the creation of document centers on members of minority religions and legislation justifying circumvention of data protection principles in order to identify, isolate and ostracize Scientologists simply due to their religious beliefs;
continued compilation and dissemination of official information condemning Scientology beliefs and practices and denigrating Scientology parishioners;
denial of children of Scientologists to enter kindergarten and other schools due to their parents’ beliefs;
government and private blacklisting of Scientology artists;
the adoption of measures to stop the practice and growth of Scientology throughout Germany;
the compilation and distribution of “blacklists” of Scientology parishioners to discourage social relations and to encourage economic boycotts of Scientologists by the public and private sector “so that no business of any kind is done with Scientology organizations;”
the enactment of local ordinances prohibiting the dissemination of Scientology publications;
the enactment of a measure not to rent public halls in Hamburg to Scientologists even for secular use;
the enactment of a measure to ensure no sale of real property to Scientology organizations in Hamburg to inhibit its growth.
This paper provides a summary of the ongoing pattern of gross violations of human rights experienced by Scientologists in Germany. German Scientologists have been systematically stripped of their fundamental rights and reduced to second class citizens simply because of their personal beliefs and religious association. The German government is directly responsible for creating this climate of intolerance towards Scientologists and members of other targeted minority religions in Germany in violation of legally binding human rights instruments.
The continued human rights violations against Scientologists in Germany have been the subject of human rights reports by international human rights organizations, the United Nations, the United States State Department and the United States Helsinki Commission.
Although the United Nations proclaimed 1995 as the “United Nations International Year for Tolerance,” minority religious intolerance in the Federal Republic of Germany remains a scourge at the heart of official repression that has shattered the cherished universal principle of religious tolerance.
Human rights organizations, concerned citizens and responsible government officials must take effective action to bring an end to minority religious discrimination in today’s Germany.
