Ev.-Luth. Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenburg

What Ev.-Luth. Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenburg does

Ev.-Luth. Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenburg is a regional church district (Kirchenkreis) and corporation under public law (Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts) within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany (Nordkirche). Formed on 1 May 2009 from the merger of the previously separate Kirchenkreise Herzogtum Lauenburg and Lübeck, the district serves the Lübeck-Lauenburg region of Schleswig-Holstein through approximately 60 churches, 26 parishes, 91 kindergartens (via Kitawerk Lübeck and Fachdienst), hospital and prison chaplaincy, hospice pastoral care, and a church music program encompassing more than 150 groups with roughly 5,000 participants. Its portfolio includes the #liveline digital worship platform (launched 2020), the Segensreich service center for life events, the Stiftung 7Türme+ foundation for UNESCO World Heritage church preservation, and extensive counseling, diaconal, and family education services delivering more than 700 courses annually.

The district's underlying technology stack is modern and web-native, including a website (kirche-ll.de) on a content management system, the ChurchTools platform for internal administration and calendar publication, Matomo for privacy-compliant analytics, Brevo and Rapidmail for newsletters, spende.app for donations, ChurchTools for calendaring, and a dedicated podcast studio. In 2025, the district deployed an AI capability layer—"Churchy" chatbot and "KI-Suche" AI search—built on LLM technology (Groq for inference, Qdrant for vector storage, Hostinger for hosting), answering queries restricted to publicly available website content. The district was recently awarded 20.5 million Euro in federal funding for the restoration of St. Marien and the Dom zu Lübeck, both UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The revenue model is non-commercial and not investment-backed. Primary funding flows from mandatory church tax (Kirchensteuer) collected by German state tax authorities and redistributed to the district, supplemented by donations, bequests to the Stiftung 7Türme+ foundation, and project-specific grants (e.g., the 20.5M Euro federal heritage award). Additional revenue stems from kindergarten operations, fundraising services (Fundraising-Team), and facility management of approximately 60 churches and parish buildings. The customer base is broadly distributed across Lutheran parishioners in the region, with service-specific institutional partnerships such as UKSH hospital, JVA Lübeck prison, and the Rickers-Kock-Haus hospice. Governance is non-hierarchical through a Kirchenkreisrat and Synode, and the district is subject to ongoing denominational oversight by the Nordkirche.

Name

Ev.-Luth. Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenburg

Legal name

Evangelisch-Lutherischer Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenburg

Website

https://kirche-ll.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Ev.-Luth. Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenburg is a regional Lutheran church district in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, operating approximately 60 churches, 91 kindergartens, and pastoral, diaconal, and cultural services for parishioners across Lübeck-Lauenburg, funded by church tax, donations, and grants.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Lübeck

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Church Tax (Kirchensteuer): As a member of the Protestant Lutheran Church in Germany, the church district receives mandatory church tax from members, which constitutes the primary funding source. This is collected by German state tax authorities and redistributed to church districts.
2. Donations and Fundraising: The Fundraising Team supports parishes and institutions in acquiring donations and third-party funding for important projects. Donation platform available through spende.app. Special campaigns like the 20.5 million Euro federal funding for St. Marien and Dom restoration represent major grant funding.
3. Stiftung 7Türme+ Foundation: A civil foundation dedicated to preserving the World Heritage churches in Lübeck, accepting endowment gifts and bequests to support long-term preservation projects.
4. Facility Management: The Liegenschaften (Property) department manages church-owned properties including approximately 60 churches and numerous parish buildings, cemeteries, and community spaces.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

The Ev.-Luth. Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenburg is a regional Evangelical Lutheran church district that administers approximately 88 congregations in the Lübeck and Herzogtum Lauenburg areas of Schleswig-Holstein. It coordinates religious services (Gottesdienste), pastoral care (Seelsorge), church tax administration, youth and adult education, and refugee integration, while running hospital chaplaincy at UKSH and operating the Kindertagesstätten-Werk daycare subsidiary and the Diakonisches Werk Herzogtum Lauenburg social welfare subsidiary.

