Editing Secularization (section)

=== Germany ===
Like other European countries, Germany has recorded a decrease in [[religiosity]] (in terms of proportion of individuals affiliated to a Church and baptisms for example) but the trends in East and West Germany are significantly different. In East Germany, the process of secularization has been significantly quicker.<ref>Melissa Hardy, Vegard Skirbekk & Marcin Stonawski (2020) The Religiously Unaffiliated in Germany, 1949–2013: Contrasting Patterns of Social Change in East and West, The Sociological Quarterly, 61:2, 254-286, https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2019.1593064.</ref> These differences are explained by sociologists ([[Jörg Stolz]], Detlef Pollack and [[Nan Dirk de Graaf]]<ref>Jörg Stolz, Detlef Pollack, Nan Dirk De Graaf, Can the State Accelerate the Secular Transition? Secularization in East and West Germany as a Natural Experiment, European Sociological Review, Volume 36, Issue 4, August 2020, Pages 626–642, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaa014.</ref>) by the State repression in the 1950s and 1960s, which challenges predictions of natural cohort replacements stated by the Voas model.<ref>David Voas, The Rise and Fall of Fuzzy Fidelity in Europe, European Sociological Review, Volume 25, Issue 2, April 2009, Pages 155–168, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcn044.</ref>