The German Blueprint for Wealth Redistribution

People are not sovereign when the sword of Damocles of arbitrary taxation hangs over them: once the state can seize assets at will, private property becomes borrowed possession -- and the citizen becomes a tax serf. 

Thomas Kolbe | September 4, 2026

The debate over introducing a wealth register is heating up once again. Under the guise of scientific research into wealth inequality, the German government plans to survey citizens on their assets as early as next year.

Will 2027 be the year the wealth register is introduced? Labor Minister Bärbel Bas confirmed this week on Bild that her ministry plans a representative survey of citizens next year on their assets and their views on distributive justice. A classic about-face by this government: just three weeks earlier, Bas had categorically ruled out any such plans.

Concretely, a tax-funded data collection effort involving roughly 5,000 citizens is planned. The rollout will run through an external research institute as part of an EU-wide tender, whose bidding deadline closed September 1.

"Survey experiment on wealth inequality in the population" is the innocuous-sounding name for this study -- likely nothing more than a first step toward a comprehensive wealth register.

Cloaked in the mantle of scientific inquiry, politics is edging, step by step, toward the sensitive issue that has hung over the political debate for years like a sword of Damocles: the wealth register. This register -- one of numerous European Union projects -- is ultimately........

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