Muslim teachers in Berlin should not be banned from wearing headscarves across the board.
The Federal Constitutional Court did not accept a constitutional complaint from the state against a judgment of the Federal Labor Court on the headscarf ban "without justification".
The court announced this to the Catholic News Agency (KNA) on Wednesday.
Accordingly, the Berlin Neutrality Act must now be amended.
On August 27, 2020, the highest German labor court in Erfurt declared the Berlin law to be unconstitutional with reference to religious freedom.
The country, however, filed a constitutional complaint in February 2021.
Prohibitions only permissible if the school peace is endangered
At the presentation of the coalition agreement in November 2021, the Greens politician Bettina Jarasch, currently Berlin Mayor and Senator for the Environment, announced that the neutrality law would be amended if the Federal Constitutional Court upheld its 2015 decision.
At that time, Karlsruhe had decided that such bans in the field of education are only permissible if the school peace is specifically endangered.
The Neutrality Act, which has been in force since 2005, is the most far-reaching regulation in Germany.
With reference to the neutrality of the state, it prohibits certain state employees from wearing conspicuous religious and ideological symbols and clothing.
State must not embody any religion
The reasoning is that the state is not allowed to embody any religion and, according to the Federal Constitutional Court, is also not allowed to identify itself with certain religious or ideological beliefs.
He must be neutral towards all religious communities.
Civil servants are employees of the state - they are its representatives and are not allowed to wear religious symbols on duty.
This means: you have to do without a kippa, a cross and a headscarf.
The political circumstances under which the law can now be changed will only become clear after the re-election to the Berlin House of Representatives on February 12.