Prayer Times in Germany

Muslims and mosques in Germany

Germany has no census of religion for Muslims, so its figures are estimates by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). Its 2020 study counted 5.3 to 5.6 million Muslims (6.4 to 6.7% of the population) with roots in Muslim-majority countries, and a newer BAMF estimate for 2025 puts the number at 6.6 to 7.0 million, roughly 8.0 to 8.5%. That makes Islam the second-largest religious community after Christianity. The largest group by far has Turkish roots, followed by people from Arab countries, from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnian and Kosovo-Albanian families), from Afghanistan, Iran and other Iranian-speaking regions, and from West Africa. Berlin, Hamburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse and Lower Saxony have the largest communities, and in districts such as Groß-Gerau and Offenbach the share of people with a migration background from Muslim countries is especially high.

The structure of German mosques follows the country's history of labour migration, when Turkish guest workers settled from the 1960s. In 2016 The Economist reported that DITIB, the German branch of the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs, ran about 900 of Germany's roughly 3,000 mosques, with imams sent and paid from Ankara. Other umbrella bodies include the Central Council of Muslims (ZMD), the Islamic Council (Islamrat) and the Association of Islamic Cultural Centres (VIKZ), which belongs to the Süleymancı movement. Many mosques are in former factories, shops or rented halls, and only a small number, about eighteen on Wikipedia's count, are purpose-built mosques with a dome and minaret.

Public institutions have slowly adapted. Islamic religious education is a regular school subject in Hesse, Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, with trials in other states, and since 2010 Islamic theology has been taught as an academic subject at public universities, which trains imams and teachers inside Germany. The German Islam Conference, run by the federal government, brings the state and Muslim organisations together, although which groups should speak for Muslims remains disputed.

For prayer times, Germany lies between about 47 and 55 degrees north, so for several weeks in summer twilight never fully ends in most of the country and Fajr and Isha are calculated with a high-latitude rule; in Hamburg and Berlin the gap between the shortest and the longest fast of the year is large. Mosques differ in which method they follow, and many Turkish-run mosques use the timetable of Turkey's Diyanet. Communities also differ on the calendar: in 2026 the German councils announced Ramadan for 19 February based on astronomical calculation, while some mosques followed Saudi Arabia's announcement of 18 February. Congregation times are set by each mosque, so check with yours.

Sources, checked 2026-10: BAMF: Muslimisches Leben in Deutschland 2020 (research report 38); Wikipedia: Islam in Germany; Awqatly: Hijri calendar and how countries decide month starts.