La séparation de l’Eglise et de l’Etat

The Weimar Constitution (1919) established the separation between Church and State (Art. 137.1 : There shall be no State Church...), by recognising individual rights such as religious freedom and religious equality. However, following the political action taken by conservative forces within Protestant Churches against social-democrat founders of the Republic, as religious societies (Religionsgesellschaften), the former State Churches were granted special status. They were attributed the status of corporations under public law (Körperschaften des öffentlichen Rechts) with an internal legal autonomy, they preserve the right to maintain Faculties of Theology in universities and religious instruction in schools and the State continues to levy Church Taxes. Other Churches and organisations are governed, as religious communities (Religiongemeinschaften), by the law on associations.