Category:Cathedrals in Germany

English: Note: The usual German term for cathedral is Dom - Dóm (Slovakian), Dôme (French), Domkirke (Danish), Dómkirkja (Icelandic), Domkyrka (Swedish), Domkyrkje (Norwegian), Doms (Latvian), Toomkirik (Estonian), Tum (Polish), and Tuomiokirkko (Finnish)) - historically used alike for cathedrals (ie seat of a bishop and a canon law college) and collegiate churches (ie seat of a canon law college only). The rather rare term Kathedrale in German use always refers to Catholic or Orthodox German cathedrals.

In German the term Dom became the synecdoche, used - pars pro toto - for most existing or former collegiate churches. Therefore the uniform translation of the term Dom into English as cathedral is often inappropriate. Even the more confusing is that many pre-Reformation cathedrals and collegiate churches in Germany, now owned and used by Protestant congregations within one of the Lutheran or united Evangelical churches (co-operating in their umbrella organisation Evangelical Church in Germany) still retain the term Dom, despite the church bodies presbyterial polity which does not have bishops (in some Protestant churches) or use the term as a merely honorary title and function, void of any hierarchical supremacy.

As cathedrals and collegiate churches are often particularly impressive edifices, the term Dom is often used incorrectly as a designation for any large, important church. This is especially true in Berlin, where three Protestant church buildings, which never functioned as cathedrals, are colloquially called Dom and thus in English cathedrals (cf. Berliner Dom, Deutscher Dom and Französischer Dom).