Konstytucyjno-prawna analiza relacji między państwem a kościołami i związkami wyznaniowymi w niemieckiej Ustawie Zasadniczej
Constitutional-legal analysis of the relations between the state, churches and religious associations in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is a constitutional-legal analysis of the relations between the state, churches and religious associations in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.The structural flexibility of the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Grundgesetz, GG) is surprising in two ways. Firstly, because, conceived in 1949 as a provisional constitution, it proved to be not only a remarkably durable creation but also a useful (and convenient) tool with which the restoration of German-wide state unity was accomplished in 1990. Secondly, however, because of the regulation of Article 140 of the Basic Law. For it is not often that we come across a regulation in the text of a constitution currently in force, whereby the provisions of the previous basic law are transferred to the new one in their entirety and without any changes. The case in the German constitutional reality pertains to the relations between the state, churches and religious associations. Accordingto article 140 of the Basic Law, the regulations of articles 136, 137, 138, 139 and 141 of the Weimar Constitution (Weimarer Reichsverfassung, WRV) indeed constitute an integral part of the Basic Law of 23 May 1949.The author puts forward the hypothesis that if one views the current German constitution (but with old regulations) from the perspective of its flexibility, it can be said that the systemic separation of church(es) and state, known and practiced in the world since the French Revolution of 1789, is not (and was not) the model of state/church separation inGermany, i.e. one in which the state maintains religious neutrality, and the churches remain autonomous in their activities in relation to it.

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