It is not that easy. Once upon a time, the church had its own estates, where the church collect own taxes and so own. So the church was able to finance itself from revenues of its land.
Then, with secularization, the property of the church was confiscated. Wth that, the church lost most of its power but also lost the ability to finance itself. The consequences are still noticeable today.
The Weimarer Constitution from 1919 already stipulated, that the payments should be replaced by a one-time compensation. And after WW2, the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany also stipulated such a one-time compensation.
Only there were never corresponding negotiations by the politicians since nearly 100 years. This is the reason, why the germans still pay compensation for the confiscation of church property.
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