The law on the separation of church and state has been in force in France since 1905. It regulates the relationship between state and religion by strictly separating the two areas. Accordingly, religion is a purely private matter in France. By comparison, the German state has pledged in its constitution to be “neutral” toward religions and worldviews. The Austrian state is secular, but this has never been laid down in concrete terms. At the latest since the dramatic events in France and Austria, the question of the value and importance of the French model of “laïcité” and the secularity that applies in Austria and Germany has arisen again.
On March 26, 2021, the Franco-German Cultural Center in Rennes invited experts* from France, Germany and Austria to discuss the different views in their countries. The conference and the subsequent discussion were conducted via webinar with simultaneous interpretation.
The Austrian speaker was Prof. Dr. Stefan Hammer, Institute for Philosophy of Law at the University of Vienna and member of the Research Center “Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society”.
