No Camping for Scientology

Administrative Court Upholds City's Advertising Ban

For the second year running the controversial "Scientology" sect has failed in its application to erect large, yellow advertising tents in key locations of the city. The Bavarian administrative court has again confirmed that the municipal regulatory authority is entitled to ban such events. The judges of the court's 8th division continue to doubt that Scientology could be classified as a religion or an ideological association. However, the question of whether the allegedly spiritual objectives of the movement are not merely a pretext for business activities with as few restraints as possible has not yet been settled.

The judges considered it "perfectly understandable" that the district council put the Scientologists' tent events in the "commercial" category. The court's ruling cites a few examples to feed this suspicion. Statutory declarations by members of the sect were unable to dispel the regulatory authority's fears. The possibility that any interested visitors would be offered services or publications for which they would have to pay by making "more or less voluntary donations" could not be ruled out.

Apparently the Scientologists had in any case applied too late for permission to hold their events. According to current municipal regulations, the authorities would have to be notified of such plans at least two months in advance. Since the district committee always hears any application within six weeks, there could be no objection to such a regulation either. It was this aspect in particular that the administrative court in Munich had not taken into sufficient consideration when (as reported) it partially accepted the application submitted by Scientology and was inclined to allow a tent to be erected at Odeonsplatz for eight hours.

Scientology Deutschland e.V., an organisation trading as a "church", later criticised the judges: "Anyone reading the reasons for the judgment put forward by the Bavarian administrative court on behalf of Munich, the regional capital, might start to doubt the independence of the court." The administrative court was said to hear "fleas coughing" if, based on impressions gained from the city's "distorted presentations", it suspected that potential donations made to honorary ministers had "commercial objectives".

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