State and Church in Modern Germany The Legacy of a Symbiotic Relationship

Hans Sebald

nce upon a time, emperor and pope nursed a close Vatican in the face of Nazi atrocities; and (2) encouraging alliance, at least most of the time, for it was the Vatican to have its clergy refrain from meddling in German 0 advantageous to both. Most people think that this politics. sanctimonious partnership was a temporary peculiarity in Not surprisingly, the arrangement, so convenient and European history, an antiquated epiphany that faded away lucrative for the church, contributed to the minimal opposition during the Enlightenment. Wrong—at least when it comes shown by German Catholicism against the Nazi state—after to modern Germany. This nation is an anomaly among modern all, who wants to have a falling out with an agent who so nation states insofar as the government functions as the reliably fills one's treasury? Of course, there were additional church's tax collector. reasons Catholicism so modestly resisted Nazism: anti- Each church member is taxed a certain percentage of his Semitism among Catholic clergy, plus sentiments of or her wages, salaries, or general income, and collection is nationalism and the vision of Germany as a bulwark against carried out by the government's internal revenue service. godless communism. It must be said that this characterization Depending on the specific German Bundesland (confederate may apply to the German Protestant churches to the same state), the percentage withheld is between 8 and 10 percent or even greater extent. But the focus of the discussion is the of an individual's federal income tax. The higher the rate status of the Catholic church. of taxation, the higher the take of the church. (Perhaps this The Catholic church in Germany today is a financial giant, is one of the reasons why the church has never shown great because post-Nazi Germany has continued to adhere to the interest in bringing about a reduction of taxes levied on Concordat. It is not only the automatic church tax that fills workers.) When people assume employment they must declare the church's coffers, but also the huge income derived from church affiliation in order for deductions to be automatically clever investments and from a variety of church-owned carried out. The Finanzamt (Internal Revenue Service) will properties and institutions, ranging from hospitals, kinder- then commence to transfer the monies to the coffers of the gartens, homes for the aged, schools, and publishing houses 2 However, the church on a regular basis.' to the ubiquitous Sunday collection plate. The agreement of the government to handle the collec- church tax levied against wages and salaries accounts for the bulk and stability of the church's wealth. For example, the tion of annual billions of church-tax monies was part of the national internal revenue service collected for the Catholic 1933 Concordat, the treaty between the Third Reich and the and Lutheran churches a total of over 15 billion Deutsche Vatican, personally signed by the pope and Hitler (the latter Mark (roughly $10 billion) in taxes in 1991.3 himself a Catholic who was never excommunicated) and in I am especially familiar with the financial standing of the fact the first significant international treaty Hitler signed upon central German archdiocese of Bamberg, which is made up coming into power. (Spain and Italy, under Franco and of mostly rural and low-income population. A publication Mussolini, respectively, had similar concordats with the of the diocese's treasury office discloses the financial status Vatican, but their subsequent governments rescinded them.) for 19924 and shows that 88 percent of the diocese's total The German concordat served the interest of both parties. income was amassed from taxing wages and incomes of church It favored major aims of the Vatican: (1) protection of the members. The sum amounted to 219 million DM (approx- German clergy; (2) forestallment of the establishment of imately $140 million), broken down into 164.5 million DM Protestantism as the state religion, which had been the goal from taxed wages and 54.5 million DM from taxed income of the Nazi-inspired "German Christian" movement; and (3) (other than labor wages). Additional income derived from engagement of the German state as church tax collector. revenues of leases of land and other income-yielding properties, Likewise it met some of Hitler's interests: (1) muting the 8.3 million DM; and general government subsidies (again symptomatic of church/ state liaison) to the tune of 15.7 million Hans Sebald is professor emeritus of sociology at Arizona DM. State University in Tempe. Many church-tax payers never attend church; they are members solely on paper and harbor serious questions about

