The Humanist Association of Germany – Federal Association published a resolution on direct state contributions to churches and ideological communities back in 2014.
The “Key points for the public debate” contained therein can be found
The statements made by the association’s president at the time, Prof. Frieder Otto Wolf, are still correct: “Reforms and transparency in the financial links between the state and religious and ideological communities are not only necessary to put an end to payments that are recognized as unjustified, but also to make legitimate donations comprehensible for as many citizens as possible. The lack of clarity that still prevails is not only a constant source of confusion, error and incomprehension for many people, and feeds fundamental doubts about the correctness of such funding. They also conceal existing disadvantages and injustices between the respective communities.”
The coalition government had set out to create “a fair framework for the replacement of state benefits in a basic law in dialog with the federal states and the churches”.
The negotiations are taking place behind closed doors.
There is no appropriate open discussion of the problem.
“In view of the changed and ever-changing ideological landscape in all parts of Germany, a solution that is understood and supported by a majority of the population is unavoidable,” explains Erwin Kress, spokesman for the board of the Humanist Association of Germany – Federal Association.
As the spokespersons for religious policy of the coalition government declared in August, the coalition now wants to pass a law that does not require the approval of the Bundesrat. The federal states are protesting vigorously against this. On the other hand, the growing group of non-denominational citizens and citizens of other faiths, as well as the Humanist Association of Germany, believe it is important that these historical obligations of the state towards the churches are finally replaced.
The discussion is mainly about how the current annual payments (2024: approx. €618 million) could be replaced by one-off payments or installments. Secular actors usually reject any compensation, arguing that enough has really been paid. Constitutional and canon lawyers, on the other hand, speak of ten to twenty times the annual payment as a one-off payment. The churches are demanding a replacement payment with which they can continue to work without losses. The CDU/CSU wants to remove the redemption obligation from the Basic Law and thus leave everything as it is. As the churches can have a say in the redemption in accordance with state-church agreements, there will be neither a “zero solution” nor a solution that the federal states can easily afford in the foreseeable future.
In this debate, it must always be borne in mind that we are talking about long-standing, recurring benefits with which the state compensates for past expropriations, for example. This is not about the money that the state pays for public services provided by churches such as kindergartens, hospitals, etc. Such services are required as part of the subsidiary allocation of tasks by the federal government. This applies to all providers of such services, including, for example, the Workers’ Welfare Association. The Humanist Association of Germany also receives such subsidies for the day care centers operated by some of its state associations. Independently of the old historical state benefits, grants are also made to religious and ideological communities for their contributions to value formation, meaning and orientation, i.e. for contributions that the state itself cannot actually make. In this context, public corporations of the Humanist Association also receive a small amount of state support.
