Date: Tue, 06 Jun 2000 18:08:57 +0200
Message-ID: <ca7qjsst8msd8qh2h1iuj9a8skksggvsps@4ax.com>
FAQ: scientology in Germany The following FAQ is trying to answer a few commonly asked questions about scientology in Germany, and to correct some common misconceptions by readers or some blatant inaccuracies by scientology.
This FAQ can be found here:
http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/faq-you/germany.txt A third-party HTML version can be found here:
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/faq.html 1. Is scientology a religion in Germany ?
2. Under what status does scientology operate in Germany?
3. How is scientology doing in german courts?
4. What's the meaning of legal precedents in german courts?
5. How is scientology reacting about the labor court decision ?
6. What about the "InSects" booklet ?
7. What's going on with Chick Corea?
8. Hasn't a criminal investigation on scientology been closed?
9. Were any scientologists sent to jail?
10. How many scientology members are there in Germany?
11. Any links between Scientology and right-extremists?
12. Does scientology get money through real-estate deals of its members?
13. Were children expelled out of Kindergartens?
14. Why is Germany more attacked by scientology than other countries?
15. Who is Ursula Caberta?
16. Who is Wiebke Hansen?
17. What are the human rights violations against scientology?
18. Does scientology own a german beer company?
19. Are there similarities between pictures in the SS magazine "Der Stürmer" and german newspapers?
20. Did political parties exclude scientologists?
21. Did the State Department mention Germany negatively?
22. Did a UN report mention Germany negatively?
23. Did the CSCE mention Germany negatively?
24. How does the german constitution protect religions?
25. What is the german "church tax"?
26. What exactly does the labor court decision say?
27. What was decided in Bavaria?
28. What does the german population think about scientology?
29. Why are some people against the secret service snooping on scientology?
30. What is Kurt Weiland's early record in Germany?
31. Have any german scientology officials been indicted?
32. Why does scientology make such off-base accusations against Germany?
33. Overview of recent legal trouble by scientology / scientologists 1. Is scientology a religion in Germany ?
Clearly not. But for a full answer to that, the best is to show what status real religions have:
a) Public law corporations Beyond the basic tax-exempt status, state governments grant certain religious groups "public-law corporation" status. This status entitles an organization to levy taxes on its members; the taxes are collected by the state and distributed proportionally to the religious group's enrolled membership. State governments also subsidize various institutions affiliated with such public-law corporations, such as schools and hospitals. In order to attain public-law corporation status, a religious organization much show that its constitution and membership offer an assurance of its permanency. Although commonly thought to include only the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, Jewish congregations, and a few small free churches, the number of religious groups that have acquired public law corporation status is significantly larger.
[text from state dept. human rights report 1997] It requires that a community exists for a significant amount of time (thumb rule: 30 years), has a significant amount of members (thumb rule:
1/1000 of the population in the state, only "full members" are counted), and respects the constitution. Scientology once made a call for "10,000 IAS lifetime members" in the hope to get that status. I have no indication whether they were able to reach their goal.
(An older paper article in German that explains this "public body"
status in the context of the JW litigation is available on request) b) Corporation for the public benefit "Gemeinnütziger Verein"
This status is rather easy to get and is analog to IRS 501c3 but requires honest bookkeeping. It is a non-profit community that delivers something for the public. This can be religious, charitable or educational. While it may be that scientology orgs had that status decades ago, I do not know any that has it today.
c) Be seen as religion by the courts Although scientology has won some cases in courts, the record today does not look very good for them. Most famous is the decision of the labor court telling that they are *not* a religion.
2. Under what status does scientology operate in Germany?
Mostly as non-profit community "Eingetragener Verein". Easy to register - you just need seven people and a notary who makes the core contract "Satzung". You can have almost everything in it, from rabbit breeders to foot fetishists. It rather very difficult to force the deregistration of such a community, but city officials have successfully prevented scientologists to register new communities, or have forced communities to register their book and course sales through a separate, for-profit entity. The most successful was Hamburg who won a court case all the way up to the federal administrative court (see legal part). Other cities have won too; in some cities, scientology has even agreed to register their business as such and has withdrawn lawsuits.
3. How is scientology doing in german courts?
a) Analysis of scientology's point of view Scientology alleges that there are 25, 30, 57 or 43 german court decisions saying that "scientology is a religion". I have waited to receive them for over a year. I asked publicly for exact court reference numbers, for description of the litigation, and for names of the parties involved, and whether the decisions are final. No answer.
I am particularly interested in the 1985 decision about Karl-Friedrich Munz. The court reference number mentioned is the FAX number of the court. Nevertheless, I was able to find the court decision number (it was printed in a small photo in "Freiheit", where they claimed it was a 1995 decision). I called the court. The clerk was very helpful, and called me back later to tell me that the decision had been routinely destroyed long ago, as is always done with "Ordnungswidrigkeiten" (minor non-criminal cases, like false parking).
The description of the web page of Leisa Goodman is misleading. Through matching with an excerpt posted by another scientologist (Andrew Milne) it came out what I assumed: Lie-sa had printed the self-description of scientology that was mentioned by the court as such. I have still to see that court decision.
In "Freiheit" the scientologists are also misrepresenting decisions, e.g. they claim that the federal administrative court confirmed the religious character of scientology. This is a 100% lie - the court left it open.
b) Analysis of what's actually happening Scientology and Scientologists have both lost and won court cases.
They have won court cases against writer Renate Hartwig who had to change her book at least twice; won the right to distribute "Freedom" on the streets (because it is both commercial and opinion) in Hamburg; won against being forced out of non-profit status in Stuttgart (pending!);
won against being denied to run an au-pair service; won in 1988 the right to distribute material in Berlin (now no longer applicable); won an injunction against distribution of a publication in Hamburg; aquitted after distributing materials in Freiburg (contradicts a parallel court), won an injunction against the "outing" of Sabine Haag, the wife of a well-known scientologist.
They have lost a lot more, like being forced to register a commercial business in Hamburg; forced to repay course fees; forced to return a "freeloader bill"; being declared as "not a religion" (this is the "labor court decision"); denied an injunction against strong-worded statements by a Minister; being prohibited to recruit on the streets of Stuttgart; denied an injunction against information in schools; fined for insulting a reverend in writing; denied to skip the draft for "religious reasons".
An overview of won and lost cases can be found here:
http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/ 4. What's the meaning of legal precedents in german courts?
(I am not an attorney. German attorneys - please confirm this!!!!!) It is much, much less significant than in UK or US courts. On the lowest level, each court decides for itself, although it will usually not contradict a decision by the higher court in the state, since he would look foolish on appeal.
On the middle level (OLG / OVG), courts can still rule differently than courts on the same level. They will or will not allow review by the federal court. Review is allowed if a) the issue is an important law question or b) the court ruled differently than the federal court. If review is not allowed, a party can "complain" about not being allowed and the federal court will decide on the complaint. If review is allowed, the federal court will look at the court files and analyse them. There is usually just a short hearing; there is not much the two parties can do. The federal court will then upheld the decision or send it back for retrial.
It is important to understand that precedents are usually not binding - they *can* be mentioned. They are used rather as a help for the court, who can read them and see if they can be reused.