Winter 1993/94 29 the meaning of their religious affiliation. Hence the logical unemployed received unemployment compensation figured as question arises as to why they would not cancel membership a percentage of their previous net income. The formula that and save themselves money. Alas, these lax Catholics fear was applied ignored the fact that workers without religious the consequences such severance would entail. First they would affiliation had increased net income, since no church tax had have to make a formal declaration of severing ties with Mother been deducted. Yet, an undifferentiating across-the-board Church in order for the Finanzamt to cease charging them. deduction of approximately 9 percent (of the state tax) was (Note: Prior to such declaration, which must be made to church part of the rigid formula and applied to all applying for officials, payment of church tax is theoretically enforceable unemployment compensation. The state over the years got through exactly the same legal procedures as the enforcement away with harvesting huge sums of unrightfully withheld of government income tax, which, in its most extreme compensation monies from citizens who did not hold religious manifestation, could consist of the sheriff coming to the house affiliation. While this has remained unchallenged in the western to safeguard the auctioning off of personal property.) Second, provinces of Germany, where only about 8 percent of the they would be barred from the sacraments of the church, population declared themselves without church membership, a sanction the believer fears is a straight path to eternal the population of the new eastern provinces, where about damnation. A majority of lax Catholics retain a modicum 67 percent are without church membership, resent the state's of belief in basic theological doctrines and don't dare write procedure. As a consequence, German labor unions are off the possibility that the doctrines might be based on real phenomena. As a consequence, emotions of fear persuade them to pay a sort of insurance premium just in case—rather "[Modern Germany] is an anomaly among than take a chance of eternal nonbliss. It is these powerful modern nation states insofar as the govern- emotions of fear and uncertainty that turn into blessings for ment functions as the church's tax collector." the bishops' treasury. In addition to these theological threats, there often is social pressure by spouses and other family members to stay in the church. As a consequence, millions currently engaging the courts to achieve a differentiating of German Catholics prefer to pay church tax rather than formula according to which the unemployed with a history catch a heavy dose of theological angst plus cause family of religious nonaffiliation would receive higher compensation disharmony. payments.6 Church membership has its infantile version, literally. Backed by the power of the Deutsche Mark, the Catholic Baptism instantly confers membership and obliges payment church has gradually sharpened her political aspirations. For of church tax, at least theoretically, even for infants. While example, her "pro-life" stance has become more than they may not yet have income derived from gainful outspoken, it has become militant and commands followers employment, they may possibly have inherited fortunes, which to fight for it as a sacred duty; appropriate sign-up sheets are subject to tax collectible by the German internal revenue, are left at church doors. From the pulpit and through the who ipso facto will also collect the churches' percentage and various media the church owns or can influence, the believers turn it over to the church authorities. Ignored in the process are told for whom to vote, which political party to support, is the violation of the Grundrecht, the constitutional rights which "anti-life" candidates to defeat. of the individual, which proclaims children's Religionsfreiheit Also, control has been tightened over priests tinged by (Art. 4, Abs. 1 GG), their freedom from religious coercion.5 liberation theology or doctrinal dissent. The 1992 limelight The matter of state subsidies to the churches deserves case of this type has been that of Father Eugen Drewermann, additional comment. The rationale for a good part of current whose criticism of the church was initially merely a theological subsidies is anchored in an anachronism dating to an imperial sparring, and the authorities of the church limited their decree that promised to pay compensation for property taken reactions to fraternal disagreement. But the debate escalated from the churches and secularized during the Napoleonic era. as Drewermann called the Catholic credo a formulation "sticky In this way it has happened that an 1803 agreement, the with blood and gold" and one that served the battle cry in Reichsdeputationshaupt-schluß, still today obliges the more than one genocidal war. What piqued the authorities governments of most states in the German republic to pay most was his denial of the pope's infallibility. Gradually his compensation to their two main churches, Lutheran and influence grew and evolved into a structural fissure with a Catholic. heretical flock beginning to follow him rather than the local Additional subsidies, albeit indirect and hidden, consist of bishop. That proved to wear out the rest of the church's the government paying the salaries of priests and other church tolerance, and she prohibited his