Christ's commandments or ice cream

Berliners challenge state monopoly on ethics

In the entire post-war history of Germany, the state and the church have never entered into such intense confrontation as they did in recent weeks in Berlin. Yesterday, residents of the capital of Germany took part in a land referendum (Berlin is an independent federal state) to decide the fate of two educational subjects - religion and ethics. Religion is taught in secondary schools as an elective from the seventh grade; each student is free to choose between a lesson in “their” religion - Christian, Muslim, Jewish - or eating a portion of ice cream on a boulevard bench. But attending ethics classes is mandatory for everyone. Now we are talking about equalizing the rights of both subjects.

It is curious that Berlin became the arena of confrontation. For many, this came as a surprise, because active followers of Christianity are in the minority here, and among them there are many who find it difficult to accurately name the number of New Testament commandments. But then it suddenly turned out that many parents seriously want their children to deeply master spiritual wisdom. The interests of this population group were expressed by the supra-confessional (it includes Christians, Muslims and Jews) public movement “Pro Reli” (“For Religion”), whose activists collected the required 200 thousand signatures among the capital’s residents. They demanded that both subjects be given the status of electives - then the students themselves would have the right to choose between an ethics course or a religion course. Thus, say social activists and the clergy who support them, the right to freedom of choice of religion or refusal of it will be demonstrated with renewed vigor. However, children will not have the opportunity to abandon both disciplines - they will have to study either religion or ethics.

The state government, which was formed by a coalition of Social Democrats and the Left Party, seeks to maintain the status quo, leaving the ethics course among the compulsory subjects. Pro Reli representative Yulia Sebastian noted to Vremya Novostei that most Christian parents are ready to come to terms with the fact that when studying religion, their children will be guided on the right path not only by Christian pastors, but also by imams and rabbis, but not with how teaching secular ethics alienates children from the faith. “There is an expression of will in the name of freedom in Berlin,” Ms. Sebastian said. “Religion and ethics should become equal elective subjects in Berlin.”

The Jewish community and the Muslim Council presented a united front on this issue. “The place of religion is in public institutions, not in the sphere of leisure,” Rabbi Geza Ederberg told Vremya Novostei. The deputy chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Maryam Brigitte Weiss, said that it would be an illusion to believe that only through teaching ethics can students be “neutrally” conveyed knowledge about different cultures, major world religions and the ways of life formed under their influence.

A few days before the referendum, the state government launched a decisive offensive against Pro Reli supporters. A lot of visual propaganda appeared on the streets, and advertisements were placed in the media. Civil initiative activists declared the use of administrative resources a “scandal” and appealed to the courts. Last Thursday, Berlin's highest administrative court declared the actions of the Senate, led by ruling burgomaster Klaus Wowereit, illegal. To this, the mayor promised to appeal the verdict, noting: “We haven’t said the last word yet.”

On Friday, “dual power” reigned on the pages of many publications - on some pages there were messages about the ban on the official campaign, on others there were advertising publications against the “Pro Reli” initiative. A spokesman for the administrative court explained this by saying that the verdict was delivered so late that “the court's decision was not able to have a practical impact on newspapers published on Friday.”

Yuri Shpakov, Berlin