It is also possible to complain to the constitutional court (BVerfG), if a party alleges that a decision or a law violates the german constitution. The court often refuses to hear cases, sometimes without comment, sometimes with the comment that ordinary courts haven't been used, sometimes others. Scientology once lost a case in which the constitutional court ruled that offering personality tests is a "missionary activity" and not "practice of religion".
A description of the german court system can be found here:
http://www.bundesregierung.de/ausland/system/sys05.html 5. How is scientology reacting about the labor court decision ?
That is the decision saying that scientology is not a religion. It was a devastating loss for scientology.
a) "We weren't heard"
This was said by Franz Riedl on one TV show, and is a blatant lie.
b) "We were heard but they didn't accept our documents"
This was said by Andrew Milne. The court got scientology's own books;
about the half of the very long court decision are scientology texts.
c) "We heard about the decision from the press"
This is true, but not unusual at all. The courts do this very often, and it often leads to the result of the loser saying "I cannot comment, I do not have the written decision yet".
d) "The court was biased"
Means "we lost but we can't behave like adults"
e) "The court ignored lower decisions"
This is 1. not true (some lower decisions did say that scientology is not a religion), 2. not unusual since higher courts sometimes overturn lower court decisions. That's why people go to these courts!
f) "It is the result of enlightment campaigns directed at judges and state attorneys"
This remark is unlogical and probably a blatant lie. If the judge was present at such a seminar, then the scientologists could have filed a motion to force the judge(s) to step down. Scientology has not alleged this! Scientology has also never alleged that a judge did attend such a seminar. That state attorneys are attending such seminars is just fair, as they have to be informed about criminality.
g) "It's not over and we will appeal to the european court"
Nothing like that ever happened. It *is* over. They cannot appeal. They could have gone to the federal constitution court, but didn't. They know why: such a decision would be the end and would be *binding* to lower courts.
h) "The decision is irrelevant to lower courts and has never been used by them"
The decision has already been used in the following court cases (and probably others) lost by scientology:
- The Blüm appeal (OVG Münster, Az: 5 B 993/95) - The Corea appeal (VGH Mannheim, Az: 10 S 176/96) - The Stuttgart appeal (VGH Baden-Württenberg, Az: 5 S 472/96) - The Berlin labor court appeal (LAG Berlin, Az: 13 Sa 19/97) - A Hamburg city decision (VG Hamburg, Az: 11 VG 4855/95) - The CDU expulsion appeal (OLG Köln, 22 U 190/97) 6. What about the "InSects" booklet ?
This booklet was printed by the common youth organization "JU" of the CDU/CSU, which were the main ruling parties at that time. It was *not* a government booklet. The JU has no real influence on the party, and certainly not on the government. The JU (and the JUSOS, which is the organization of the social democratic party) is rather a playground for the juniors. The cover has flies and a fly swatter. I have now received confirmation that this booklet 1. exists, 2. is considered to be "dumb"
by two anti-cult activists I asked.
http://hatewatch.freedommag.org/hatewach/issues/eng/risehv/appxq01.htm Scientology has often reprinted the cover, but has never discussed the contents. Scientology has also never alleged that the contents called for violence against scientologists.
7. What's going on with Chick Corea?
a) Is he banned in Germany?
Mr. Corea is not "banned". In 1993, he was refused state subsidies in Stuttgart, and business talks between the state-hired agent and his agent were stopped, after the state learned that he promotes scientology.
He can play in Germany as often as he wants. He just has to sell tickets and/or to find non-state sponsors.
He sued the state of Baden-Württemberg, lost, and lost, appealed, lost, appealed again, lost. (see in the legal section of this FAQ) Nevertheless, he performed in Germany as recently as March 24, 1996, during the 27th International Jazz Week held in Burghausen, an event which received approximately $10,000 in funding from the Bavarian Ministry of Culture.
According to buk@gmx.de, the public TV station 3sat aired a two hour concert of him in 1997; he heard that he is also being played on public radio as well, so he gets public funds via royalties.
b) Is he a recruiter for scientology?
Yes.
Statement in Impact #12, p.20:
"I have some personal policies as a performer.
I consider it's my job to audit an audience."
About acknowledging L. Ron Hubbard in his records:
"But many Scientologists and even Sea Org members have told me that it is because of that simple action that they are now Scientologists."
c) What was going on in Hessen?
Hessen is another german state. Chick Corea was forced to sign a contract forbidding him to proselytize, or being forced to pay a huge amount of money in the case he violates that agreement. Scientology alleges that Chick never proselytizes in concerts. So what's the problem? It shouldn't be difficult to sign something forbidding an activity that was never attempted.
http://hatewatch.freedommag.org/hatewach/issues/eng/risehv/appxj03.htm Besides, he said in Impact #12, p.20:
"I have some personal policies as a performer.
I consider it's my job to audit an audience."
d) Have other people been critical of Corea?
Yes, the mayor of Clearwater, FL. Here an excerpt of an article from the St. Petersburg Times, 21.3.1999:
At a commission meeting earlier this decade, Garvey voted against giving taxpayer money to a local concert because longtime Scientologist Chick Corea was one of the performers.
8. Hasn't a criminal investigation on scientology been closed?
Yes, the Hamburg investigation relating to §129 ("Founding a criminal organization"). Other investigations are still going on. But scientology itself cannot be indicted in Germany, because criminal law does not have the possibility to indict organisations, only people.
=== http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/4497/einstell.tif The prosecutor writes:
"Finding evidence of criminality-intended and with the values of the constitution law incompatible structures of a majority of people doesn't mean at the same time the existence of a criminal organization as in §129. The condition for this are actual indications that a long-term and rigid organized group of people have decided to plan and commit crimes, and this with the knowledge of being in an organized group. It is not enough if committing crimes is just a purpose or an occupation of lower meaning. It is also not enough if only single members commit crimes."
Investigations about the suspicion of tax or economic crimes were separated and investigated in the appropriate departments of the state attorney. The interior ministry has issued a lengthy statement to the attorney general and has asked for a re-opening of the investigation.
[From Caberta's report on scientology] === It is also important to understand that in Germany, to commit a crime, you must do it with the "intention" to commit a crime. This means that if a scientologist tells someone to stop taking his medicine, and the person dies, the scientologist cannot be charged for wrongful death - because he did it with the intention of "helping" his victim. (But he can still be indicted for illegal practice of medicine) 9. Were any scientologists sent to jail?
Yes. Detlef Foullois and Karl-Eric Heilig in 1993 for tax evasion. They were "Patron Gold Meritorious".
10. How many scientology members are there in Germany?
For years, the "official" number was "300,000". But in the last years, the "official" number given by the scientologists is "30,000". In fall 1997, the number has been revised to only 10,000 (Sabine Weber in an Interview of SFB "Berlin Life" 21.10.1997, quoted in recent Senate booklet on scientology). In 1999, the "Verfassungsschutz" talked about 5000-6000 members.
The german scientology organization was financially the second biggest in the world, seen by the count of "Patrons" in IMPACT magazine.
