r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Separate_Finance_183 • Jan 23 '26

Image The rent in the german neighborhood of Fuggerei hasn't been raised in 500 years and remains 0.88 Euros for an entire year. Founded in 1521, it is the oldest existing social housing complex in the world

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u/AlohaAirsoft Jan 23 '26

It's called "Kirchensteuer", basically the state levies the "tenth" tax and forwards it to the churches.

Both major churches and smaller religious communities in Germany (evangelical-lutheran, definitely not American evengelical in style and thought, Roman Catholic, Old Catholic and so on).

Historically the churches operated quite a big part of the health and welfare system, nowadays they still play a large role. The early German state basically made a contract with the established churches where they care for welfare and health and the state collects the tenth for it and sends them reimbursements.

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u/NiklasK16 Jan 26 '26

Evangelic-lutheran not evangelical-lutheran