How secular German government funds Christian churches

The so called church tax is literally baked into the German system. If you’re registered as Christian, the state collects 8–9% of your income tax and hands it straight to the churches.

You can “opt out,” but the default is funding them.

It’s not just the tax. Under German law, only churches (and a couple of Jewish institutions since the 1980s) are recognized as “Körperschaften des öffentlichen Rechts” aka quasi-municipal legal entities that can levy taxes, receive subsidies, and act with the powers of a public body.

The state directly pays churches ~€800 million/year in subsidies (Staatszuschüsse/Dotationen).

German taxpayers also fund Christian theological studies in universities and seminaries to the tune of €400–500 million/year.

Why is this all so? It goes back to Napolean, in 1803 when he secularised Europe aka took lands forcefully from the church, the same process took place in Germany and the German state signed the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss promising to pay the Church money in return for land and it has done so, for 220 odd years since.

Adjust for PPP and that’s like the Government of India shoveling ₹8,000 crore/year into Vedic studies alone. So yes, modern Germany is, in practice, a Christian state.

Note: the credits was first bringing this to our attention goes to this tweet.