- 2 months ago
God has left the building: In Germany, an increasing number of Catholic and Protestant churches are closing due to falling membership numbers. What happens to these former places of worship once the final service ends?
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00:00Want to buy a church?
00:07My name is Christoph Lange.
00:10I've been trying to sell this church for about a year and a half.
00:14As congregations dwindle, thousands of churches in Germany stand empty.
00:19And then one day the final service is held, and the church is closed forever.
00:24That's it. The end of a journey. Very painful.
00:28Could it be torn down?
00:30Yes, of course, it depends on the investor.
00:33I don't see it. It's out of the question.
00:37Perhaps someone will want to sell bicycles in the church, or open a pub.
00:41But more on that later.
00:44Once a place of worship, now a family home.
00:48The first time I came here I remember thinking, wow, amazing, so spacious, so special.
00:58Christoph Lange is giving it his best.
01:08Look at the view you have from here.
01:11This is the highest building.
01:13And from up there you'll have a view of the whole valley.
01:17It'll be fantastic.
01:20It must be fantastic.
01:22He extols the virtues of a converted church roof.
01:26The real estate agent has a new prospective buyer for Christ the King Church in Morsbach-Ellingen near Cologne.
01:32Dominic Ventura Jaume is a successful architect and renovator of old buildings.
01:38He's traveled all the way from Spain to see the almost century-old Catholic Church.
01:44And he's come with a plan.
01:46The project would involve using the former roof truss of the church as residential space,
01:53and the actual church area as space for events and a meeting place for artists.
01:58There'd be a lot of Brazilian artists, guitarists, singers.
02:04I'm originally from Cologne, and since the church isn't that far from Cologne,
02:08it would be a temporary private retreat for me for the year.
02:11175,000 euros. A bargain.
02:15But due to the expensive renovation costs, there's a dearth of interested parties.
02:19Well, at least of serious ones.
02:22There was recently a lady who wanted to turn it into an office and live here.
02:29She was very emotional.
02:31But in the end, it turned out that the emotions were there.
02:34But the funding wasn't.
02:36The neighbors have gotten used to the empty building.
02:39The final mass was held here in 2020.
02:43Personally, I'd like it to be kept as a church,
02:46so that services, funerals and the like could continue to be held here.
02:52But there are other very different visions, too.
02:55Every time I drive out here, I can't wait to hear the next new idea.
03:00I even had someone who wanted to store their tractors here.
03:04The church should be used in an honorable and sensible way.
03:09That's important to me as a practicing Christian.
03:13The devout Christians of St. Anna Church are lending a hand.
03:18They're removing the relics from the altar, such as the bone fragments of the saint.
03:23This is called deconsecration.
03:26St. Anna has been closed, and it's the final mass in the small Catholic church on the Dutch border.
03:32It touches the heart and the eyes, too. It's moving.
03:38Very emotional. You have to fight back the tears at times.
03:43For the final farewell, the church is full for once.
03:47Nine was the lowest I ever experienced.
03:50And to put it quite plainly, that's just not fun.
03:54It was full once last year, golden wedding anniversary.
03:58I always say, it's not the pastor who closed the church, but the people who stopped coming.
04:04Not much will change for me. There are plenty of other church services.
04:07The holy relics are being moved to another church.
04:13St. Anna has become a secular building. And now what?
04:17The main plan is for residential development.
04:20But really it's totally open, because it depends on which investors we end up talking to.
04:25Could it be torn down?
04:28Yes, of course. Depends on the investor.
04:32Nothing can stop it. It's everywhere.
04:34We'll probably see a lot more churches closing in the future.
04:38Indeed. But why? Here are the official figures from churches.
04:43In 2024, less than half, 45.2% of the German population identified as belonging to the two major Christian traditions, Catholicism and Protestantism.
04:54Thirty years earlier, it was just over two-thirds.
04:57That's why more and more churches are empty. There are around 44,500 church buildings in Germany.
05:02The best-case scenario is that one-third of these will continue to be used exclusively as churches.
05:09The second third will be used for other purposes in addition to church services.
05:14A library, for example, as in Münchenberg in Brandenburg.
05:21Or a concert hall like the one in Oelsnitz in Saxony.
05:25Practical, financeable ideas.
05:26And with the last third, what will happen to them?
05:31Klaus Martin Bresgott, art historian for the Protestant Church in Germany, also poses his question to the architecture students with whom he regularly discusses the future of churches.
05:41Here at huge St. Stephen's in Berlin.
05:43What made St. Stephen's so exciting for us is that the need for change is palpable.
05:56It's a clear case, a large, completely unused space in the middle of the city.
06:00And dilapidated to boot. No entry.
06:07And the people here need a place for their neighborhood, their community.
06:13So we saw this church as an opportunity for something new.
