Religious affiliations of Chancellors of Germany

Current German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is Lutheran.

Almost every German Chancellor was a follower of a Christian church. German society has been affected by a Catholic-Protestant divide since the Protestant Reformation, and the same effect is visible in this list of German Chancellors. It is largely dominated by Roman Catholics and Lutherans as these remain the main confessions in the country. One chancellor, namely Philipp Scheidemann, was Reformed (Calvinist).^[1] Although there were some religiously sceptic chancellors, such as Friedrich Ebert, they never officially renounced their faith and were given a Christian funeral. Hermann Müller, a Social Democrat heavily influenced by his father-an advocate of Ludwig Feuerbach's views, is the only one notable for not being a member of any confession. A significant portion of Protestant chancellors belonged to the Prussian Union of churches, which united the Reformed and Lutheran confessions throughout the Kingdom of Prussia, and was in force since 1817. Some Roman Catholic chancellors came from the Catholic Centre Party. The Christian Democratic Union, a party of both Roman Catholics and Protestants, produced both kinds of chancellors.

As some chancellors' views are uncertain or causing confusion among researchers, such as these of Adolf Hitler or Joseph Goebbels, the official religion they were brought up in is only mentioned with a further information on their worldviews, if available.

The current German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is a Lutheran Protestant within the Evangelical Church.

By term

North German Confederation

	Name	Term	Religious affiliation
1	Otto von Bismarck	1867–1871	Lutheran

Germany

	Name	Term	Religious affiliation
1	Otto von Bismarck	1871–1890	Lutheran
2	Leo von Caprivi	1890–1894	Lutheran
3	Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst	1894–1900	Roman Catholic
4	Bernhard von Bülow	1900–1909	Lutheran
5	Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg	1909–1917	Lutheran
6	Georg Michaelis	1917	Lutheran
7	Georg von Hertling	1917–1918	Roman Catholic
8	Max von Baden	1918	Roman Catholic
9	Friedrich Ebert	1918–1919	Roman Catholic
10	Philipp Scheidemann	1919	Reformed
11	Gustav Bauer	1919–1920	Lutheran
12	Hermann Müller	1920	Irreligious
13	Constantin Fehrenbach	1920-1921	Roman Catholic
14	Joseph Wirth	1921–1922	Roman Catholic
15	Wilhelm Cuno	1922–1923	Roman Catholic
16	Gustav Stresemann	1923	Lutheran
17	Wilhelm Marx	1923–1925	Roman Catholic
18	Hans Luther	1925–1926	Lutheran
19	Wilhelm Marx	1926–1928	Roman Catholic
20	Hermann Müller	1928-1930	Irreligious
21	Heinrich Brüning	1930-1932	Roman Catholic
22	Franz von Papen	1932	Roman Catholic
23	Kurt von Schleicher	1932–1933	Lutheran
24	Adolf Hitler	1933–1945	initially Roman Catholic, see details
25	Joseph Goebbels	1945	initially Roman Catholic
26	Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk	1945	Lutheran
N/A	Vacant	1945-1949	N/A
27	Konrad Adenauer	1949–1963	Roman Catholic
28	Ludwig Erhard	1963–1966	Lutheran
29	Kurt Georg Kiesinger	1966–1969	Roman Catholic
30	Willy Brandt	1969–1974	Lutheran
N/A	Walter Scheel	1974, acting	Lutheran
31	Helmut Schmidt	1974–1982	Lutheran
32	Helmut Kohl	1982–1998	Roman Catholic
33	Gerhard Schröder	1998-2005	Lutheran
34	Angela Merkel	2005–present	Lutheran

Affiliation totals

Affiliation
Lutheran	15
Roman Catholic	14
initially Roman Catholic	2
Reformed	1
Irreligious	1

References

↑ Scheidemann, Philipp Heinrich

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