Germany

Learn about Scientology history and controversies in Germany.

Germany in the News

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December 8, 2007 Germany Prepares To Ban Scientology Erhart Korting, Berlin's Interior Minister, who chaired the meeting, insisted afterwards: "All ministers present were unanimous in their view that Scientology is an organisation not compatible with the constitution." He said steps would be taken to implement a ban. Hamburg's Interior Minister, Udo Nagel, the chief proponent of the ban, described the organisation as a "psycho-ideology" which aims at the "total suppression of the individual". Germany, Press, Scientology and Society
October 1, 2006 German Police Told To Target Scientologists Germans are being warned of the 'danger' of Scientology amid growing concerns over the numbers of after-school tutoring programmes springing up across the country. The government has told internal security forces to step up their scrutiny of the movement, claiming that the Scientologists, which they label a cult, are seeking to take advantage of Germany's ailing education system as a means to recruit children. It has prompted US embassy officials to lobby the German government on the sect's behalf. Germany, Press, Scientology and Society, Stealth Scientology
November 4, 2000 Microsoft Deletes Scientology An insurance company has sued a branch of the Church of Scientology, alleging it was underpaid for a workers' compensation policy. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. claims in a lawsuit filed Monday that the church's Flag Service Organization owes $378,873 in premiums and fees assessed after an audit turned up employees who had been covered under the policy but were "not yet paid for." Germany, Press, Scientology and Society
October 5, 2000 Scientology Organization Sues Interior Agency and "Sect Commissioner" The Scientologists are showing that they are lawsuit-happy. They intend to prohibit the Hamburg Interior Agency from letting their sect commissioner Ursula Caberta continue her research and information work on the Scientology Organization. A cease-and-desist application was filed yesterday by Munich attorney Wilhelm Bluemel in the Hamburg Administrative Court to that effect, verified court spokeswoman Angelika Huusmann. Germany, Hamburg, lawsuits, Press, Scientology and Society, Ursula Caberta
April 7, 2000 Scientology Increasing Activities - Looking At Driving Schools With massive financial support and personnel from the USA, the Scientologists are again increasingly active in Hamburg. It is primarily the organization's intelligence service, the "Office of Special Affairs (OSA)" which has significantly increased its activity in recent times, reports Ursula Caberta. It is reported that organization opponents are being increasingly spied and eavesdropped upon and harassed. After they have been partly squeezed out of the real estate business, the Scientologists in Hamburg currently have their sights set on driving schools, among other things, according to Caberta. Germany, Press, Scientology in the Workplace
April 2, 1998 U.N. Derides Scientologists' Charges About German 'Persecution' A United Nations special investigator today rejected charges by the Scientology movement that the German Government is using Nazi tactics of persecution and ill treatment against it. "This comparison between modern Germany and Nazi Germany is so shocking as to be meaningless and puerile," the investigator said in issuing his report. The report counters criticisms made by Scientologists, and by the United States State Department in its annual human rights report. Germany, Press
November 30, 1997 Germany vs. Scientology To explain the furious hostility between Germany and the Church of Scientology, German officials might point to the story of a young man from Braunschweig named Jurgen Behrndt. In Behrndt's first year of membership, Scientology officials visited his parents with him seeking a DM 75,000 ($50,250) loan toward his activities. By the time he broke from the group in 1995, Behrndt had spent some DM 200,000 ($134,000), was unemployed and emotionally ravaged: "Many days I saw no reason to even get up." Germany, Press, Scientology and Society
November 14, 1997 Letters To The Editor on Scientology How can the U.S. government criticize Germany for regarding Scientology as a business and not a as tax-exempt religion, a legal ruling the United States held for 25 years? Could it really be possible under U.S. immigration law that, by the mere act of not being given tax-exempt status, German Scientologists would be allowed to seek asylum in the United States for religious persecution? Above all, why must Germany subscribe to the same religious definitions as the United States? Germany, Press, Scientology and Society
November 13, 1997 Germany: Scientology Stand To Be Explained The Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology is - in Germany, at least - more of a business concern than a religion, and accuses it of exploiting the insecurities of its members for economic gain. Germany, Press, Scientology and Society
November 8, 1997 U.S. Immigration Court Grants Asylum to German Scientologist A Federal immigration court judge has granted asylum to a German member of the Church of Scientology who claimed that she would be subjected to religious persecution had she been required to return to her homeland, the woman's lawyer and a Scientology official said today. While few details of the case were available, it is believed to be the first time the United States has given asylum protection to a Scientologist. Germany, Press, Scientology and Society