Well, the bit about honestly having been stolen was of course irony. We are dealing here with times of the Middle Ages, yes the Migration Period, partly late Roman times; Germany’s oldest church in Trier dates from the time of Emperor Constantine. There were donations to the church, some genuine and honest, just as well as donations as bribes to get a well-paid bishopric. There were monasteries that made swamp and moorland arable, and this wasteland was then handed over to them as thanks because it had become land. Etc. The whole thing is complex and unfairly judged if you apply our standards. One thing is certain, these lands do not rightfully belong to the state anyway. And if one gets upset about churches owning prime downtown locations, one should also consider that where this land is today there probably wasn’t even a city a thousand years ago, but only a wilderness monastery that built a church there, which later became the cathedral. In any case, for those wanting to build, the church as a hereditary leaseholder and for farmers as a donor of long-term leased land is not a bad address, and often more ethically upright than municipal administrations that sell off new development areas by bidding procedures. Karsten