The Catholic Church in Germany has its specifics. This was shown in the potentially schismatic synodal road to which Pope Leo XIV gave a clear stop sign, and it is shown from today at the traditional great assembly of German Catholicism. Der deutsche Katholikentag“German Catholic Days”, are being held for the 104th time, this time in Würzburg – and the program is really varied.
The program includes religious services, discussions, political debates, charity events – and a large accompanying program called Kirchenmeile. Among other things, there will be a stand of a group that you might not expect at a church event: Ecumenical Working Group on BDSM and Christianity. BDSM is the English abbreviation for Bondage & Discipline, Dominance & Submission, Sadism & Masochismi.e. “binding and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism”. Christian followers of these sexual preferences will have from tomorrow until May 16th stand number MW-R-07.
This is not a bold experiment, but rather a modern tradition of German Christianity, which also shows a conspicuous fondness for the sacralization of sexual deviations elsewhere. Evangelical newspaper Evangelische Zeitung already at the 39th German Church Congress in 2025, they reported on the interesting stands of the Protestant Church. The headline of the enthusiastic report read: BDSM and bondage – that also belongs to the church. The representative of this working group explained in the article that she is “wholeheartedly Christian, but also wholeheartedly a believer in BDSM.”
Evangelical reporters also described stands in the vicinity of sadomasochists: they stood opposite Gays and lesbians in the churchnext to the network named Polyamorous people and the church. A representative of this group said of her lifestyle: “I have a man who is here with a child and a man who is currently on a Bundeswehr exercise.”
It is worth mentioning not only that German Christianity accepts such fringe groups into its tent. Particularly noteworthy is the religiously charged language that will be used in the stalls and in respectable Würzburg from now on: the representative of polyamory last year for Evangelische Zeitung she said that God is “the epitome of polyamory” because he loves all people. Basically, it’s about “loving each other and standing behind each other”. Thus, with a few subtle words, very specific sexual practices are transformed into a theological agenda.
Even the representative of the group, who recognizes the pleasure of tying up, submission and pain, offered a religious interpretation of her hobby at the Protestant Kirchentag: “For us, it’s about trust, about being carried away, about humility, about kneeling down – I see quite a lot of parallels here with the Christian faith.” The sexual orientation of sadomasochism thus became an expression of Christian piety.
Sadomasochists yes, Christians in the AfD no
Another specific feature of the German church is its involvement in party politics. This engagement is not about the anti-Christian agenda of the left-wing parties – which have been fighting for decades for the “right to abortion” instead of the historic compromise that decriminalized abortion on the condition that it is preceded by mandatory counseling – but about the currently largest opposition party in the Bundestag – the populist, nationalist and partly right-wing extremist AfD.
On February 22, 2024, the German bishops’ conference unanimously adopted a statement entitled Völkischer Nationalismus und Christentum sind unvereinbar (Ethnic nationalism and Christianity are incompatible). The bishops described right-wing extremism as currently the most urgent threat to the liberal order.
They dealt critically with ethnic nationalism and called for the rejection of political parties with such a focus: “We say clearly and unequivocally: ethnic nationalism is incompatible with the Christian understanding of God and man.” The bishops added: “Human dignity is the shining core of the Christian understanding of man and the anchor of our constitutional order. Let us all stand up when human dignity and human rights are threatened! Let us actively engage in liberal democracy together!” In the original: Engagieren wir uns gemeinsam aktiv für die freiheitliche Demokratie!
In their 2024 announcement, the bishops did not mention by name the party, which is currently the most popular political force in Germany with preferences in the region of 24 to 28 percent. However, there is no doubt that the church in Germany explicitly forbids the faithful to vote for the AfD.
Limburg Bishop Georg Bätzing – until recently the chairman of the bishops’ conference – declared during the last election campaign: “I get scared when I stand in front of the AfD polling booth.” The prominent liberal Bätzing explicitly called for “the democratic center in the country to form alliances” against this nationalist threat.
Given the political style of these aggressive pro-Russian nationalists, it is defensible for Catholic pastors to warn against electing the AfD. The only strange thing about this is that it means the de facto exculpation (development) of the entire “democratic center”, in which the bishops seem to include parties that – in other matters – are not much more Christian than the AfD. In other words: it seems arbitrary that polygamists and sadomasochists got their booths at church assemblies, an internal party association Christian in the AfD (Christians in the AfD), however, do not.
Close elections in Saxony-Anhalt
The tension between the big churches and the AfD has hardly any concrete impact on life so far, only the employees of the Catholic dioceses have to hide any sympathies for the anti-immigration opposition. Since the AfD with preferences below 30 percent is still far from taking power in Germany, and the entry of the AfD into a coalition is prevented by an intact “sanitary cordon”, church dignitaries can feel safe – as an integral part of the state-forming establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany.
On the sixth of September, that may change.