06:15Yes, it's especially important that it's not just reserved for a select group of people, the church congregation, but is open to everyone through a variety of uses.
06:28It was too big at the time, but could now be useful in making something out of it.
06:33The adjacent St. Paul's is a building designed by Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel.
06:38These days it sees very few worshipers, which is an incentive for the students.
06:46It was important for me to preserve this faith aspect, to preserve this space for faith, and also to create a space that's perhaps not just Christian, but also open to Judaism and Islam.
06:59Since the neighborhood here isn't just Christian, there are other religious influences too.
07:05We visit the office of art historian Klaus Martin Prescott, who also looks to other European countries where the same challenges exist.
07:16The aspiring architects present their ideas, not pipe dreams, but concrete concepts.
07:20I thought about planning a late night diner in there, open 24-7, to make it more accessible and simply draw attention to this place.
07:33You'd have a meeting point for the different cultures, where people would come together over food.
07:39The ground floor should be as public, as accessible and above all as flexible as possible.
07:48There are spaces for sports, for young people, for culture.
07:54You might lose 100 people, but I think you'd gain thousands from the neighborhood.
07:59Pensioners can do sports there in the morning, and after school young people can come and play a bit of soccer.
08:07And in the evening the school band can perform.
08:09There have always been times when people saw churches as important, and other times where they viewed them as unimportant.
08:20We know that during the Napoleonic Wars, churches were used as stables for decades.
08:25But they remained standing.
08:27And now we're living through a time of reorientation, and that includes our attitude to religion.
08:32But that's not to say we should wring our hands in despair, and simply give up on it all.
08:38So is everything allowed in church?
08:41A short trip to Jürlüch, to Tams Bike Center, formerly the Catholic St. Hoches Church.
08:47How did it come to this?
08:51The parish approached me, and asked me if I could imagine running my business in the church.
08:56This is the church where I was baptized, where I went to communion.
09:02I've always had a certain connection to this place.
09:07Now it's chain grease instead of communion, and racing bikes instead of relics.
09:13And all this in a listed building built in 1961, to the design of the famous church architect Gottfried Böhm.
09:20Do you like the building?
09:22It could have been nicer.
09:23For church expert Brescott, it's a borderline case.
09:29But once it becomes an outright commercial centre, then its original essence is lost.
09:36And that should never be given up.
09:38With every conversion, you should keep the original roots in mind.
09:43What it was made for, that's in the stones.
09:46And if you can still feel that, even if it's repurposed as a bar, it can still be a community space.
09:50I don't think that's a bad thing at all.
09:54This building in Tangamunde on the Elbe is a prime example of this.
09:59And very much in the spirit of community.
10:02Located in Essen in the Ruhr region, the former Protestant St. Luke church is now a kindergarten, apartment block and physiotherapy practice.
10:09Jessica Günther is one of the managers here.
10:13If we go up there, that's the area where sermons were preached.
10:17So it's a different feeling.
10:19A lovely, peaceful feeling.
10:21And there really are, or were, people who came in and said, this is where we got married, this is where I was confirmed.
10:27I think it's good that the church is being used for such purposes, helping people in need and being there for them.
10:37That's basically what faith is all about.
10:41The family upstairs, the Schröders, are very satisfied.
10:47No one's ever complained that I live above an altar.
10:52We were looking for a four-bedroom apartment with good schools nearby, within walking distance.
10:58That was important to me. And that's what we have here.
11:01Very worldly. But the truth is, it's no longer a house of God.
11:07It's a city property with neighbors. And these have mixed feelings about the end of St. Luke.
11:12I didn't think it was good for all the religious old people who went there regularly.
11:16It was practically their life. A piece of their life has been cut away.
11:21I live right there in the corner house and see it from my window. I was happy it was left standing.
11:27A good conversion is better than a demolition.
11:29Pastor Jan Feldman from the Protestant Church of the Redeemer is now responsible for the former St. Luke congregation.
11:38We'd ring the bells and expect people to come to church at 10am on Sundays.
11:43And that doesn't quite work today. Instead, we're leaving the buildings, going out to the people,
11:49seeing what's happening in their lives and their homes.
11:54It's back to the property showing, to the Christ the King Church in Morsbach-Ellingen.
12:00The church is beautiful, and its dimensions are too.
12:04Is the prospective buyer from Spain still interested? Has he made a decision?
12:09Decision? No. My heart is racing a little, but the figures have to add up.
12:14I'm a businessman too, after all.
12:16Nothing's been signed, so far.
12:18For now, the church is still available and awaiting a new lease of life, like many a church before it.
12:24Do you need a church before it?
12:25video on the internet.
12:26the church before the internet.
12:27Let us know there is a new lease of life.
12:28For now, the church has been made by many others,
12:29the church before it
12:31do.
12:36For now, the church, as the church before it.
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