Beneficiary Foundation Association
The beneficiary foundation association of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria represents and administers the beneficiary foundations in the Free State of Bavaria and uses their income to pay pastors.
Sinecures (to althochdt. Pfruonta = livelihood, Medieval-. Praebenda ) is a right conferred on the enjoyment and security of income good or right, which was usually connected to a ministry. In earlier centuries, the pastors were paid via the benefice , i.e. via arable land and forest. Unlike today, the pastor did not receive a salary from a central office of the regional church , but lived on the yield from the land. He even managed some of them himself.
If churches were built in earlier centuries, there had to be two foundations : On the one hand, the church foundation for the construction and maintenance of places of worship, and on the other hand the beneficiary foundation, which was used to pay the clergy. For a long time the pastor was responsible for the administration and management of the property; in addition to his pastoral duties, a considerable effort.
In 1935, the Association of Beneficiaries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (ELKB) was founded to bring together the 1,886 beneficiary foundations of the Protestant parishes . These foundations exist mainly in the areas where Protestant parishes have consistently existed since the Reformation. The association represents and administers the beneficiary foundations as a corporation under public law . The proceeds are used to pay the pastors.
119 houses and around 7,000 hectares of forest, meadows and fields are currently managed by almost 3,900 tenants. In addition, there are 87 hectares that are not leased (wasteland, fallow land). However, these areas are often ecologically interesting.
This makes the Evangelical Lutheran Beneficiary Association in Bavaria one of the largest landowners in the Free State.
Bodies
The regional church council is responsible for the management and supervision of the beneficiary foundation association and appoints the board of directors . This board of directors is usually the Oberkirchenrat, which is responsible for finances, currently Erich Theodor Barzen. The regional church council has delegated the supervision of the foundation to OKR Hans-Peter Hübner, who should ensure that there is no avoidable loss of substance in the foundation's assets. The department head of the beneficiary foundation association has been merged with the position of the property officer of the ELKB since 1997 and has been provisionally taken over by Jörg Heinzler since March 2012. In cooperation with the board of directors, he is responsible for strategic planning and for the processes of operational business: leases, leaseholds, financial investments and investment properties.