11. Any links between Scientology and right-extremists?
a) Tom Marcellus He was director of the Holocaust denying "Institute for Historical Review" for over a decade (this stopped 1995), and is also "Patron" of the IAS, which means he has donated $40,000. In 1995 he had a dispute with Willis Carto, the finance guy there, involving whether they would discuss Holocaust denial or other (hateful) topics. It resulted in Carto being thrown out. Marcellus left after his role was discussed in a german radio programme (may or may not be related).
"Freiheit" printed this (translated):
On his own initiative scientologist Tom Marcellus organised a movement against Willis Carto and threw this extremist out of an organization named Institute for Historical Review, after he had discovered that this institute, that claimed to have been founded to correct historical mistakes, was in fact being used by Carto to propagate the Auschwitz-lie. But Carto is still controlling the Liberty Lobby and The Spotlight.
But let's hear Marcellus himself, when he speaks about the Mermelstein litigation: (http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v14/v14n1p25_Okeefe.html) 2.The IHR did not accept or in any way agree with Judge Johnson's ridiculous 1981 "judicial notice"
that Jews were "in fact" exterminated in "gas chambers" at Auschwitz.
3.The IHR has not retreated one inch from its well-known position that there is no credible evidence to support the theory that Germans allegedly used homicidal poison gas chambers to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
In an interview on Radio Islam in December 1991, he said this:
And this also added to the impetus, so since that time interest in this topic has continued to expand and grow because we caught something here and we started to take it apart, and it's revealed that this massive, this massive campaign to convince the Western world of what allegedly took place in Europe before and during World War II has no basis in fact, and this gigantic whopper as, as some of us call it here is, is all the more fascinating because of the fact that, that it is being shown to be a, a hoax.
http://abbc.com/historia/rami-ihr.htm There is also a direct link between Scientology and the IHR: some IHR money went straight to Scientology. The following is a transcript from the trial LEGION v. CARTO from 1996:
14 Q ISN'T IT TRUE, MR. MARCELLUS, BESIDES THE SALARY 15 YOU RECEIVED FROM THE BANQUE CONTRADE FUNDS, THAT YOU ALSO 16 ASKED MR. CARTO TO DIRECT SOME OF THAT MONEY TO ONE OF THE 17 CAUSES THAT YOU FOLLOWED; ISN'T THAT TRUE?
18 A INDEED. ON TWO OCCASIONS, I ASKED HIM TO, INSTEAD 19 OF MAKING THE CHECK OUT TO ME, HAVE THE CHECK MADE OUT TO 20 F.S.O., FLAG SERVICE ORGANIZATION.
21 Q THAT IS SCIENTOLOGY, ISN'T IT?
22 A THAT'S CORRECT.
23 Q YOU ASKED HIM TO GIVE SOME OF THE FARREL ESTATE 24 MONEY TO SCIENTOLOGY; ISN'T THAT CORRECT?
25 A NO, SIR. I ASKED HIM TO GIVE SOME OF MY SALARY 26 COMING OUT OF THE LEGION ACCOUNT TO AN ORGANIZATION THAT I 27 WANTED TO BENEFIT.
28 Q YOU DIDN'T THINK THAT WAS WRONG, DID YOU?
1 A I'M SURE IT'S NOT WRONG.
http://www.access1.net/lsf/carto/litigation/farrel/961104trial.html and another, in which Carto gets questioned:
23 Q DID YOU DISPENSE SOME FUNDS TO THE LEGION?
24 A YES.
25 Q HOW MUCH?
26 A ABOUT $750,000.
27 Q DOES THAT INCLUDE PAYMENT OF $73,000 TO 28 MR. MARCELLUS?
1 A WELL, TO SCIENTOLOGY, I GUESS.
2 Q DID MR. MARCELLUS DIRECT YOU TO MAKE THE PAYCHECKS 3 OUT TO THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY?
4 A IN THOSE CASES, HE DID, RIGHT.
5 Q AND DID THAT $750,000 INCLUDE A BONUS FOR 6 MR. MARCELLUS?
7 A YES.
http://www.access1.net/lsf/carto/litigation/farrel/961107trial.html In June 1998, Marcellus got a personal home page on scientology's web site:
http://www.our-home.org/tommarceilus/index.htm b) Fletcher Prouty Not a scientologist but a so-called "expert witness" in scientology press releases, who has also connections with Marcellus and Carto.
Scientology brought him up after the Armstrong fiasco - he claimed that there was a second, real Hubbard file in the navy, because Hubbard had been a secret agent.
http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/prouty3.txt Prouty's topic at the opening session of the 1990 Liberty Lobby Convention was "The Secret Team."
The new Institute for Historical Review's Noontide Press edition of Prouty's book "The Secret Team" was released at the Liberty Lobby conference. Prouty assured the audience it was an "enormous privilege" to have his book republished by the Institute for Historical Review, a group, Prouty claimed, that keeps people "from revising history." Prouty thanked Willis Carto and Tom Marcellus of IHR for the "guts and good sense" to republish his book.
See more on prouty here: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/prouty.htm Prouty was an advisor on the JFK film and was the model for the film's character "Mr. X."
Prouty also wrote an "authorized biography" of L. Ron Hubbard:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=088404274X/denniserlichdefeA/ Prouty also wrote about positively scientology religion:
http://www.scientology.org/wis/wiseng/30/30-idx.htm "Freedom" has also printed Prouty's articles:
http://www.freedommag.org/25thanni/express.htm And Prouty was a "character witness" for holocaust denier Willis Carto:
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/holocaust/ihr/part02/faq.html During the lengthy legal battles surrounding the Mermelstein lawsuits against the Liberty Lobby and Willis A. Carto, Prouty and fellow PAC advisory board member Lt. Col. James "Bo" Gritz were "prepared to testify as character witnesses on behalf of Liberty Lobby founder Willis A. Carto."
(Spotlight, 10-7-91, 12) c) L. Ron Hubbard According to former Scientologist and Hubbard biograph Gerry Armstrong, L. Ron Hubbard himself subscribed to Carto's magazine "The Spotlight".
d) Anti-semitism fits into the scientology way of thinking: scientologists have contempt for victims, because they apply the "overt-motivator"
logic which means that someone who accuses another of a crime did himself commit a crime (except of course scientologists themselves, they are allowed e.g. to accuse Germany of crimes). Scientologists also believe that everyone is responsible for what happens to him. Hubbard mocks the jews in the book "Introduction to scientology ethics", p. 175:
"I found out that only those who sought only peace were ever butchered. The thousands of years of Jewish passivity earned them nothing but slaughter"
12. Does scientology get money through real-estate deals of its members?
Scientologists in Hamburg and Germany have made money through the condo-conversion business. Scientologists have been accused of using harassment tactics to get apartments rids of their tenants (apartments sell much higher empty).
The following is translated from Caberta's report, it is a letter from the famous Hamburg realtor Götz Brase to his staff, 15.3.1993, showing how the scientology *organisation* benefits from this business:
"You have really wonderfully fulfilled the purpose of the company, by succeeding to produce a highest-ever for the most important stat of the company just for RON's birthday: sold apartments. 22 housing units were sold in one week, and a highest-ever in the form of 23 reservations was accomplished.