teaching and preaching in personnel teaching or working in schools, prisons, police all Catholic churches, schools, and other institutions. departments, and the military. It seems that bishop and pope react most sharply when It would be wrong to assume that the state is purely they perceive their authority questioned and sense endanger- magnanimous in its relation to the church. The secular ment of the structural status quo. Their greatest fear is aroused authorities derive profits from the relationship, albeit in a when they encounter a serious challenge that might undermine more hidden and roundabout fashion that just recently has the power of the hierarchy. Purely theological ruminations, come under criticism. In the past, workers who became even if they deviate from traditional views, far less excite church

30 FREE INQUIRY leadership—as long as they do not threaten the status quo in 1976 when two priests, charged with the task by the of the hierarchy and the stability of its structure. archbishop of Würzburg, performed a long, drawn-out Drewermann and other rebellious priests are indeed aiming exorcism that identified not only the five demons tormenting for structural changes. For example, they demand the right twenty-two-year-old student Anneliese Michel, but also killed to get married and at the same time retain their priestly status, the girl because they made her fast her too long. (By some which raises delicate questions of property rights, family ecclesiastical wisdom it is thought that Satan does not relish inheritance, and social security for dependents. In other words, residing in a person committed to holy fasting.) The Catholic among other complications, the church senses the danger of hierarchy found itself in trouble. The district attorney new financial obligations. One of the priests who recently investigated the case, which came to embarrassing court has irritated the hierarchy with this sort of threat is Father sessions; and the two exorcists ended up being sentenced for Wolfgang Eifler, who openly admitted to a family life negligent homicide.? Alas, the broad mass of German Catholics (including two children). His unblessed marital bliss was reacted far more charitably: Satan was lurking behind all of punished by the church by suspending him from priestly this, never mind the humiliating outcome for the church.8 functions. However, this ecclesiastical measure raises an German public life is far more censorial of unpopular additional question of great displeasure to the bishops' utterances—especially if they criticize the church—than many treasurer, namely, whether suspended priests are entitled to Americans would find acceptable. Example: A few years ago, a church pension just as regular priests are upon cessation a young woman, with a headband identifying her as a modern of active service. Purely legally speaking, the church is not Pagan witch, denounced Christian churches as being among obligated to compensate any priest suspended for "unethical" "the worst mass-murdering organizations in the world." She reasons. And since the church is not obligated to pay into was cited for "offending the Christian belief system" and a an equivalent of a social security fund, priests who risk court penalized her with a hefty fine. I am not familiar with suspension can find themselves financially stranded. any incident in Western societies where a person condemning The point is that the church holds almost total financial those responsible for Soviet communism's gulag, or Nazism's power over her priests and other employees, the sort of power genocide was punished for speaking up. In a nation pretending that can be mightily persuasive, because the church enjoys to allow free speech, any statement condemning genocide or an extralegal status as employer, which exempts her from mass murder should be allowed. It is a telling commentary the laws and regulations that otherwise govern employer- of the power of the church when the act of condemning the employee relationships (Arbeitsrecht) in the rest of the popu- history of her mass murder becomes a punishable offense. lation. I have personally experienced how the church's powerful arm reaches out and tries to control the cogs of academia. he traditional control of the church over divorce and My scholarly pursuit is particularly unpalatable to the church, Tremarriage of her members has continued undiminished. for it focuses on the social-psychological dimensions of the Innumerable Catholics queue up to obtain an annulment of European witch persecutions, a mania that ran its fiery course a marriage long since ended by divorce in civil court, paying for nearly 300 years, roughly from 1450 to 1750. The sine hefty fees to the church with the hope that they will be told qua non of accomplishing research into this subject is access that they may now remarry within Mother Church. to archives and to original documents from the time of the A new war cry has arisen in the Catholic hierarchy, one witch trials. My request for access to the archives in possession that echoes the protest against artificial means of