Institutional separation and freedom for individuals.
The question concerns institutions and responsibilities. Holding a religious office does not automatically confer governmental power. Equally, the state cannot simply prescribe one compulsory religion for everyone.
People may be religious or non-religious. They can participate in political life as citizens. Their personal convictions do not turn a public institution into a religious community.
The other three answers
None of the other three statements describes the constitutional arrangement.
religious communities form the state.
Religious communities do not constitute the state. They are distinct communities within the legal order.
the state is dependent on religious communities.
State authority does not depend on approval from religious institutions.
the state and religious communities form a unity.
State and religious communities are not one institutional entity. Regulated cooperation does not change that.
Separation does not prohibit all cooperation.
The Basic Law also provides for cooperation, for example in religious education under the specified conditions. It also allows public-law status and certain forms of taxation for religious communities.
These arrangements mean neither a state church nor a duty to be religious. Specific legal rules govern individual questions; the exam answer describes the basic relationship.
Article 140 · Basic Law ↗Separate institutions, protected religious freedom.
Distinguish personal convictions from public responsibilities and possible cooperation.
Three words for this question
- die Religionsgemeinschaftreligious community
- A community for practising religion together.
- die Staatskirchestate church
- An official church institutionally united with the state.
- die Weltanschauungworldview
- A fundamental understanding of life and the world.