Comments by "Sebastian Nolte" (@sebastiannolte1201) on "Type Ashton" channel.

  1. Although it is called "Kirchensteuer"("Steuer" = "Tax") also in German, it is not an actual tax. It is basically the membership fee for the church - the government is only service provider who collects it in the name of the church, together with the taxes. if you don't want to pay it, then you just have to leave the church. The thing is that when kids are baptised they automatically get church members, and then they have to actively quit as an adult (it is possible when you have the age of 14). When you are an employee, you don't even have to actively pay you taxes - your employer does it for you. They salary, hat you get, is already without the taxes. So a tax declaration is voluntary. You can do it, if you want to get some money back. Because of that when you star a job, you have to inform your employer at what health insurance company you are (because the employer also pay that) and if you are a church member (and which one). As a freelancer you have to do a tax declaration, and so when you fill out the forms and tell how much money you have earned in that year, you also if you are a member of the church and which one. And then the tax office tells you the overall taxes that you have to pay.
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  2. Ich war mal auf einer WG-Party in Hamburg an einem Samstag Abend. Die haben einen vorher einen Zettel im Flur ausgehangen, wo sie die Party angekündigt haben (macht man ja netterweise so). Ein Nachbar hatte darunter dann selbst was aufgehängt: Einen Zeitungsausschnitt über einen Gerichtsurteil und der Überschrift "Es gibt kein Recht auf Party" 😁
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  3. Exactly, although also in German we say "Kirchensteuer" it is not an actual "tax". It is the "membership fee" for the church, but paid together with the actual tax. So you could say that the state here only works as the service provider who collects it and give it to the church. And offtopic, but sometimes I also hear about "TV tax" in "Americans in Germany" videos, which is also wrong. Actually it is important that the ÖRR is NOT funded by taxes. That is the basic idea behind it.
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  4. I don't think it is necessary to mention it here, because it is not a German problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_sexual_abuse_cases
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  5. Concerning "Don't wear Joggingpants": Probably it is also because I am a man, but I think also German women often don't dress up so fancy when they go out. So the difference between what you wear to go to Uni and what you wear when you go out in the evening is not that big. So that means: When I leave the house I put on Jeans, T-Shirt, Sneakers. No matter if it is for work, shopping, or going to a party.
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