Editing German Empire (section)

== Religion ==
[[File:Wilhelm II Auguste Viktoria Jerusalem 1898.jpg|thumb|right|Emperor Wilhelm II, who was the ''Supreme Governor of the [[Evangelical Church of Prussia]]'s older Provinces'', and Empress [[Augusta Viktoria of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Augustenburg|Augusta Victoria]] after the inauguration of the [[Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, Jerusalem|Evangelical Church of the Redeemer]] in Jerusalem ([[Reformation Day]], 31&nbsp;October 1898)]]
{{Further|Landeskirche}}

Generally, religious demographics of the [[early modern period]] hardly changed. Still, there were almost entirely Catholic areas (Lower and Upper Bavaria, northern Westphalia, Upper Silesia, etc.) and almost entirely Protestant areas (Schleswig-Holstein, Pomerania, Saxony, etc.). Confessional prejudices, especially towards mixed marriages, were still common. Bit by bit, through internal migration, religious blending was more and more common. In eastern territories, confession was almost uniquely perceived to be connected to one's ethnicity and the equation "Protestant = German, Catholic = Polish" was held to be valid. In areas affected by immigration in the Ruhr area and Westphalia, as well as in some large cities, religious landscape changed substantially. This was especially true in largely Catholic areas of Westphalia, which changed through Protestant immigration from the eastern provinces.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Politically, the confessional division of Germany had considerable consequences. In Catholic areas, the Centre Party had a big electorate. On the other hand, Social Democrats and [[Free Trade Unions (Germany)|Free Trade Unions]] usually received hardly any votes in the Catholic areas of the Ruhr. This began to change with the secularization arising in the last decades of the German Empire.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"
|+ Religious confessions in the German Empire 1880
|-
! rowspan="2"|Area
! colspan="2"|Protestant
! colspan="2"|Catholic
! colspan="2"|Other Christian
! colspan="2"|Jewish
! colspan="2"|Other
|-
!Number
!%
!Number
!%
!Number
!%
!Number
!%
!Number
!%
|-
|style="text-align:left"| Prussia || 17,633,279 || 64.64 || 9,206,283 || 33.75 || 52,225 || 0.19 || 363,790 || 1.33 || 23,534 || 0.09
|-
|style="text-align:left"| Bavaria || 1,477,952 || 27.97 || 3,748,253 || 70.93 || 5,017 || 0.09 || 53,526 || 1.01 || 30 || 0.00
|-
|style="text-align:left"| Saxony || 2,886,806 || 97.11 || 74,333 || 2.50 || 4,809 || 0.16 || 6,518 || 0.22 || 339 || 0.01
|-
|style="text-align:left"| Württemberg || 1,364,580 || 69.23 || 590,290 || 29.95 || 2,817 || 0.14 || 13,331 || 0.68 || 100 || 0.01
|-
|style="text-align:left"| Baden || 547,461 || 34.86 || 993,109 || 63.25 || 2,280 || 0.15 || 27,278 || 1.74 || 126 || 0.01
|-
|style="text-align:left"| Alsace-Lorraine || 305,315 || 19.49 || 1,218,513 || 77.78 || 3,053 || 0.19 || 39,278 || 2.51 || 511 || 0.03
|- style="background:#EAECF0"  class="sortbottom"
|style="text-align:left"| '''Total''' || 28,331,152 || 62.63 || 16,232,651 || 35.89 || 78,031 || 0.17 || 561,612 || 1.24 || 30,615 || 0.07
|}

In Germany's [[German colonial empire|overseas colonial empire]], millions of subjects practiced various [[indigenous religions]] in addition to Christianity. Over two million [[Muslims]] also lived under German colonial rule, primarily in [[German East Africa]].{{Sfnp|Levenda|2014|p=64}}
<gallery widths=180>
Verbreitung der Konfessionen im deutschen Reich.jpg|Distribution of Protestants and Catholics in Imperial Germany
Meyers b4 s0817a.jpg|Distribution of Protestants, Catholics and Jews in Imperial Germany (Meyers Konversationslexikon)
Verbreitung der Juden im deutschen Reich.jpg|Distribution of Jews in Imperial Germany
</gallery>