Berlin Court Allows School to Ban Public Prayer to Preserve Campus Peace

On Thursday, the 3rd Chamber of the Berlin Administrative Court confirmed that Diesterweg-Gymnasium in the Muslim-dense Gesundbrunnen district may continue to forbid students from publicly praying or engaging in overt religious or extremist political acts on school premises. The court accepted the school's claim that the rule is necessary to preserve school peace, citing earlier serious disputes over religious practice.

The prohibition had been contested by the Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte, which asserted the regulation violates the state anti-discrimination act by targeting Muslim pupils. Berlin’s Senate Department for Education publicly praised the ruling. School leaders Volker Lehmann and his deputy denied accusations of “prayer hunting,” stating they only intervene when house rules are broken.

They also explained that the school lacks free rooms or sufficient staff to supervise additional “silent rooms,” despite repeated tensions between Sunni and Shia, Turkish and Arab students, and pressure on liberal Muslim pupils over fasting, headscarves, and dress. The verdict is not yet final; an appeal to the Higher Administrative Court will require permission to proceed.