Different words. Quoth Article 137(7) of the Weimar constitution (one of the paragraphs that are part of the current constitution):
Den Religionsgesellschaften werden die Vereinigungen gleichgestellt, die sich die gemeinschaftliche Pflege einer Weltanschauung zur Aufgabe machen.
Associations whose purpose is the communal cultivation of a world view shall be treated in the same way as religious societies.
Meaning they're seen as different in some sense, but as they're 100% equal under the law courts never bother to make judgements on whether something is the one or the other. Courts are really good at avoiding deciding something if they don't absolutely have to. In laws you always see them mentioned side by side, e.g. §166 StGB:
(1) Anyone who publicly insults the content of a religious or world-view conviction of others or disseminates such content (Section 11 (3)) in a way that is likely to disturb public peace shall be liable to a custodial sentence not exceeding three years or to a monetary penalty.
(2) Likewise, anyone who publicly or by disseminating content (Section 11 (3)) insults a church or other religious or world-view association existing in Germany, its institutions or customs in a manner that is likely to disturb public peace shall be liable to a custodial sentence of up to three years or a monetary penalty.
That law is age-old, dating back to after the 30 year war to keep Lutherans and Catholics from inciting wars against each other. And just for the record yes you can call the Catholic Church a child fucker cult: Courts ruled that it's not that kind of statement which disturbs the public peace, priests fucking children and the church sweeping it under the carpet is what disturbs it. The statement may be pointed but it's still a statement of fact, not an insult.
OTOH you won't see Churches over here saying things like "atheists are inherently amoral", that very much is an insult. Or the good ole Lutheran line of "Catholics are Idolaters" -- Lutheran theology still says that they are, but, hey, you don't have to say it out loud, least of all using fighting words.
The term "world view" itself has quite precise philosophical meaning, English wikipedia does a half-assed job of explaining it. The German article has a way better opening definition:
Today, a world view is primarily understood to be the totality of personal values, ideas and perspectives based on knowledge, tradition, experience and feelings, which relate to the interpretation of the world, the role of the individual in it, the view of society and, to some extent, the meaning of life.
So philosophically speaking religions are actually a subset of world-views and the question of "is this a religion" is rather meaningless to the philosopher -- they'd rather use terms such as "theological world-view" or such. For the established religions, though, the term is very important and noone wants to rock a boat that doesn't need rocking.
