Abstract
This paper describes and compares trends of religious homogamy and heterogamy in Germany (1901-1986) and the Netherlands (1914-1986), using four (and sometimes six) categories of religious denomination. Attention is paid mainly to the relative frequencies of religious assortive marriage, using loglinear models to control for the impact of demographic factors. Moreover, attention is drawn to the patterns of acceptance and rejection between members of different denominations on the marriage market. Special attention has been given to Jewish marriage behavior in Germany in the period 1927-1936 and in the Netherlands in the period 1935-1943, in order to reveal the effects of the rise of National-Socialism. With the exception of certain well-defined groups, crossing denominational borders on the marriage market has become a normal pattern in both countries. This is taken as an indication of growing social integration and societal openness. General theories such as modernization or industrialization can account for the trends only to a very limited degree. National history and denominational characteristics seem to provide more adequate interpretations.
