They get tax money from members of the church. You can leave the church at any time. But they also get tax money for administrating things like kindergartens and old people's homes, which is an issue because while they get tax money for this they can make the rules however they like. There have been cases where people who worked in e.g. kindergartens lost their job because they got divorced

[–] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

Yeah, basically the two big churches don't have to lift a finger to get all of their members to pay up because the state is doing it for them. Opt-out costs a one time fee even, at least in Germany.