Why did substantial parts of Europe abandon the institutionalized churches around 1900?
Empirical studies using modern data mostly contradict the traditional view that education was a
leading source of the seismic social phenomenon of secularization. We construct a unique panel
dataset of advanced-school enrollment and Protestant church attendance in German cities
between 1890 and 1930. Our cross-sectional estimates replicate a positive association. By
contrast, in panel models where fixed effects account for time-invariant unobserved
heterogeneity, education – but not income or urbanization – is negatively related to church
attendance. In panel models with lagged explanatory variables, educational expansion precedes
reduced church attendance
