Treaty between the Holy See and the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
The contract between the Holy See and the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen dated November 21, 2003 regulates the cooperation between the Roman Catholic Church and the city-state of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen , in particular the financing of church work. It came into force on May 14, 2004 after mutual ratification .
The contract could only come into being after the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the federal government, due to the cultural sovereignty of the states ( Art. 30 in conjunction with Art. 70 of the Basic Law ), does not have the right to conclude state church treaties in areas of state legislation (particularly in the area of schools and religious education ). This also applies to concordats , since the Holy See is not a foreign state.
content
In the first articles of the treaty reference is made to creed, freedom of belief and independence, whereby Art. 4 in particular requires special attention, since here the Roman Catholic Church has the right to run supplementary and substitute schools as well as universities and instead of biblical ones History to teach their own denominational religion classes. Another special feature is that, contrary to agreements with other federal states, religious instruction in the real sense must be granted here “only” at private schools.
The following articles contain regulations on the preservation of monuments , cemeteries and general ideas.
prehistory
Because the history between the Holy See and the city of Bremen was not always characterized by friendship, a state church treaty was only concluded in 2003, also to finally clarify the problem of the Bremen clause . The Bremen clause applies in all the old federal states that had a school law before the Basic Law.
In return, one can assume that the Holy See of the city of Bremen, recognizing Art. 141 of the Basic Law, guarantees relative legal security, as is also represented in the prevailing literature .
Abstract:
"Regarding Article 4 Paragraph 3: (1) Without prejudice to its fundamental view that the cooperation of state and church in the school system requires the provision of denominational religious instruction within the meaning of Article 7 Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law as a regular subject in public schools, the Catholic Church accepts the special status of teaching in Biblical history on a generally Christian basis in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen according to Article 141 of the Basic Law and Article 32 of the State Constitution of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. "
In advance, constitutional lawyers discussed whether the Reich Concordat from 1933 was even effective. The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the Reich Concordat was effective and that it was valid domestically during the National Socialist era. The Concordat continued to apply after the Federal Republic of Germany was founded. The Federal Constitutional Court found, however, that the federal states are not obliged by federal channels to comply with the provisions of the Reich Concordat.
See also
literature
- Gerhard Schulz: New Controversies in Contemporary German History: Church History, Parties and Reich Concordat. In: Der Staat 22 (1983), pp. 578-604.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bremen Town Hall (PDF; 76 kB) Treaty between the Holy See and the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen
- ↑ Bremisches Gesetzblatt, p. 211
- ↑ Judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court, BVerfGE 6, 309 , line 150
- ^ Judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court, BVerfGE 6, 309 , Z 178