Bavaria keeps joint religious classes as an exception

Joint Protestant and Catholic religious classes remain an exception in Bavaria, where separate lessons are still the standard, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) reports. The number of pupils taking religious education has fallen for years, prompting schools and churches to cooperate where there are too few children for separate classes.

At Erich Kästner Middle School in Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, in Upper Bavaria, Catholic and Protestant pupils attend the same class. Teacher Fabian Köck says the arrangement encourages him to look beyond denominational differences. In a lesson on the creation story, he asked pupils what it means today, using objects including a plant, a glass of water and headphones.

Niedersachsen introduced a joint subject called Christian Religion at the start of the school year, replacing separate Catholic and Protestant religious education. The change follows a decline in religious-education enrolment, with many pupils opting for ethics instead. In Bavaria, participation remains higher than in other parts of Germany, but numbers are also falling. Some schools already lack enough pupils in a class to offer both denominations separately.

The two major churches are increasingly relying on cooperation. Where numbers are too low, classes may follow either a Protestant or Catholic curriculum, depending on which denomination is in the majority or who teaches the class. However, representatives of both churches say denominational teaching should remain the norm in Bavaria, while allowing schools to use different models when needed.

The joint model has been in place for seven years and is being used in more Bavarian schools. Pupils at the Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn school say learning together feels normal and that they like not being split from their friends. In the lesson, they concluded that both plants and technology are part of creation, and that headphones should be repaired rather than thrown away. For questions like these, one pupil said, it does not matter much whether someone is Catholic or Protestant.