The Church Nazis*

One of the most peculiar characteristics of German life is the 'church tax'. If you call yourself a Catholic or Protestant when you register your residency, the state will automatically assess a so-called church tax, which it withdraws from your paycheck and transfers to whatever denomination you've indicated. Kind of like an automatic tithe. Many Germans who leave the church to avoid paying the church tax later re-enter in order to get married or buried in churches (which you can only do if you're a paid-up member). Then they often leave again.

Turns out it's not only foreigners who find something a bit odd about this. Hartmut Zapp, a retired professor of canon law (!) in Staufen decided to register his formal withdrawal (g) from the Catholic Church, which you must do at the local Justice of the Peace's office. However, on the withdrawal form, he gave as his reason that he wanted only to withdraw from the "Catholic Church" as a quasi-public corporate entity (Kör­per­schaft des öf­fent­li­chen Rech­tes) on whose behalf the state collects taxes, but still wished to consider himself a Catholic and attend Mass.

The city accepted his explanation, but the local archidiocese rejected it, claiming that the further specification he added to the form rendered it invalid. Said the bishops: 'No church tax, NO CHURCH FOR YOU -- one year!'* The Freiburg Administrative Court has now ruled in favor of the Professor, and the Catholic Church has announced it will pursue all legal means to overturn that decision. If the ruling is upheld, it will probably spell the beginning of the end for the church tax.

I don't have much to say about this, I just thought it was interesting and would pass it along. Would the Catholic Church be able to continue to function in Germany only on the basis of private donations? Certainly not in its present form, I would imagine. All I can say is whatever happens, please don't f**k with the cathedrals!

* Of course, the title of this post refers -- ironically! winkingly! -- to this. Not this!

Comments

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How can the Catholic Church survive?

[Sebastian Koppehel]

@Andrew:

"If the ruling is upheld, it will probably spell the beginning of the end for the church tax."

No, it will not. The argument that is being fought out here is a completely different one. It only concerns the Catholic church and does not affect the Evangelical churches or the Jewish congregations at all.

This issue is this. If a Catholic doesn't want to pay his church tax, he has to declare to the [secular] financial administration that he is no longer a member of the Catholic church. The German church considers that grounds for excommunication, which chiefly means that you cannot attend certain Catholic rituals. Presumably for believing Catholics this is very serious.

The Vatican, however, thinks that such a declaration for the purposes of tax law should not affect the relation between the church and the individual. So far the German church has not changed its position. This lawsuit is a bit of a diversion, though. Whichever way the case will eventually be ruled, the church-internal argument will remain unresolved.

[CN Heidelberg]

From an outsider's point of view it's pretty bizarre that the money has to go through the government instead of being paid directly to the church. I didn't declare a denomination when I moved here so I don't pay it.
I have a friend who is an openly professed atheist who still pays church tax to her parents' church. She's perfectly happy doing that since the money goes to social works.

[NM]

Really can't see what's wrong with the Church tax... The churches provide a wide range of social services, as institutions they probably play a real role in stabilising and holding together communities - all that needs to be paid for. Moreover, by routing the moneys through the state, the state gains some potential controls over these institutions. Considering the damage 'evil cults', as the Chinese so cutely put it, and chaotic thinking generally, esp. when religiously charged, can do, that is hardly a bad thing. Certainly a conservative should surely be in favour of the church tax system? (Wasn't it Bismarck who set up the system?) (It's easy to see why a liberal would oppose the system, but conservatism has little to do with liberalism.)

[Abject]

I have no idea how true it is, but it seems to be standard popular knowledge in Germany that religious facilities (schools, old age homes, etc.) are entitled to restrict the provision of services to members of that denomination, provided sufficient numbers of students / patients, etc. are present. I'm sure the same thing does not apply to hospitals.

Whatever the case, I would be interested to know how things work in a small community with one Catholic school and one Lutheran (evangelische) school. Maybe some small township in the Rhineland or Baden-Württemberg...

If I - as a secular, non-church-tax-paying parent - wish that my child receive a wholly secular education, is that available to me?

[Véronique]

A funny thing is that many German believe that the Christian Kindergarten and primary schools that easily refuse non christened children or children whose parents are not registered as christians and thus not paying church tax are mainly financed by this church tax, but that's wrong: it's mainly financed by federal taxes, whether they come from muslim, christian, jewish or atheist individuals...
This order documentary (in German) mentions this and other interesting facts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECjbLm41MkA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5PaOSIWY8E&feature=related

[ruhrguide]

While the big churches (and their charities) do offer a variety of social services, they are not the only ones. There are non-denominal charities and commercial enterprises running kindergartens, hospitals, nursing homes, etc. And they don't necessarily charge their clients more than the churches do.

This is because these services are not financed through church-tax, but by (federal/state/local) governments and the social security system. Therefore an end to church-tax wouldn't mean the end for these services.

What strikes me about church-tax is that I can't decide for myself how much I would like to give. Church-tax is collected by the state (church-state separation, anyone?) as a percentage of my income tax. This shouldn't be government business, just like "Religious Instructions" as a compulsory subject in schools.

[utisz]

"As you can imagine option B is infinetly more likely to happen. The result: Instead of now only believers and users of the services paying for it, you would have everybody paying for it."
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In the UK the state performs this function and it has worked pretty effectively in the UK for the last few decades, so I don't buy the 'lethal' conclusion. When you get a society where fewer and fewer attend church or self-identify as Christian, the UK route also starts to look a bit fairer than the German. Why should care be solely the remit of *charity*? Isn't it a universal obligation in a just society for those who can help themselves to help those who can't (Rawls), and this best dealt with through the progressive taxation system?

[Peter Fischer]

This moaning about church tax by some self-righteous law buffons or self-styled atheists gets on my nerves. Even considering it from the point of view of the complete materialists you can't argue with it. The church offers services, its members use these services, so they should pay for them.

Were church tax to be abolished, all these services would still have to be provided. Many of them are actually tasks the church does for the municipial government, like care for the elderly. There would be two opitions:

A: The Fed Rep builds up its own agency providing the services that are needed and can't be provided by the church anymore

B: The Fed Rep raises income tax for EVERYBODY and continues funding the churches from the fed budget.

As you can imagine option B is infinetly more likely to happen. The result: Instead of now only believers and users of the services paying for it, you would have everybody paying for it.

Considering the arguments against church tax that is pretty lethal. In fact church tax is no anachronism, but a very sophisticated instrument providing funding for a non-governement organisation providing governmental tasks. In that it is ahead of its time not behind and should be left as it is.