Distributed a good 18 billion euros
CSU polter: Bavaria again top payer of the financial equalization
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The distribution of money in Germany has long been a nuisance. The numbers of the current country financial equalization do not change that, on the contrary. Bavaria again pays more than half of the total – and demands changes. However, Munich itself benefited from this for a long time.
As part of the country financial equalization, around 18.65 billion euros were redistributed in Germany in 2024. Bavaria was again the biggest depositor, the Free State is around 9.77 billion euros 52 percent of the total volume and thus pays seven percent more compared to the previous year. More than two thirds of the money, 13.92 billion euros, flow to East Germany. This emerges from a submission of the Federal Ministry of Finance.
“The official figures of the Federal Ministry of Finance confirmed our fears,” said Bavaria's finance minister Albert Füracker. Bavaria has to put another number burden at a record level for 2024, again the Free State contributes over half of the entire compensation volume to the solidarity community of the federal states. This is “at the expense of our own financial strength and thus the citizens of Bavaria”. The data is again the proof that the financial strength compensation, as the state financial equalization is officially mentioned, “has gone completely out of hand and that a fundamental revision is necessary”.
Other people are Baden-Württemberg (around 5.03 billion euros), Hesse (3.73 billion euros) and Hamburg (106 million euros). Rhineland-Palatinate switched from the donor to the side of the Getnerländer last year, the country received 524 million euros.
Profitors are Eastern federal states, Lower Saxony and Bremen
Berlin remained the largest recipient country with around 3.94 billion euros, followed by Saxony (around 3.25 billion) and Thuringia (2.04 billion). Saxony-Anhalt (1.81 billion), Brandenburg (1.44 billion) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (1.42 billion) also benefited from the redistribution.
Among the western federal states are Lower Saxony (1.53 billion), Bremen (925 million) and North Rhine-Westphalia (847 million). The Saarland went 630 million euros, followed by Rhineland-Palatinate (524 million) and Schleswig-Holstein (267 million).
In 2023, Bayern filed a lawsuit in Karlsruhe
The state financial equalization distributes money between financially strong and financially weak countries and is intended to ensure almost the same living conditions in Germany. Bavaria had filed a lawsuit against the state financial equalization at the Federal Constitutional Court in 2023 because it has been depositing most of the money for years. When the court will make a decision is still completely open.
“It was right and important to take the way to Karlsruhe against this intolerable state,” emphasized Füracker. The lawsuit offers the chance of a compensation system “in which solidarity and fairness are back in the right relationship”. A financial equalization that has continued such a clear imbalance at the expense of a single donor for years, has nothing to do with solidarity. “For a return to a fair compensation system, the countries of the countries also have to meet their personal responsibility much more,” said Füracker.
However, Bavaria has also benefited from the financial equalization for decades since which was officially introduced in 1951. According to the scientific service of the Bundestag, Bavaria received money from it up to and including 1986. The state of 1989 was paid for the first time. Baden-Württemberg is the only federal state that has always been a Geberland since 1951. Except for a few years, this also applies to Hesse. Hamburg has always paid in money except for a few years and rarely benefited. In total, Bavaria has so far contributed the largest total amount to the country financial compensation.