Besides this, one [Interest- ????] house with 72 housing units was sold and another with 74 housing units was bought. We have always found out that the result of our performance is our team spirit and our purpose [I know this sentence sounds unlogical - it is so in the original text].
With each week, in which we sell more than 20 housing units, we get one step closer to our target, to finance a new org building."
See also in the legal part for "Antje Blumenthal"
13. Were children expelled out of Kindergartens?
This has been alleged by scientology. MP Renate Rennebach's office has investigated one allegation that two girls had been expelled from a Kindergarten. It was a lie. The girls did exist. One, the daughter of well known scientologists, was _not_admitted_ to a private *protestant* Kindergarten; the second attends classes there, she's the friend of the first. But a foto with both little girls was printed in "Freiheit", probably without permission.
A german text about this is available on request or through the search feature at http://www.spdfrak.de or by using the my preconfigured SPD scientology search page button on my german home page at http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/scientology_ger.html What scientology is really mad about is that there were not able to start scientology schools.
14. Why is Germany more attacked by scientology than other countries?
One should assume that other countries where scientology is in trouble (Sweden, Greece, Russia, France, Spain) would also be attacked.
Some possible reasons:
1. Germany is the 2nd biggest source of funds for scientology 2. Germany has excellent contacts with Eastern Europe 3. Germany instigated the most activities against scientology in Europe 4. Germany's past of religion-based genocide is a convenient alibi (See also the answer to question 32 of this FAQ) It has to be noted about (4) that scientology will always find the "worst" in a country to launch an attack. For example, after the arrest in Spain, scientology whined about the come-back of the spanish inquisition.
15. Who is Ursula Caberta?
The head of the "scientology task force" in the Hamburg interior department. She is enemy #1 for scientology in Germany. Scientology's Mike Rinder called her a "Modern day Goebbels".
Behörde für Inneres beim Senat der Hansestadt Hamburg Arbeitsgruppe Scientology attn: Ursula Caberta Eiffestraße 664B 20537 Hamburg Germany Phone: +49 40 42 88 66 444 Fax: +49 40 42 88 66 445 16. Who is Wiebke Hansen?
The former head of the Hamburg org. She was removed in 1995 and was "found" in "Happy Valley", where the RPF is. She is said to be in the US to "deepen her studies". Others believe that she forged statistics to make it appear as if the Hamburg org is successful. Scientology denies this.
17. What are the human rights violations against scientology?
Gisela Hackenjos, spokesperson for scientology, in an interview with "taz" on 24.10.1996:
Q: "Do you consider statements critical about scientology to be human rights violations?"
A: "Yes, of course"
http://www.access.ch/pwidmer/SCI/sciint.html 18. Does scientology own a german beer company?
No. That beer company (Warsteiner) was hurt by this baseless rumor and issued a very strong-worded denial in newspaper ads. The rumor has now mostly died down. See also their ad where they defend themselves against that rumor:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/4497/warsteiner.tif 19. Are there similarities between pictures in the SS magazine "Der Stürmer" and german newspapers?
Yes, for example the Octopus has been used by both. This has two reasons:
- German newspaper cartoonists do not have a collection of "Der Stürmer" at home to check for similarities - The octopus is a picture representing a concept, in this case the "Threat that is everywhere at the same time".
The question is not whether a german newspaper, or "Der Stürmer", or scientology itself (e.g. against psychiatry) has used these pictures, the question is whether its use is according to the facts. A german court ruled that scientology may be called an "octopus", based on scientology's own documents.
You can read translations of german newspaper articles here:
http://cisar.org/ 20. Did german political parties exclude scientologists?
Yes. The parties are democratic, and support democracy. The same cannot be said about scientology; I have numerous references that scientology *reject* democracy. Here just one example:
"A totally democratic organization has a bad name in Dianetics and Scientology despite all this talk of agreement. I has been found by actual experiment (LA 1950) that groups of people called on to select a leader from among them by nomination and vote routinely select only those who would kill them. They select the talkers of big deeds and ignore the doers. They seem to select unerringly the men of average skill. That is never good enough in a leader and the people suffer from his lack of understanding. If you ever have occasion to elect a leader for your group, don't be "democratic" about it."
- HCOPL 2 Nov 1970, _The Theory of Scientology Organizations_.
Thus it is only logical that scientology is incompatible with democratic parties. In the case of the CDU, the exclusion went through their internal courts, and the exclusion upheld as being compatible with the party internal regulations.
The people dismissed have now the option of litigating it in ordinary courts. This has been done, and they have lost.
21. Did the State Department mention Germany negatively?
Yes, in their human rights report. These reports are written every year for many countries, except for the US. The report basically says that scientologists complain a lot, and gives examples.
1993: (5 lines) gopher://gopher.state.gov:70/00ftp%3ADOSFan%3AGopher%3A03%20Publications%20-%20Major%20Reports%3AHuman%20Rights%20Country%20Practices%3A1993%20HRC%20Report%3A06%20Europe%20and%20Canada%3AGermany 1994: (8 lines) gopher://gopher.state.gov:70/00ftp%3ADOSFan%3AGopher%3A03%20Publications%20-%20Major%20Reports%3AHuman%20Rights%20Country%20Practices%3A1994%20HRC%20Report%3A06%20Europe%20and%20Canada%3AGermany 1995: (15 lines) gopher://gopher.state.gov:70/00ftp%3ADOSFan%3AGopher%3A03%20Publications%20-%20Major%20Reports%3AHuman%20Rights%20Country%20Practices%3A1995%20HRC%20Report%3A05%20Europe%20and%20Canada%3AGermany 1996: (57 lines) gopher://gopher.state.gov:70/00ftp%3aDOSFan%3aGopher%3a03%20Publications%20-%20Major%20Reports%3aHuman%20Rights%20Country%20Practices%3a1996%20HRC%20Report%3a05%20Europe%20and%20Canada%3aGermany 1997: (67 lines) gopher://gopher.state.gov:70/00ftp%3aDOSFan%3aGopher%3a03%20Publications%20-%20Major%20Reports%3aHuman%20Rights%20Country%20Practices%3a1997%20HRC%20Report%3a05%20Europe%20and%20Canada%3aGermany The 1995 report, for the first time, mentions that scientology is considered a *business* here. Scientology likes to "..." this when quoting from the report.
It is also worth to mention that the 1996 report said:
"The Government fully respects the human rights of its citizens, and the law and judiciary provide effective means of dealing with instances of individual abuse."
Scientology has also tried to put themselves as victims of hatred against minorities. But the same report said that these hate crimes "have been declining sharply".
The 1997 report, the first under Ms Albright, is even better - it clearly mentions court decisions lost by scientology; allegations by scientologists are no longer written as if they were facts. It would be very difficult for scientology to quote from the report. Example:
"Some government officials allege that Scientology's goals and methods are antidemocratic and call for further restrictions on Scientology-affiliated organizations and individuals."
another paragraph is also interesting:
"Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion, Disability, Language, or Social Status The law prohibits denial of access to shelter, health care, or education on the basis of race, religion, disability, sex, ethnic background, political opinion, or citizenship. The Government enforces the law effectively."
