Family as an Arena for Religious Socialisation in a Secular Environment—Enabling Conditions and Paths of Transmission in East Germany

For decades, research has provided consistent findings on the decline in the importance of religion in Western societies. The question is how religiosity is reproduced against this backdrop. This study assumes that religious socialisation takes place primarily as family socialisation. The aim of this article is to gain a more precise understanding of this process. To this end, it reconstructs the transmission of Christian faith in three-generation families in East Germany. The sample comprises 15 three-generation families from different social backgrounds and world views. In order to ensure the validity of the findings, a triangulation of the following qualitative investigation methods was carried out: individual interviews, photo documentation and family discussions. As a result, three forms of positive transmission of religious influences across several family generations are presented typologically: transmission with hardly any change, declining religiosity and intensified religiosity in the youngest generation. It becomes apparent that the more indifferent religion appears to the individual, the more difficult it becomes to transmit religious attitudes. Complementary to this, however, it also becomes apparent that transmission is particularly sustainable in terms of socialisation when it is combined with openness to the social environment. The lack of religious resonance areas in society can lead to an intentional dynamisation of the transmission processes. Using quantitative data, the thesis is put forward that religious socialisation paths are more diverse in East Germany than in West Germany, where transmission still tends to follow traditional patterns.