German here. You see here a chart of the confessions in Germany:

German here. You see here a chart of the predominant confessions in Germany:

For that reason we have Christian religious education and church tax in Germany which would cause an US citizen to scream bloody murder. Here nobody blinks an eye: The church tax is considered necessary because there are extremely many care services provided by the church (Caritas, Bahnhofsmission etc. etc.) and the religious education is mostly about the child-friendly Biblical stories (meaning cutting out all the extremely bloody content), ethics and core questions (Death, Forgiving etc. etc.). For that reason religious extremism is noticably absent.

In the German Democratic Republic the socialistic view on churches at religion was that they are detrimental: The idea of an afterlife, forgiving and humility hinders the people to fight against exploitation. For that reason the influence of churches in East Germany which were at the start mostly Lutheran (violet) began to dwindle. Apart from teaching a materialistic and atheistic worldview in schools people who clung to the church were discriminated: They could not get leading positions or a secure position as Beamte (public officers). Churches were also observed and many clergymans were hostile to the GDR and played an important part in the later peaceful revolution.

But as religion is not an important part of identity for Germans most people simply switched to atheism.

EDIT: I see it needs further explanation. I will add some history about the religion in Germany tomorrow and why church tax/religious education and private religious confession is not contradictory as paradoxical as it sounds. Really. I hope that I can explain it adequately, if yes, you will experience an eureka effect why Germans do things they do.

This has historical roots which explain many things which may seem strange to an outsider.
During the Renaissance and the Reformation the predecessors of Germans lived in the Holy Roman Empire, a conglomerate of many different principalities in size. Those people experienced one of the worst religious persecutions (witch hunts) and the worst religious war, the Thirty Year War which killed one half (!!) of the population.

This war left the surviving people with very deep psychological scars. This caused that religious extremism of any form was and is still despised. Peaceful coexistence of confessions is of utmost importance for Germans (I would say even on a subconscious level). Many German predecessors who left the Holy Empire and later the German Confederation for the USA were in fact zealots which were ostracized for their unaccomodating behavior. This explains the extreme insistence of the separation of church and state in the USA: The people were fervent believers which needed to defend their originality and define borders for that while the Germans removed conflict points.

The religious education in schools and the non-allowance of private education in Germany's school system has several intentions. Sure, you can mention that it is convenient for the churches to indoctrinate young people (but it is not the place to discuss it), but I really think it has another reason. Its intention is to weed out religious extremism and increase tolerance by introducing young people to a disarmed version of religion. Kids are also discussing ethics and core questions (Death, Forgiving etc. etc.). And I would say that in fact it works; religious extremism is noticably absent in Germany; which is the core of a another reason, but more to that later.

After the time of the great war religious separation in Germany began to soften considerably. While the churches tried to prevent interdenominational marriages it finally implemented denomination rules for marrying partners because it became more and more fruitless to forbid it. One of the incidents named Kölner Wirren (Cologne troubles) was the clash between Prussia and the Catholic Church when lutheran Prussian Soldiers married Catholic females from Cologne which was under Prussian government. When the Prussian authorities tried to subjugate the Catholic bishops, there was an uproar in the population which forced the government to retreat.
It must also be said that German (and many other Western European) "Christians" are often having a very "light" version of Christian values, setting the priority of tolerance and taking conflicting passages either metaphorically or simply ignore them. The priority of avoiding conflict makes missionaries so confused about Germany: Their efforts to proselytize are politely ignored.

This brings up the question how Germans react if someone tries to exploit people for religious reasons or claim that they are the holders of the single truth. In short: Very, very badly. After Scientology was getting public attention and tried to badmouth and sue people who critized them, it spectacularly and completely backfired. Scientology is now not only a pariah, Germany is one of the few countries which have a "Free Zone" teaching Scientology principles without the church which made the original church livid. The letter from celebrities which defended Scientology and compared them with the persecution of Jews 1997 was met here with utter and complete contempt. Metin Kaplan who tried to build an own "Caliphate State" in Cologne was arrested by the GSG-9, an anti-terror unit 1999 and extradited to Turkey 2004. In short, don't annoy Germans by trying to incite riots by religion. A Fred Phelps risks here a severe beating with coincidentally no witnesses.