This means that the state department does not see any discrimination of scientologists, although scientologists complain a lot.
The "Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad" has a report:
http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/980123_acrfa_interim.html In Germany, members of the Church of Scientology and of a Christian charismatic church have been subject to intense scrutiny by the Enquette Commission there, and several members have suffered harassment, discrimination, and threats of violence.
22. Did a UN report mention Germany negatively?
No. It was a report *to* the UN, by Prof. Abdelfattah Amor, the special rapporteur for human rights.
1994 report:
gopher://gopher.undp.org/00/undocs/eed/E/CN.4/1995/95_07/91 gopher://gopher.un.org/00/esc/cn4/1995/91 http://www.umn.edu/humanrts/thematic/religion.html http://www.umn.edu/humanrts/thematic/religion.txt http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu4/chrrep/9195.htm Most are generalities or twisting of facts. For example, the "Volksfürsorge" is not a public institution - it is a private insurance (this error is not in the german version of the document). Much is not very detailed and gives room to interpretation. The source seems to be the scientologists themselves, and Prof. Amor has simply written it all down.
1995 report:
http://193.135.156.15/HTML/MENU4/CHRREP/9695.htm Germany is mentioned with two lines on page 9 (mentions that allegations of attacks have been brought by scientology and by the church of universal life), and on page 11 (4 lines, mentioning the feedback received).
The four lines are in a larger paragraph mentioning letters received.
Germany (legislation guaranteeing freedom of religion;
non-recognition of Scientology as a religious community, in particular pursuant by the Federal Labour Court on the commercial aim of Scientology; no discrimination against it) I have been told that Prof. Amor's paper budget was reduced, therefore he was only allowed to bring summaries in the 1995 report.
The german government has answered both reports. The answers can be classified like this:
- incident is between private parties - allegation of incident is inaccurate - investigation of incident was unsuccessful due to lack of data - incident is no discrimination but part of the duties of government (e.g. cult awareness booklets) - incident (e.g. bomb threat) has not been reported - incident (e.g. bomb threat) has been investigated unsuccessfully - litigation in the matter is pending - litigation in the matter has not even been attempted There was also a Q&A session in which the german delegation answered questions:
http://193.135.156.15/tbs/doc.nsf/c12563e7005aa544c125611e0043b418/389a698dd0b48ecfc1256433004cd1d1?OpenDocument The 1997 report is available here:
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu4/chrrep/98chr6a2.htm This report is an improvement. While it still mentions that scientologists complain, it keeps a skeptical view on it, and also mentions the viewpoint of the german government and of victims support groups. The report is neither negative nor positive for Germany. Most interesting is this quote:
"In this connection there is no need to emphasize that any comparison between modern Germany and Nazi Germany is so shocking as to be meaningless and puerile."
The main point of the report is that Germany should do more to educate about religious tolerance.
23. Did the CSCE mention Germany negatively?
Note: the CSCE is a US agency.
http://www.house.gov/csce/ It is not to be confused with the OSCE which is a multi-state organisation and can be found here:
gopher://marvin.nc3a.nato.int:70/11/Other_International/csce (as you see, they also confuse the two!), and http://www.ihf-hr.org/OSCE1997/ Yes, they did mention Germany negatively. You can find the article here http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/csce.html and also in an impossible format ("common ground") here:
gopher://server.gdn.org:70/59/CSCE/GERMANY It contains 18 lines dealing with the Chick Corea "incident". That report was later retracted from the conference due to pressure by the german delegation, but was distributed to the press anyway. Surprising is that conference chairman Dennis DeConcini, was once himself the target of a scientology operation, as explained by this excerpt from the 1980 St. Petersburg Times Pulitzer award winning series on scientology:
... the highest officials of the Guardian Office ordered the implementation of "Operation Devil's Wop."
It was directed at Arizona Sen. Dennis DeConcini, who had supported various anti-cult groups. The goal of the operation was to leak to the press a false report linking the senator with organized crime.
Today DeConcini is no longer in Congress because of his role in the Charles Keating affair.
A text by the german embassies is here:
http://www.germany-info.org/facts/scientology.htm 24. How does the german constitution protect religions?
Read the german constitution ("basic law") here:
http://www.jura.uni-sb.de/law/GG/gg0.htm http://www.bundesrecht.de/Grundgesetz/ The "freedom of religion" is §4:
Article 4 (Freedom of faith, of conscience and of creed) (1) Freedom of faith and of conscience, and freedom of creed religious or ideological, are inviolable.
(2) The undisturbed practice of religion is guaranteed.
(3) No one may be compelled against his conscience to render war service as an armed combatant. Details will be regulated by a Federal law.
It is important to know that §4 cannot be seen alone. Scientology "forgets" that their victims are protected by §1 and §2:
Article 1 (Protection of human dignity) (1) The dignity of man is inviolable. To respect and protect it is the duty of all state authority.
(2) The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world.
(3) The following basic rights bind the legislature, the executive and the judiciary as directly enforceable law.
Article 2 (Rights of liberty) (1) Everyone has the right to the free development of his personality insofar as he does not violate the rights of others or offend against the constitutional order or the moral code.
(2) Everyone has the right to life and to inviolability of his person. The freedom of the individual is inviolable. These rights may only be encroached upon pursuant to a law.
A discussion about religious freedom in Germany by Norbert Kirsch and Irving Hexham can be found here:
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/germany/nor-1.html http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/germany/nor-2.html http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/germany/nor-3.html Although I do not agree with some of the *opinions*, the facts (court decisions) are quite interesting.
25. What is the german "church tax"? Do churches get state funds?
The two main churches (catholic and protestant) collect a sort of tithe through the taxes, as a surcharge of about 8% on regular taxes for people who consider themselves member of them. This is an *administrative* privilege of these churches, based on an old contract with the states. Many people dislike this, and there has been a steady flow of people leaving "the church". This involves only filling out a simple form at the tax office. Unlike the US, most germans don't really "go to church" all the time, they just believe (or maybe not) and that's it. And when the taxes get higher and higher, they make their decision.
Some people also have the habit of staying only in the church to have a traditional white wedding, and then go.
Yes, churches get state funds. The two main churches because of something that happened in 18xx when much property was taken away from the churches. This is of course not very popular for tax payers, except for the churches :-) Germany also subsidizes the jewish and islamic religious communities (and maybe some more) for other reasons, probably simply because they subsidize a lot. A lot of people disagree with this practice, but nothing changes.
Contrary to what scientology is saying, this is *not* unique in Europe.
Italy has also a "church tax", but it differs from Germany.
You can choose if you want to give 0,8% of your income tax to a church (not scientology!) or to the state for educational / charity purposes.
According to Jonas Flygare <flax@kairos.algonet.se>, Sweden has also a "church tax": The default is that you pay the tax, unless you put in an application to not be a member of the state church. Your tax is then reduced by the appropriate amount.
26. What exactly does the labor court decision say?
The federal labor court decides only questions of law; it is bound to the fact findings of the state labour courts. The decision of whether the appealed lower court decision contains legal errors is not only meant to provide the litigation parties with a correct decision but also to keep legal decisions uniform, and this way strenghten legal security and legal education.
