Carillons, musical instruments of bells in the percussion family, are found throughout Germany. Several institutions maintain registries on the location and statistics of carillons. Some registries specialize in counting specific types of carillons. For example, the War Memorial and Peace Carillons registry counts instruments which serve as war memorials or were built in the name of promoting world peace (and tracks one in Germany); the counts carillons throughout the country, along with the rest of the world. In 2025, the casting of bells and playing music on bells was added to Germany's list of intangible cultural heritage.
The German Carillon Association counts carillons throughout Germany, and according to the organization, there are 49 in total. They are distributed across 41 cities; in four of themBerlin, Bonn, Cologne, and Hamburgthere are more than one. The population has a wide range in total weights, with bourdons spanning from in Altenburg and Schwerin to in Halle (Saale). They also span a wide range of notes, from 23 in Bonn and Lößnitz up to 76 in Halle (Saale). The carillons were all exclusively constructed after 1900 by a mix of bellfounders, many of them German. The majority of carillons are transposing instruments, and often transpose such that the lowest note on the keyboard is B or C. There are also two mobile carillons, which were constructed and are owned by two German bellfounders: and Sandkuhl.
According to the , the carillons of Germany account for seven percent of the world's total.
Criteria for inclusion.
The defines a carillon as an instrument of at least 23 cast bronze bells hung in fixed suspension, played with a traditional keyboard of batons, and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniously together. It may designate instruments of 15 to 22 bells built before 1940 as "historical carillons". Its member organizationsincluding for example the German Carillon Associationalso define a carillon with those restrictions. This list contains only those carillons that meet the definition outlined by these organizations.