It’s still rather unlikely, but the AfD won a record 41 percent in the latest state election poll in East Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt. In the event that, apart from the Christian Democratic CDU and the post-communist Left, all “small” parties drop out of the provincial parliament (for example, the former state party SPD), 41 percent may be enough to achieve an absolute majority of mandates.
Then the church would find itself out of its comfort zone.
It should be known that the territory of the former communist dictatorship of the GDR is one of the most de-Christianized regions in Europe: more than 85 percent of the population of Saxony-Anhalt has no religious affiliation, only 10.6 percent are Evangelicals, and 3.2 percent are Catholics. At the same time, Saxony-Anhalt – together with Saxony and Thuringia – is among the most nationalistic regions of Germany.
The AfD still hasn’t captured the majority of Saxony-Anhalt’s hearts, but with the support of around 40 percent, it is a political giant among dwarves and sovereignly sets the tone. The Saxon-Anhalt AfD has just published its “government program” with the resulting confidence.
Educated anti-church ideologue
It does not suit the Christian churches at all that the main author of the “government program” and chief ideologist of the Saxon-Anhalt nationalists is a staunch anti-church fighter.
Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, a German born in Timisoara, Romania, countered Bätzing by saying that he who criticizes the clear distinction between truth and error as a schism is not an apostle of Jesus Christ, but is “sent by the devil.” Furthermore, he quoted Second Corinthians saying, “Satan masquerades as an angel of light.”
Tillschneider, who also holds the office of vice-chairman of the AfD faction in the regional parliament, regularly calls on Germans to leave the church and considers large churches to be tools of the devil, and even accuses them of “satanic events”.
Such a radicalized vocabulary would probably discourage a considerable number of voters in western Germany, where culturally some Christian sentiments are still somehow expressed, but in the religiously indifferent east, it only comes across as – indifference.
The problem is that the representative of the extremist wing of the party is no idiot, but an intellectual who, as an Arabist and an expert on Islam, has something to say about one of the key German debates.
In 2010, the renowned scientist Hans-Thomas Tillschneider supported the call of German Islamologists for the introduction of Islamic theology at German universities and was among the many supporters of the intellectual European trend that wished for something similar to the European Enlightenment for Islam.
Tillschneider was a three-time guest writer for the opinion journal in 2013 and 2014 Frankfurter Allgemeine. In the article entitled Not without the necessary criticism of traditions criticized the introduction of confessionally oriented departments of Islamic theology at German universities.
He blamed the politicians for introducing these Islamic departments “to limit the activities of the backyard mosques, but now it seems that the backyard mosque is going to enter the university.” An Arabist with a study stay in pre-war Syria still moved with this attitude in the allowed opinion corridor of the Federal Republic.
The turning point apparently occurred during the refugee crisis, in which Germany accepted approximately one million Middle Eastern Muslims. He began to declare: “We should not advocate the westernization of Islam.” After the party congress, he clarified: “I do not criticize Islam as such and I do not want to reform it or enlighten it. I consider that completely impossible.” On another occasion, he said: “Germans have their culture, Muslims have their culture, and they don’t go together.”
He is said to be interested in identity, which is why he supports the Identitarian Movement. If “different cultures in society were to mix, they would either merge into one gray mush or conflict would arise. Multiculturalism does not work.” Tillschneider therefore wants “an Islam that is Islamic and a Germany that is German.”
Abolition of the church tax
For the bishops, who cannot find clear words against the conquering tendencies of the Muslims present in Germany, it is a very unpleasant opponent.
A former Catholic, Tillschneider left the Catholic Church, is increasingly leaning towards aggressive Russian Orthodoxy, called Putin “a real guy and a real man with a healthy value system” shortly before the invasion of Ukraine, has recently grown a beard like Russian pop, and utters lines like: “I’m not afraid of persecution, because I know God is with us, God is with the AfD.”
If Tillschneider comes to power on September 6, a lot will change in Saxony-Anhalt – not only in public media and culture, but especially in the functioning of both Christian churches.
The Saxony-Anhalt AfD announces in its “government program” that it wants to cancel the state collection of the church tax, on which these churches depend for their existence, and that they want to cancel all state contributions without compensation. Both measures would deal a heavy blow to the churches. The dioceses in question are already in great financial difficulties and, with about a quarter of their budget, are excessively dependent on state contributions.
Some Christians take comfort in the agenda item regarding the collection of the church tax. It states that the AfD will advocate for the abolition of the church tax “at the federal level”. Since the AfD is unlikely to take power in the other fifteen federal states in the foreseeable future, this could mean that initially nothing will happen.
But that is little consolation. Considering the weakness of the state churches in the East and the anti-church zeal of the Saxon-Anhalt AfD, it can be assumed that Tillschneider would be very happy to proceed with the financial, organizational and ideological destruction of the churches.
Source: Postoj