[translated from http://www.bundesarbeitsgericht.de ] German text at http://home.t-online.de/home/Ingo.Heinemann/azb21-94.htm and http://www.religio.de/5azb2194.html a) Main statements of the court 1. "Scientology Kirche Hamburg e.V." is not a religion as stated in the constitution.
2. Staff members of scientology are employees.
3. Working for a "community" does not allow to neglect employee labor protection laws.
b) Plaintiff history The plaintiff was "Mini Hatted Personnel Control Officer" and "Mini Hatted Director of Personnel".
In the last half of 1990, the plaintiff participated every thursday in meetings of the "Basic Crew", an inner management circle. The employees were called for 11pm, but the meetings often started only at midnight and seldom ended before 2am in the morning. He also had to participate in planned activities, like distributing advertising material on saturday. He once had to send videos and materials to german politicians, which lasted until 4am.
Besides this, he assembled industry scales at home.
On 17.7.1991 he told scientology that he had the possibility of a free Italy vacation, and he wanted to take it, to recover and to get his life in order. He left on the same day without "leave of absent" and "security check". For that, he got a severe "ethic order". He did still work for them until 28.9.1991.
In 1990, he got DM 4,030.- and in 1991 DM 5,326.50 plus weekly DM 23.62 / DM 23.90 for medical insurance. He paid DM 33.32 taxes in 1991. He had pre-paid DM 17,449 for "counseling" before, and got DM 6,483.- back at the end of 1992.
He claims that he should get DM 3500 monthly, and calculated that he should get back 71,947.58 DM for 1990 and 52,832.83 DM for 1991.
Scientology claims that the plaintiff did religious work, and that he did all his activities (including the meetings) voluntarily, and that the security check is part of counseling preventing that longtime members leave scientology.
c) Why scientology Hamburg is not a religion The court used scientology's own literature to decide that they are not a religion, and only use this as a cover to sell courses. About half of the court opinion is scientology text.
Scientologists submitted so-called expertises, but the court didn't consider them, because "they only considered scientology's self-image".
They also did not consider a paper that was submitted to the UN human rights commission by "special reporter Abdelfattah Amor", because "that report didn't consider the matters that are part of the litigation" and "it is only his personal opinion".
The court did also take into account that scientology registered everything as trademarks, which shows that they run a business.
Supporting this is also that "neglecting the scientology trademarks" is considered as a crime in the scientology "ethics". The federal patent court had already decided that scientology is similar to any other company selling courses.
Considering that the plaintiff paid DM 17,000 prior to his job, and got paid about DM 10,000, later got back about DM 7,000, the court concluded that the plaintiff had not been paid at all.
The court named similar cases of people paying high amounts, even having to take loans. One ex-scientologist got a freeloader bill, sued three years later, scientology lost, because it is against the constitution to prevent people to leave a religion or a community.
The court named a lot of examples from scientology papers showing the commercialization of the services. The ads "we use only 10% of our brain" do not show that it is about a religion. The use of FSMs who get a 10% commission is also not religion-like. This is against the constitution and the constitutional court already had decided 1960 that someone who tries to take people away from their religion by using deceptive methods is not protected by religious freedom. In that case, it was a single member of a religious community. The court:
"unlike that case, deceptive recruiting methods have been raised to a principle in scientology".
In support of this, the court cited:
- HCOPL 9.5.1965 (VM Handbook, "Being a FSM" - "Field Auditors become staff", p. 534):
"I was hammered at by many to process them and became quite overworked. I was only saved by church formation to which I could turn over my traffic"
- HCOPL 9.3.1972 (Rev 4.8.1983) "MAKE MONEY MAKE MORE MONEY"
- FLAG directive 13.3.1991 "Department of Routing and Personnel":
"There was an Org, which had a large staff, but was always fighting below the point. The Org didn't hire the people from the correct source. As a result of that, the Org was manned with adolescents playing hookey from school, customers from the nearest soup kitchen, vagrants and other disagreeble fellows"
The court:
"Never before has the court seen an official statement with such low opinion about socially weak people who, additionally, are members of its church. It means that the plaintiff is in severe contradiction with his own creed".
The court:
"Evidence of contempt for human beings is also that and how the defendant tries to drive its members to peak performance, as stated in HCOPL 8.2.1972, revised 21.10.1980:"
"Any quota can be targeted for increase daily or weekly.
For instance the Director of Training can establish a quota of 5 extra letters per day over that of the day before. This would mean he would write 45 letters one day, 50 letters the next day, 55 letters the day after that, and so on"
"To improve performance, a new target can be stated daily or weekly. The director of training may set a target of 5 letters more than the day before. This would mean, that who writes 45 letters daily, will have to write 50 the next day, 55 the day after, and so on."
The court:
"Who participates in such a 'snowball system' may risk a severe health damage."
The court also shows totalitarian tendencies, that are shown in important papers of scientology, in the list of "crimes" and "high crimes". It mentions the security check as obvious method to prevent member loss with contemptuous methods. That members agree to it is irrelevant.
d) The plaintiff was an employee.
The court explains what a employer-employee relationship is and states that it does not matter how this relationship is named. It explained the difference between a sentence about nurses working for the red cross, where the court had stated that they are not employees, although they are paid regularly. But Red cross may vote in their organization, while scientology staffers may not. The staffers are "special members" who may not vote, only "full members" may vote. There was no way that the plaintiff could ever be an "full member". While german law for non-profit organizations allows different memberships, it means also different duties, which was not the case here. The court even doubts that he was a "member" as stated by the law at all.
27. What was decided in Bavaria?
http://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/presse/daten/scientology/wm.htm a) That in certain cases public contractors have to sign a declaration whether they use methods of L. Ron Hubbard.
http://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/presse/daten/scientology/stmf.htm b) That applicants for public jobs have to fill out a form (here a translation / summary):
1. Do you have a relation with organisations that use the technology of LRH?
2. Are you under the command of an organisation that uses the technology of LRH?
3. Did you, in the last 12 months, or do you take courses by organisations using the technology of LRH?
4. Do you support these organisations financially or ideologically?
5. Do you work according to the technology of LRH or were you instructed in the technology of LRH?
The suitability for work in the public sector would be doubtful for officials and employees with connections to Scientology in the light of the organization's claims to abolutism and the total orientation towards its goals, which could give rise to a conflict of interests with the duties of public service. In such a case, applicants will be given the opportunity to clear any doubts about their suitability, in a conversation where they will be confronted with goals of the cult.
Applicants who fail to distance themselves from these goals in satisfactory or credible manner, cannot be hired. In the case of employees of the State of Bavaria who have connections to the organization, the government will have to check whether service duties have been violated. If necessary, disciplinary action will have to be taken, which could lead to discharge from service in severe cases.
See also:
http://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/scientology/ Note that on 28.11.1997, scientology dismissed a lawsuit against the state in this matter.
http://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/presse/daten/scientology/69397.htm 28. What does the german population think about scientology?
Here a poll from May 1995, from "Die Woche".
Did you ever hear about scientology?
Yes: 63% No: 37% What do you connect with scientology?
