Germany: Inequality in Legal Practice – Managing Religion in Prisons

Abstract

This chapter provides a general overview of religion in German prisons. It starts from the changing and divided history of the German state in the twentieth century and ends with today’s situation in prisons. It presents recent topics and trends, in social scientific research as well as in politics. There are different types of prisons, with regional and demographic specificities, and different politics of prison and religion, as well as a huge variety of forms of religious communitarisation, beliefs and religious practice. They all need to be known to understand the greater scope for action that prison officials have to deal with, for managing religion in everyday life. Not only are structures of interest, therefore, but also understandings, societal debates about the governance of religious diversity and religious debates about theological legitimacy. The different meanings of terms such as “chaplaincy” and “religious society” are good examples to explain this entanglement. The German legal framework is “religious friendly”, but there is no equality among the various denominations. The possibility of practising religion in prison, as an individual or collectively, depends on the legal status a denomination has, both in prison and in society.