reproduction. of the archbishop of Bamberg was denied with the remark It concerns the experimentation and advances in gene that "we have nothing on witches," in spite of the fact that technology and the scientific headway made in prenatal my studies in archives run by secular authorities—fortunately medicine and therapy. It has become a controversial and accessible to researchers—contained certain cross-references divisive issue in the church, and with few exceptions (curiously, indicating that pertinent material was indeed part of the the otherwise very conservative Bishop Lehmann is one) archbishop's archive. biogenetic engineering is regarded as interference with divine A related example deals with the Arbeitskreis Interdiszi- will and tacitly conjures up the old doctrine of predestination. plinärer Hexenforschung (interdisciplinary witch-research Most Catholic clergy see advances in this area of scientific group) of German scholars, mostly historians, whose common endeavor as a serious violation of divine volition and openly interest is the study of the witch persecution during the early thunder against them from pulpit and printed page. I have modern era. As an incredible irony, the physical facilities had personal encounters with priests who show relative serving as the meeting place where scholars periodically gather flexibility on issues of priests marrying, divorce/remarriage, to present their papers is the Catholic Educational Institute and various theological doctrines; but when it comes to gene of Rottenburg, owned and run by the bishopric of Rottenburg- technology, they recoil as if glimpsing the wicked snake of Stuttgart in southwestern Germany. The director is an the lost paradise. employee of the church and handles the logistics for these And then there is of course the controlling concept of Satan. conferences such as inviting scholars, organizing the agenda, He apparently is not only busy advancing gene technology, printing programs, arranging lodging, and so forth. Because but is still at work tormenting Teutonic souls. One of the my publications in the genre are well known in Germany,9 most spectacular manifestations of Satan's zeal took place inviting me to or at least notifying me of the meetings is

Winter 1993/94 31 an expected academic courtesy. Non-invitation could easily be branded as bias and cause the church embarrassment.1° "Secular humanism has a hard time to oppose But here is the problem: my writings have been openly critical of the role the church played in the witch persecution, whereas a church structure that has extended its much of the writings and lectures of many of my European tenacles into every nook and niche of society. colleagues play a muted harp and take refuge in historical The situation compares to frying to rid an relativism, i.e., exculpating the church of wrong-doing by allowing that "she did the best she could under the organism of cancerous growth; strings of conditions."!! So the leaders of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart unhealthy and of healthy tissues are tightly Institute were in a quandary when it came to the question interwoven." of inviting me. On the one hand they knew they should, on the other they did not want to provide me with a forum. They solved the quandary cleverly. They did invite me formally quitting church membership—Catholic as well as regularly, but always in such a manner that I would receive Protestant—a wave that has not yet subsided. announcement and invitation weeks after a meeting had taken Another inter-German fight raged over the issue of place. Three years ago, I pleaded with the director and asked abortion, which during the first four years after reunification him to send announcements and invitations via air mail, and was legal in the east but illegal in the west. A unified law I would send funds to cover the extra expense. No reply; was finally passed in the summer of 1993. It was a compromise the announcements still arrive post facto. according to which abortions became legal during the first It is important to understand two aspects of this scenario. twelve weeks of pregnancy, but the medical cost had to be First, the Catholic Institute offers to the research group its paid by the woman herself. Financial self-responsibility is a facilities at conveniently low cost, including rooms and meals rare sanction in a society where all other legal medical and sometimes even travel stipends. Financial dependency on procedures are paid for by the generous national medical the institute has developed. Second, the papers read at the insurance system. At the same time, a safe and inexpensive meetings (sometimes I have the late opportunity to read abortion technique, the so-called abortion pill, RU486, published papers) reflect played-down criticism of the role permissible in a number of other European countries, including of the church in the witch persecution, with the word France and England, is outlawed in Germany. It has been Inquisition avoided as much as possible.12 Ideological control suspected that this prohibition is the personal victory of has