Positive things: 9% Nevative things: 90% Don't know: 1% Should scientology be forbidden ? (*) Yes: 69% No: 18% Don't know: 13% (*) Based on all people who have heard / read about scientology Here a poll from November 1996, from "Die Woche".
1. What is scientology?
"A secret society" 45% "A company" 33% "A church" 2% 2. Is scientology dangerous?
Yes 79% No 9% 3. For whom is scientology dangerous?
(to people who answered (2) with yes) gullible people 81% lonely people 78% people seeking life content 76% the state 44% managers 35% rich people 34% people with religious beliefs 19% 4. The state should ...
... inform the population 75% ... observe scientology 64% ... forbid scientology 43% ... leave scientology alone 7% 29. Why are some people against the secret service snooping on scientology?
Many people, especially from the "green" political area, hate the "Verfassungsschutz", because of civil liberty reasons. The "Verfassungsschutz" has a long record of dubious activties, similar to the FBI under Hoover.
So their opinion does not mean that they are "pro-scientology".
30. What is Kurt Weiland's early record in Germany?
Kurt Weiland is the manager of OSA, i.e. the PR & dirty tricks dept.
Germans would call him "Der Mann für's Grobe". Therefore it is interesting to have a look into his legal record.
In 1975 Kurt Weiland wrote in a flyer that cult critic and protestant reverend FW Haack had "admitted to have printed the confession of a woman in a sex magazine" and that he had "broken the 8th commandment".
FW Haack then got a temporary restraining order, and later a permanent restraining order prohibiting Weiland to repeat this allegation. Weiland was also indicted and sentenced to as fine of DM 100.-. In court, he excused himself by saying that he was "unexperienced" because he had been the PR guy for only 14 days at that time.
In 1976 Weiland claimed orally that "FW Haack has no credibility because he had broken his silence on a confession". For this, Weiland was sentenced to a fine of "30 days income" (DM 750.-). He appealed; his appeal was unsuccessful.
(Luckily for Weiland, fines seemed to be rather low !!) In 1985 Weiland claimed that "FW Haack had been seen with a young girl visiting a porn movie". FW Haack got a restraining order. More details unknown.
Sources: LG München, Az: 9 O 20370/75 (3558) 9 O 20 089/75 25 NSs 265 JS 30519/77 AG München, Az: (unreadable) Bayr. Gemeindeblatt 12.12.1976 epd 10.10.1985 31. Have any german scientology officials been indicted?
Yes, if you have read the section about Kurt Weiland. Also, Gisela Hackenjos was indicted for 1.libel and 2.threatening (she was found "not guilty", because (1) was made "in the heat of a discussion", (2) was not found to be threatening by the recipient). Franz Riedl was convicted for libel.
32. Why does scientology make such off-base accusations against Germany?
The beginning of this was in "Operation Snow White", which was an operation to clean up government files from critical information on scientology. "Snow White" included legal and illegal operations; eleven scientologists, including L. Ron Hubbard's wife, were later convicted for stealing government files. A document of 20.4.1973, called "Project COAL", said (caps in the original document):
http://www.entheta.net/entheta/go/ops/go732/go732w.htm http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/snowwhite27.html The Federal Republic of Germany is peculiarly sensitive to a charge of GENOCIDE as the Nazi behavior against Jews provided the impetus for the Convention. The country bends over backwards to mend its reputation as criminals. It is a signatory.
(a) Coordinate with all GO actions and only operate through the GO. A suit is already in progress.
(b) Using existing attorneys, obtain what legislation Germany passed to enforce the GENOCIDE Convention which it signed and ratified.
(c) Seek to obtain, by subpoena in any existing suit and other legal means, any files or dossiers on Scn or its principals.
(d) Compile a list of names of those who have been violating the Convention articles or its principles.
(e) Do a rough draft of a petition to whatever authority in Germany was specified in the legislation in (b) above.
Include all references and documents as well as the bona-fides of Scn. Cite those guilty of violations of the convention, document exactly how and the clause violated.
(f) Have the attorney do the final draft.
(g) Submit the petition.
(h) Exploit any advantages gained.
(i) In case of no real success, be sure that all recourse has been exhausted as this goes before the UN and the Eu Commission.
(j) See that this concludes as a deterrant to further attacks.
Another document of the same date, "Project BUCKET", repeats this:
http://www.entheta.net/entheta/go/ops/go732/go732x.htm If, as in any case where local remedies are exhausted without success, Germany does not give satisfaction, the GENOCIDE violations are to be taken to the Sub-Commission on Human Rights.
And if legal methods do not lead to success, "Project GRUMPY" can help:
http://www.entheta.net/entheta/go/ops/go732/go732h.htm Obtain through any existing suit or by any other means any files in the hands of police, local Interpol and immigration on the above three points.
Carry out any needful action to clear and correct said files if such exist.
Exhaust all recourse as to Germany.
33. Overview of recent legal trouble by scientology / scientologists Note that scientology has also won court cases. I have a few. I could include them when scientology includes their "losses" and removes their bogus wins. Believe me: scientology won less.
11.9.1992: Scientology loses the court case against Hamburg MP Antje Blumenthal, failing to prevent her from claiming that "Real estate deals are the main source of income for scientology". The court said that the allegation was a mix of factual allegations and opinion, and was therefore protected free speech.
(LG Hamburg, Az: ???) 2.10.1992: Scientologist Peter-Uwe Krumholz fails an attempt to stop the "Rowohlt Verlag" selling a book portraying his role in the Narconon scandal in Berlin.
(LG Hamburg, Az: ???) 8.4.1992: The company "Cosmos Computer" of scientologist Stephan Koenig is sentenced to pay DM 2327 to law student Jan Schreiber, who had worked there for six weeks. Koenig had paid only DM 500, and then claimed that Schreiber "didn't have a contract". Schreiber filed the lawsuit without lawyer; Koenig did not appear in court, and Schreiber got a default judgement.
(ArbG Hamburg, Az: ???) 22.12.1992: Scientology loses its appeal against Hamburg MP Antje Blumenthal, in trying to prevent her from claiming that "Real estate deals are the main source of income for scientology". The court said that scientology has to accept that people attribute the activities of high-ranking scientologists to the organisation.
(OLG Hamburg, Az: 14 U 200/92, NJW-RR 1993, s. 1056) February 1993: Rostock prosecution raids the office of scientologist Detlef Foullois (OT8), who is arrested.
7.1.1993, 2.2.1993: Scientologist Peter-Uwe Krumholz loses his court case against the "Berliner Zeitung", in which he tried to force the newspaper to print his rebuttal, in which he disputes the allegation that he is a scientologist. (Which is foolish - he was the driving force in the Berlin Narconon scam in the 70ies, which resulted in the end of the state funding of Narconon) 5.2.1993: The value of the e-meter is set to be between DM 300 and 500, and not DM 10,000. In that case a scientologist had sold two e-meters to two children.
(LG Ulm, Az: 4 0 313/92 - end of the case unknown) 10.5.1993: Scientology fails to get a TRO to prohibit the allegation about NARCONON that "not a single successful drug rehabilitation has been proven". The court declined to set a TRO, as the quote was accurate, because there is indeed no evidence, neither from an expert opinion nor from a court decision.
