Was baptism into the Catholic Church required for state citizenship and land ownership in the 16th-18th centuries in Germany?

by ninnabadda

I was reading a genealogical document put together by my grandfather and in his commentary at the end, he mentions:

"Since all European countries were Church States, baptism in a state church conferred citizenship. Those who were not members of the state churches were also considered to be non-citizens and were not able to own their own land."

He's attempting to describe the context in which my Mennonite ancestors lived before they emigrated from The Palatinate in 1710 and 1763. I ask about the 16th and 17th centuries as well since I know that they contain most of the events of the Protestant Reformation and things might have changed by the 18th century.

Is my grandpa correct? I'm having trouble finding relevant information on Wikipedia, but I am confident that I simply don't know what to search for since I've never done historical research of any kind before.

jimros

I don't know much about the citizenship laws of the Palatinate in particular, but the Mennonites did experience discrimination. There were certainly European states that didn't require baptism in a particular church as a condition for citizenship, and obviously many German states were Protestant rather than Catholic.