Since the Attac case in early 2019 the public benefit status of non-profit organisations in Germany has been repeatedly weakened. The current law is a threat to organisations engaging in non-profit political counselling and action – which poses a threat to all charities and human rights defenders. In 2019 we were faced with four more cases in which tax authorities revoked or refused to grant the public benefit status.
A special one is the case of the VVN-BdA (Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes; the Association of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime/Federation of Antifascists), founded by Holocaust survivors and resistance fighters of the Nazi dictatorship in 1947.
The English Service of Deutsche Welle explains this case and the enacted legislative amendments by the German Federal Ministry of Finance.