been accomplished. We are witnessing the irony of German Minister for Public Health, Horst Seehofer, who academic sheep congregating in the wolves' lair to sing hymns represents the biases of his political party, the Christian Social palatable to the wolves. Union, and appears determined to exercise a policy as Back to the larger picture. The power of the church has restrictive on abortion as the political scene can bear.14 not gone unchallenged. Challenges have come from the Challenges to the power of the church, financial and political opposition, the Social Democratic Party, with former otherwise, have come from additional sources. A number of chairman Hans-Jochen demanding an end to the church's brave writers have thrown down the gauntlet at the church. privilege to proceed according to her own labor laws. It is Foremost among them is Karlheinz Deschner who so far has time, he feels, that the church should be subject to the labor published three volumes of a projected ten-volume work, laws governing the rest of the nation's employers. In general, Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums (A Criminal History of so his party contends, the church should restrict her behavior Christianity vol. 1, 1986, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbeck bei and align it with her true identity: "A club with the Pope Hamburg). It is an exposé of enormous dimensions, a meticu- as chairman."13 lously researched account of the inhumanity and criminality Further challenges have arisen in the wake of the committed in the name of Christianity from its beginning to reunification of the two Germanies. When, in the 1950s, the the modern age. Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) was formed, Another brilliant source of challenge to Catholicism is a the new nation state continued to adhere to the Concordat. collection of essays edited by Beate Kuckertz Kreuzfeuer: Die But the new nation state of the German Democratic Republic Kritik an der Kirche (Cross Fire: The Critique of the Church)15 (East Germany) did not. The former GDR discontinued, in (Heyne Verlag, Munich, 1991). Contributions to this volume fact outlawed, the state-church liaison and inconvenienced the include inactive priest Peter de Rosa's "Der stille Holocaust" churches by having them rely on voluntary donations by ("The Quiet Holocaust"); journalist and press correspondent members. With reunification a few years ago, West Germany's Nino Lo Bello's, "Der Vatikan and die Juden" ("The Vatican adherence to the Concordat was imposed on the eastern half and the Jews"); author Karlheinz Deschner's "Ecrasez l'infame as well, although a large percentage of the population of these oder Über die Notwendigkeit, aus der Kirche auszutreten" Neue Bundesländer (confederate states of former East ("Stop the Infamy! The Moral Imperative to Quit the Germany) decidedly disliked the idea of the government Church"); professor of religious studies and noted pacifist Ute playing tax collector for the church. It looked as if the church Ranke-Heinemann's "Zur Moraltheologie des 20. Jahrhun- had won a financial as well as a political victory. But the derts" ("Moral Theology of the 20th Century"); professor of eastern population reacted with an unprecedented wave of church history Georg Denzler's "Abnormitäten" ("Abnormal-

32 FREE INQUIRY ities"); author, lecturer, inactive priest Hans Küng's "Kardinal humanity. Ratzinger, Papst Wojtyla and die Angst vor der Freiheit" 9. Examples: Hexen damals—und heute?, Frankfurt/ Main, Umschau Verlag, 1987 (add'l edition Ullstein Verlag, Berlin, 1990); Hexenjunge. (Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Wojytla, and the Fear of Free- Fallstudie eines Inquisitionsprozesses, Marburg, Verlag, 1992; various essays dom"); author and ethnologist Alfonso M. di Nola's "Der and research reports in Spirita, Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaften, in unserer Zeit" ("Satan in Our Time"); journalist Marburg. Teufel 10. The church shows great eagerness to be recognized as modern and Kenneth L. Woodward's "Heiligkeit and Sexualität" ("Saint- progressive. This is primarily motivated by the desire to attract and keep liness and Sexuality"); author and sanctioned priest Eugen young people. Therefore the thing she tries to avoid at nearly all cost Psychogramm eines Ideals" ("The is to be shown backward, obsolete, and afflicted with an inhumane history. Drewermann's "Kleriker For this reason she eschews confrontations with academics. The last thing Clergyman—Psychogram of Ideal"); ex-member of Opus Dei she wants is to be raked over by incensed scholars, for they are the ones Klaus Steigleder's "Opus Dei—eine Innenansicht" ("Opus who possess the only weapon the church really fears: knowledge. 