This page is part of a site which has since been updated and
renamed to Church of Scientology Human Rights Office
Click here to access the new site.

Continued

A concerted effort to amend data protection safeguards to collect and exchange information on Scientology organizations and parishioners continues to occur throughout Germany. A resolution of the Conference of Ministers of Finance in February 1995 noted that legal restrictions on sharing confidential tax information with other offices impeded “cooperation” in fighting “youth-sects” and requested the transmission of information and findings by other offices and private organizations for purposes of investigation and the denial of tax privileges.¹²³ Likewise, a resolution of the Conference of Ministers and Senators of the Interior in May 1995 called for the concerted centralization and evaluation of all investigative information on Scientology through the combined efforts of all authorities. The resolution also called for the revocation of the corporate status of Scientology organizations as soon as possible.¹²⁴

City and Community Governments

On October 30, 1995, the city of Stuttgart issued a decree prohibiting the public distribution of any printed matter from the Stuttgart Church or from the Mother Church of Scientology, Church of Scientology International. This decree was issued to stop people from learning about Scientology and to stop the dissemination of articles detailing human rights violations against Scientologists in Germany.¹²⁵

In 1989, some Scientologists decided to establish a school for Scientology children in the village of Hoisdorf located in the State of Schleswig-Holstein. In coordination with a private “Sect Commissioner”, the federally-funded AGPF and the media, an intensive anti-Scientology misinformation campaign was launched by the government to create an atmosphere of animus against Scientologists, to “scare Scientology away.” The town’s mayor informed the press that, "this sect is like an epidemic which must be fought."¹²⁶ When a Scientology child was assaulted as a “sect-pig” in Hoisdorf, the planned school was moved to a new site near the village of Seedorf.

After an anti-Scientology campaign similar to the one in Hoisdorf, the Seedorf District Council adopted a resolution stating that it would “exhaust all possibilities to prevent the establishment of the school” and that “Scientology is unwelcome.”¹²⁷

A similar resolution by the City Council of Iserlohn-Letmathe in Northrhine-Westfalia was passed “warning” the public “against” Scientology and stating that it would “protect” the public from Scientology when it was learned that some residents were Scientologists.¹²⁸

As a result, a family of Scientologists who had been residing in the town for 50 years and had been well regarded in the community, suddenly found themselves the targets of a hate campaign fueled by public hysteria. The family became social outcasts; neighbors forbade their children to play with Scientology children. The City Council of Iserlohn cancelled on-going negotiations for the purchase of a piece of land by the family simply due to their religious beliefs and approved a resolution “chasing this horrible sect out of the village.” The family had planned to purchase the land to build a kindergarten.¹²⁹

In Ratingen, also part of the State Northrhine-Westfalia, an information stand applied for by an individual Scientologist for an information campaign for child drug prevention was denied on the grounds that “the Church of Scientology is considered to be an endangerment to youth” and the information stand “would cause a potential danger to public security and order.”¹³⁰