Another reason which explains such oddities as church tax is tradition: If a system works, Germans are reluctant to change it, ideological grounds are not sufficient. The church tax is a remnant of kings being responsible to support the church which was followed by the state.

Now to the main question

For that reason we have Christian religious education and church tax in Germany which would cause an US citizen to scream bloody murder. Here nobody blinks an eye.

German here. You see here a chart of the confessions in Germany:

Wikimedia Commons, Martin Sander, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2013-06-23

As you see, approximately one third is Roman-Catholic (yellow), one third is Lutheran (violet, this is not the same church like in the USA despite having the same roots!) and the former German Democratic Republic consisting mostly of atheists (East Germany).

The thing is that Germans are not that religious; religion is purely private, unimportant for social relationships and has no meaning as social reason for separation. (In fact, I don't know the confession of many of my friends.)

For that reason we have Christian religious education and church tax in Germany which would cause an US citizen to scream bloody murder. Here nobody blinks an eye: The church tax is considered necessary because there are extremely many care services provided by the church (Caritas, Bahnhofsmission etc. etc.) and the religious education is mostly about the child-friendly Biblical stories (meaning cutting out all the extremely bloody content), ethics and core questions (Death, Forgiving etc. etc.). For that reason religious extremism is noticably absent.

In the German Democratic Republic the socialistic view on churches at religion was that they are detrimental: The idea of an afterlife, forgiving and humility hinders the people to fight against exploitation. For that reason the influence of churches in East Germany which were at the start mostly Lutheran (violet) began to dwindle. Apart from teaching a materialistic and atheistic worldview in schools people who clung to the church were discriminated: They could not get leading positions or a secure position as Beamte (public officers). Churches were also observed and many clergymans were hostile to the GDR and played an important part in the later peaceful revolution.

But as religion is not an important part of identity for Germans most people simply switched to atheism.

German here. You see here a chart of the confessions in Germany:

Wikimedia Commons, Martin Sander, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2013-06-23

As you see, approximately one third is Roman-Catholic (yellow), one third is Lutheran (violet, this is not the same church like in the USA despite having the same roots!) and the former German Democratic Republic consisting mostly of atheists (East Germany).

The thing is that Germans are not that religious; religion is purely private, unimportant for social relationships and has no meaning as social reason for separation. (In fact, I don't know the confession of many of my friends.)

For that reason we have Christian religious education and church tax in Germany which would cause an US citizen to scream bloody murder. Here nobody blinks an eye: The church tax is considered necessary because there are extremely many care services provided by the church (Caritas, Bahnhofsmission etc. etc.) and the religious education is mostly about the child-friendly Biblical stories (meaning cutting out all the extremely bloody content), ethics and core questions (Death, Forgiving etc. etc.). For that reason religious extremism is noticably absent.

In the German Democratic Republic the socialistic view on churches at religion was that they are detrimental: The idea of an afterlife, forgiving and humility hinders the people to fight against exploitation. For that reason the influence of churches in East Germany which were at the start mostly Lutheran (violet) began to dwindle. Apart from teaching a materialistic and atheistic worldview in schools people who clung to the church were discriminated: They could not get leading positions or a secure position as Beamte (public officers). Churches were also observed and many clergymans were hostile to the GDR and played an important part in the later peaceful revolution.

But as religion is not an important part of identity for Germans most people simply switched to atheism.

EDIT: I see it needs further explanation. I will add some history about the religion in Germany tomorrow and why church tax/religious education and private religious confession is not contradictory as paradoxical as it sounds. Really. I hope that I can explain it adequately, if yes, you will experience an eureka effect why Germans do things they do.