11. This was the literal response by resident faculty to my lecture at Dei—View from the Inside"); author and professor of the University of Würzburg in the summer of 1992. Apparently many sociology Horst Herrmann's `Wie die Kirche mit unserem Geld German academics are apologists of church history, espouse a value-free überlebt" ("How the Church Survives with our Money"). view of that history, pay little heed to universal principles of human dignity, and appear unmoved by humanist pronouncements, such as John Dewey's: It is regrettable that there are at present no plans to translate "The existence of almost every conceivable type of social institution at Kuckertz's compendium into English, for the concerns these some time and place in the history of the world is evidence of the plasticity authors and editors are voicing aren't limited to the German of human nature. This fact does not prove that all these different social systems are of equal value materially, morally, and culturally."(From "Does scene; they apply to all situations where religious powers try Human Nature Change?" in Problems of Men, Philosophy Library, 1946, to breach the boundary between state and church, encroaching p. 191.) on the freedom of thought and on basic democratic principles. 12. When you consider that this study circle deals with a phenomenon that meant heinous death to hundreds of thousands (some historians' Finally, it should be noted that the German scene is not estimates run into the millions) of innocent persons, their uncritical attitude deprived of active organizations representing the humanist is astounding. (See references to estimates in Rossell H. Robbins, The philosophy, aspiring to a clearer separation of state and church Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology, New York: Crown Publishers, 1959, pp. 1-18; Brian P. Levak, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, and trying to reverse the infringements of churches on the New York: Longman, 1987, pp. 19-21.) private lives of citizens. A major organization of this type 13. "Um Gottes willen," Der Spiegel, op. cit. is Humanistischer Verband Deutschlands, which hosted the 14. "Fristenregelung," Spiegel, June 7, 1993, pp. 93-97. 15. Titles translated by this author. • European Humanist Congress in Berlin in July 1993. Yet, secular humanism has a hard time to oppose a church structure that has extended its tenacles into every nook and niche of society. The situation compares to trying to rid an organism of cancerous growth; strings of unhealthy and of healthy tissues are tightly interwoven. The question as to how to go about a therapy calls for a separate discussion; this Foster Humanist Growth 12/93 article limits itself to a step in the direction of diagnosis. for Years to Come. Provide for Notes FREE INQUIRY 1. The German government passes the collection plate not only for the Catholic church, but also for the Protestant churches. Also, nonbelievers in your will. may support humanist or freethinker organizations. 2. The churches often brag about their investment in such charitable Please remember FREE INQUIRY (CODESH, Inc.) institutions as hospitals and kindergartens. What is left unsaid, however, when planning your estate. Your bequest will help is that the church's investment usually amounts to merely 20 percent and to maintain the vitality of humanism in a society that the rest comes from the government and from the clientele, so that the investment is more business than charity. See: "Um Gottes willen," often hostile toward it. Der Spiegel, vol. 47, no. I I, March 15, 1993, p. 21. We would be happy to work with you and your 3. "Um Gottes willen," Der Spiegel, op. cit. attorney in the development of a will or estate 4. Pressestelle des Erzbishchöflichen 0rdinariates Bamberg, Wofür Kirchensteuer? Der Haushalt des Erzbistums Bamber 1992, Mai 1992. plan that meets your wishes. A variety of 5. Deschner, Karlheinz and Horst Herrmann, Der Anti-Katechismus. arrangements are possible, including gifts of a 200 Gründe gegen die Kirchen and für die Welt, Hamburg, Goldman Verlag, fixed amount or a percentage of your estate; 1991, pp. 25-26. 6. "Arbeitslose. Mehr Stütze für Ungläubige," Spiegel, July 26, 1993, living trusts or gift annuities, which provide you p. 77. with lifetime income; or a contingent bequest that 7. See details in Hans Sebald, Witchcraft—The Heritage of a Heresy provides for FREE INQUIRY only if your primary (New York: Elsevier, 1978), p. 233. 8. Among the sources that promoted a demonic interpretation of the beneficiaries do not survive you. episode was a particularly powerful one, a book that reached thousands For more information, contact Paul Kurtz, Editor of German homes: Felicitas Goodman, Anneliese Michel und ihre Dämonen, All inquiries will be held in the Stein am Rhein, Switzerland, Christiana Verlag, 1980. (A year later an of FREE INQUIRY. American edition was published: The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel, Garden strictest confidence. City, N.Y.: Doubleday.) From behind the veneer of an American anthropologist—whose renown until that time had lingered in certain New P.O. Box 664, Buffalo, New York 14226-0664. Age circles only—Goodman asserted that her "scientific" investigation has Or call 716-636-7571. shown no natural explanation for Michel's possession and that in fact new demons (real spiritual entities!) are tormenting twentieth-century

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