of congregations within the member churches – like those of parishes within Catholic dioceses and those enrolled in Jewish congregations also enjoying statutory corporation status – are required to pay a church tax, a surcharge on their normal income tax collected by the states of Germany and passed on to the respective religious body.
Structure
The structure of the EKD is based on federal principles. Each regional church is responsible for Christian life in its own area while each regional church has its own special characteristics and retains its independence. The EKD carries out joint tasks with which its members have entrusted it. For the execution of these tasks, the Church has the following governing bodies, all organised and elected on democratic lines:
Synod
The Synod is the legislature of the EKD. It has 126 members: 106 elected by Landeskirchen synods and 20 appointed by the council. These 20 are appointed for their importance in the life of the Church and its agencies. Members serve six year terms and the synod meets annually.
1949–1955: Gustav Heinemann
1955–1961: Constantin von Dietze
1961–1970: Hans Puttfarcken
1970–1973: Ludwig Raiser
1973–1985: Cornelius von Heyl
1985–2003: Jürgen Schmude
2003–2009: Barbara Rinke
2009–2013: Katrin Göring-Eckardt
2013–2021: Irmgard Schwaetzer
since 2021: Anna-Nicole Heinrich
Council
The EKD Council is the representative and governing body of the Evangelical Church in Germany. The Council of the EKD has 15 members jointly elected by the Synod and Church Conference who serve terms of six years.
The chairperson of the Council is the church's highest representative.
1945–1949: Theophil Wurm, bishop of Württemberg
1949–1961: Otto Dibelius, bishop of Berlin-Brandenburg
1961–1967: Kurt Scharf, bishop (from 1966) of Berlin-Brandenburg
1967–1973: Hermann Dietzfelbinger, bishop of Bavaria
1973–1979: Helmut Claß, bishop of Württemberg
1979–1985: Eduard Lohse, bishop of Hanover
1985–1991: Martin Kruse, bishop of Berlin-Brandenburg
1991–1997: Klaus Engelhardt, bishop of Baden
1997–2003: Manfred Kock (Theologian), Rhineland
2003–2009: Wolfgang Huber, bishop of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia
2009–2010: Margot Käßmann, bishop of Hanover
2010–2014: Nikolaus Schneider, Rhineland
2014–2021: Heinrich Bedford-Strohm, bishop of Bavaria
2021–2023: Annette Kurschus, Westphalia
since 2023: Kirsten Fehrs, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany
Conference
The Church Conference is where member churches, through the representatives of their governing boards, can directly participate in the work of the EKD.
Church Office
The Church Office is the administration of the EKD and shall the business of the Synod, Council and Conference of the EKD.
Main divisions:
I = line, law and finance: President Hans Ulrich Anke
II = Religious Activities and Education: Vice President Thies Gundlach (since 2010)
III = Public Responsibility: Vice President Horst Gorski (also head of the Office of the United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Germany) (since 2007)
IV = ecumenism and working abroad: Vice President Bishop Petra Bosse-Huber, foreign bishop and head of the Office of the Union of Evangelical Churches) (since 2014)
1945–1948: Hans Asmussen
1949–1965: Heinz Brunotte
1966–1989: Walter Hammer
1989–1997: Otto von Campenhausen
1997–2006: Valentin Schmidt
2006–2010: Hermann Barth
since 2010: Hans Ulrich Anke
The EKD Church Office has approximately 200 employees.
International activities
The EKD holds various charities ("Hilfswerke") under its auspices. The Gustav-Adolf-Werk (GAW) (Gustaphus Adolphus Union formerly) was founded 1832 in Leipzig as the first and eldest such organization and is responsible to aid feeble sister churches, especially in Roman Catholic countries and the Protestant diaspora. It has separate branches internationally, the organization in Austria is still called the Gustav-Adolf-Verein. Brot für die Welt is responsible for international development aid.
Member churches (since 2012)
The umbrella of the Evangelical Church in Germany comprises 20 regional churches:
10 United and uniting churches (Lutheran and Reformed)
8 Lutheran
2 Reformed
These bodies are termed Landeskirchen ("Regional Churches") though in most cases, their territories do not correspond to the current federal states, but rather to former duchies, electorates and provinces or mergers thereof.
Evangelical Church of Anhalt (Evangelische Landeskirche Anhalts), a united church body in Anhalt
Evangelical Regional Church in Baden (Evangelische Landeskirche in Baden), a united church body in Baden
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern), a Lutheran church body in Bavaria
Evangelical Church Berlin - Brandenburg - Silesian Upper Lusatia (Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz), a united church body in Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia merged in 2004 from:
Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandeburg
Evangelical Church of Silesian Upper Lusatia
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Brunswick (Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche in Braunschweig), a Lutheran church body in Brunswick
Bremen Evangelical Church (Bremische Evangelische Kirche), a united church body in Bremen