Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Other Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany · 2024

Germany: ForuM study finds 1,259 accused and 2,225 affected in the Evangelical Church and diaconal services

Record class

Institutional event

Evidence status

Official finding

Authority role

clergy, diaconal staff and leadership of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) and its regional churches, 1946-2020

Organization

Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD), Diakonie Deutschland, ForuM-Verbund

Spiritual nexus

The study documents that clergy and diaconal caregivers' pastoral authority over congregants and residents was the structural condition that made abuse possible, compounded by the church's own institutional failure to act on disclosures.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2024-01-25 · commissioned independent study

    Independent research consortium (ForuM-Verbund) commissioned by the EKD. Published 25 January 2024 in Hanover, the study — begun in 2020 — examined sexualised violence against minors across the EKD and diaconal services from 1 January 1946 to 31 December 2020. Researchers identified at least 1,259 accused perpetrators, including 511 clergy, and at least 2,225 affected individuals. It found decades of failure at every level: victims not heard, allegations not processed, perpetrators protected, and no institutional accountability taken. In November 2024 the EKD Synod adopted disciplinary-law reform giving affected persons more rights and a 12-point action plan.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • pastoral and diaconal-caregiving authority over congregants, confirmands and residents in church-run institutions
  • documented institutional failure to hear, process or act on disclosures

Primary record

Sources

religious affiliated press inquiry report Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, 'Aufarbeitungsstudie ForuM.' German: the EKD's own page on the study and its findings. English gloss: 'Reckoning study ForuM.'

Primary institutional source publishing the study's existence and headline findings.

academic peer reviewed inquiry report 'Sexual abuse in the area of responsibility of the Protestant Church: some results from a subproject of the ForuM study' (peer-reviewed subproject publication, 2024).

Peer-reviewed academic publication of a ForuM subproject's findings, corroborating the headline figures.

religious affiliated press background Sonntagsblatt, 'Sexualisierte Gewalt in der evangelischen Kirche: Das sind die zentralen Ergebnisse der neuen Studie.' German: summarises the central findings. English gloss: 'Sexualised violence in the Protestant church: these are the central findings of the new study.'

Corroborating press summary of the study's release.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

← Explore all cases