Product overview

Ev.-Luth. Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenburg operates as a regional church organization offering a diverse portfolio of religious, cultural, and social services. The core offering includes traditional worship services across 60+ churches, supplemented by digital initiatives like #liveline (interactive online worship streaming) and the Segensreich service center for life events. The organization provides extensive pastoral counseling, diaconal social services, and cultural programs including church music with over 150 musical groups. Technology-enabled services include a chatbot (Churchy) for information retrieval, podcast distribution, and digital fundraising. The 7Türme+ foundation supports heritage preservation of World Heritage churches.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• #liveline: Digital worship project launched during Corona pandemic, offering interactive livestream services
• Segensreich
• Dienste und Werke
• Fundraising-Team

Quantifiable outcome

• 20.5 million Euro federal funding secured for preservation of St. Marien and Lübeck Cathedral
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration13 records

AI capability3 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered regional, core and flagship.

• Propstei Alte Salzstraße (Pfarrsprengel Alte Salzstraße)regionalStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 July 2026Joint summer church initiative bringing together parishes of Breitenfelde, Mölln, and Gudow for collaborative worship services at Alt-Mölln.
• Diakonie Nord Nord OstcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerA consortium of diakonia organizations including Vorwerker Diakonie, Diakoniewerk Mecklenburg Nord, Vorwerker Dienste, and Diaklusio. Provides comprehensive social services across northern Germany under Lutheran church auspices.
• Stiftung 7Türme+flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerA civil foundation dedicated to preserving Lübeck's World Heritage churches (Die Sieben Türme - the Seven Towers). Accepts donations and bequests for long-term heritage preservation projects benefiting the churches of the church district.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Caritas Deutschland: The Catholic counterpart to Diakonie, operating a parallel nationwide network of social welfare, healthcare, and counseling services funded via a similar church-tax mechanism. Comparable in mission, operating model, and institutional reach.
• Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD): The confessional umbrella organization of 20 German Protestant churches including Nordkirche. Provides the macro governance, public-policy representation, and coordination layer under which the Kirchenkreis operates.
• Diakonie Deutschland: The nationwide umbrella organization for Protestant social welfare services in Germany, of which the Kirchenkreis's Diakonie arms (Diakonisches Werk Herzogtum Lauenburg, Vorwerker Diakonie, etc.) are local members. Comparable on the social-services revenue stream and institutional partnerships.

Direct peers

• Kirchenkreis Plön-Segeberg: Adjacent Nordkirche Kirchenkreis with similar parish structure, kindergarten operations, and Diakonie services. Directly comparable in scale and rural-urban mix.
• Kirchenkreis Schleswig-Flensburg: Nordkirche Kirchenkreis covering the northern Schleswig-Holstein region. Comparable in membership base, tax-funded revenue model, and service portfolio (churches, Kitas, counseling).
• Kirchenkreis Altholstein: Nordkirche Kirchenkreis in central Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel region). Operates an analogous portfolio of worship services, Kitas, pastoral care, and social services in a comparable demographic setting.
• Kirchenkreis Hamburg-West/Südholstein: Fellow Nordkirche Kirchenkreis covering western Hamburg and southern Schleswig-Holstein. Operates a similar mix of parishes, educational institutions, and Diakonie services under the same KdöR framework.
• Kirchenkreis Hamburg-Ost: Another major Kirchenkreis within the Nordkirche, operating parishes, kindergartens, and pastoral services in the Hamburg metropolitan area. Directly comparable in governance structure, funding model (Kirchensteuer), and service portfolio (churches, Kitas, Diakonie).
• Kirchenkreis Mecklenburg: Largest Nordkirche Kirchenkreis geographically, covering rural Mecklenburg. Operates comparable parish and Diakonie services but with a more pronounced demographic-decline profile than Lübeck-Lauenburg.

Regional players

• Erzbistum Hamburg: The Catholic archdiocese covering the same Hamburg/Schleswig-Holstein geography as the Kirchenkreis. Operates an analogous portfolio of parishes, schools, social services, and heritage churches under a parallel public-law corporation structure.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@liveline-luebeck
• Facebookfacebook.com/kircheLL
• Instagraminstagram.com/kirche_ll
• Pinterestpinterest.com/kirchell
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ev.-luth.-kirchenkreis-l%C3%BCbeck-lauenburg

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Ev.-Luth. Kirchenkreis Lübeck-Lauenburg