“The German church tax system must finally be abolished. It deeply contradicts the principle of separation between state and religion that the Christian churches in the Federal Republic can collect their membership fees with state support.” This was said on Wednesday morning by the President of the Humanist Association of Germany, Frieder Otto Wolf, in Berlin on the occasion of a new case of blatant abuse of the existing church tax system. In the current case, the Archdiocese of Berlin had a mid-three-figure amount deducted from the salary of Thomas B., a French-born employee living in Berlin, as church tax. As justification, the archdiocese pointed out that the person concerned was registered in a French baptismal register and could not prove that he had officially left the church, which is impossible in France due to the radically secular constitution. It also became known in this context that the archdiocese is also trying to determine the denomination of new residents across national borders. With unacceptable consequences, as the new case shows, because Thomas B. had unequivocally declared that he was an atheist and did not belong to the Catholic Church when he registered with the citizens’ office. He also confirmed this position in a questionnaire sent to him later by the archdiocese, which subsequently had church tax collected anyway. With its actions in Berlin, the Catholic Church had once again made it clear that it was often more concerned with money than with people, criticized Wolf. Referring to the obviously non-religious identity of the person concerned and the huge assets of the church in Germany, he described the action as “another atrocious act” that has rightly caused great outrage. The church tax system in Germany, which is unique in international comparison, should also be rejected not only for reasons of principle, as it contradicts the principle of separation between state and religion, but also the human right not to have to reveal one’s religious or ideological convictions. “Due to the religious and ideological plurality that has grown in recent decades, we believe it is even unconstitutional. This is because it privileges the churches over all other religious and ideological communities, which have no structures like the Christian religious communities, in a way that only the abolition of the traditional church tax system can establish the equal treatment between all religious and ideological communities demanded by our Basic Law. The churches should collect their membership fees in the same way as other religious communities and secular organizations and associations in Germany,” said Wolf. The switch to a membership fee collection system that is fully self-administered by the churches would also be a first step towards reducing the existing discrimination against non-denominational and non-believing employees in the health, cultural, social and education sectors, Wolf emphasized. Due to the privileged status of churches in employment law and in conjunction with the church tax system, which forms the basis for the official registration of the denomination of all residents of the Federal Republic, they can be disadvantaged and excluded as applicants without plausible reasons.
Frieder Otto Wolf also reiterated his rejection of the charging of fees by the authorities, which are incurred when leaving a church and can amount to up to 60 euros depending on the federal state. In a secular state, the declaration of resignation to the respective religious or ideological community must be sufficient and should not be associated with administrative procedures or fees, Wolf emphasized. “The system currently in place here is simply a continuing scandal,” he said. More on the topic: Report by the online magazine Telepolis