(VGH Stuttgart, Az: 1 S 3021/92) http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/vgh2192.html 2.6.1993, 13.8.1993: Scientologist Johanna Erdtmann ("SN Colours") loses her court case in which she tried to prohibit Forbes magazine to call her a scientologist. (LG München 5 O 7214/92, OLG München 21 U 1717/93, NVwZ 1994, s.203) [She got a website in 1998:
http://www.oursites.org/johannaerdtmann/myself.htm] 8.7.1993: Detlef Foullois (OT8) and Karl-Eric Heilig (clear), both "Patron Gold Meritorious" and donors of a $ 1,000,000 each, are sentenced to 26 months in jail for continuous tax evasion. They only escape a higher sentence because the Hamburg org paid back the money.
(LG Rostock, Az: III Kls 3/93 see also 29.8.1994 with lower sentence) * 14.8.1993: The Nymphenburg (near Munich) franchise loses a court case against a retired engineer to whom they had promised "you'll get clear with less that DM 100,000". He sued for the difference (DM 28,934.28), and won. The court stated that the contract was "automatically indecent". According to a SPIEGEL article (37/96), Scientology appealed but then settled with the plaintiff to prevent the decision getting public.
(LG München 1, Az: 28 O 23490/92).
http://www.religio.de/refund.html http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/lgm091193.html 15.10.1993: Scientologist Hermann K., founder of a school for "holistic"
healing, may be called a scientologist. The scientologist mentioned that many students canceller their contracts to be evidence that the public is indeed concerned. It does not matter whether K. did recruit for scientology or not.
(LG Baden-Baden, Az: 1 O 296/93) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19931015.html 9.11.93: The Nymphenburg franchise is sentenced to pay back DM 28,934.- to a customer. (LG München I 28 O 23490/92) 14.1.1994: Three scientologists are found guilty for distributing hate literature (e.g. the "Hate and Propaganda" booklet) and fined DM 5,400.
The judge called the comparisons with the 3rd Reich "the height of hypocrisy". Source: AFF's cult observer 4/94 [Another source mentions this:
Landgericht Hamburg, Urteil vom 20.3.1995, 709 Ns 67/94 - might be a failed appeal] 25.4.1995: The Münster tax court decides that scientology is not a charitable institution ("Gemeinnütziger Verein") and is forced to pay sales tax.
(FG Münster, Az: 15 K 5247/87 U) 8.8.1994: The Freiburg org is prohibited to recruit people on the streets.
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/vg0694.html http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19940606.html (VG Freiburg. Az: 4 K 758/93 - scientology has appealed, but the appeals court has declared the case to be "resting", whatever that means VGH Baden-Württemberg of 10.1.1995, Az: 5 S 2466/94) 29.8.1994: Detlef Foullois (OT8) and Karl-Eric Heilig (clear), both "Patron Gold Meritorious" and donors of a $ 1,000,000 each, get sentenced to 22 months in jail (suspended) for tax evasion in a new trial. (See earlier trial on 8.7.1993) LG Rostock, Az: II Kls 13/94 (Hi.)
On 9.10.1994, scientology vice-president Franz Riedl claims to be penniless, but nevertheless gets sentenced to a fine of DM 18,000 for libelling Pastor Gerd Glaser. The court is unimpressed by Riedl's "past lives" excuses. (AG Hamburg 141 Js 769/93) On 11.10.1994, the city of Bremen revokes the status of scientology Bremen ("deregistration"). [any court case ???] On 3.11.1994, a scientologist gets arrested after kidnapping his son and a wild car chase, and after trying to strangle his son (police had to break the window of the car to prevent this from succeeding).
On 13.12.1994, two scientologist real estate companies ("Breitling & Partner" and "HG Grundstücksgesellschaft") lose their court case against a newspaper (taz) who had named them in an article critical of scientology. (LG Berlin, Geschäftsnummer 27.0.612/94) On 12.1.1995, a former president of NARCONON e.V. gets convicted for practicing medicine without a license to a (suspended) fine of three months income.
(AG Miesbach, Az: Cs 65 Js 21802/90) http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/cs65jz.html * On 16.2.1995, the federal administrative court rules that scientology Hamburg has to register a commercial business for its sales of books and courses, ending an 11 year long litigation. The court left it open whether scientology is a religion or not.
(Az: BVerwG 1 B 205 und 206.93) (link to http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/ovg1291.html and http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/bverwg1b.html) * On 22.3.1995, scientology Hamburg loses a motion before the federal labor court, which decides that scientology is not a religion.
(Az.: 5 AZB 21/94) (link to http://home.t-online.de/home/Ingo.Heinemann/azb21-94.htm or http://www.religio.de/5azb2194.html) * On 29.3.1995, the administrative court in Cologne declines to set a TRO against federal labor minister Norbert Blüm, who had called scientology a "criminal money laundering organization" and a "contemptible cartel of oppression" in a newspaper interview, and also said that "their ringleaders are criminals" and their members are be submitted to "brainwashing" (VG Köln, Az: 10 L 1942/94 ) On 10.4.1995, the head of scientology Hamburg, Wiebke Hansen, is removed by Kurt Weiland and Mark Lizer. She has not been seen since then.
On 10.5.1995, Organisations of tenants, real estate owners and real estate brokers unite in a "konzertierte aktion" against scientologists real estate businesses On 10.5.1995, a scientologist "management front" loses a case against the press. The company had sued after a negative report.
(OLG München, Az: 21 U 3622/93) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19950510.html On 9.6.1995, a scientologist "seminar" company (Top Training GmbH) loses a case against a person who had attented a seminar, and had been lied to by a staff member he had asked whether the seminar was based on scientology. The court declared this to be "aggravated fraud" and granted a full refund.
AG Schwetzingen, Az: 4 C 359/94 and NJW-RR 1996, 558 (ST) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19950609.html On 14.6.1995, Scientology Bremen forced to register as a business, because court sees behaviour as commercial. (VG Bremen, 5 A 16/94) On 24.6.1995, Berlin demo. See at http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/demo/ On 5.7.1995, a scientologist real estate company loses its court case in Berlin against tenants who had put up banners negative to scientology On 12.7.1995, the state labour court decides that someone who recruits for scientology at the office can be dismissed after one warning.
(LAG Rheinland-Pfalz, Az: 9 Sa 890/93, mentioned in SZ 14.02.1998) August 1995: MP Renate Rennebach investigates scientology's allegation that two children were expelled out of a Kindergarten. She finds out that of the two children, one *is* attending classes there, and the other was never *expelled*: instead, the protestant church community who runs the private Kindergarten refused the application because of fear of the parents scientology proselytizing. The child is attending classes in a public Kindergarten.
On 4.9.1995, parents boycott a school class because a teacher had proselytized scientology in school. The parents even take the education of their children in their own hands, teaching their children themselves. The teacher, who previously already had been reassigned five times after parent protests because of her scientoloy proselytising, is later removed from the school and assigned a "desk job".
On 4.10.1995, a scientologist loses his court case against the tax office, he had tried to deduce a "personal efficiency training" and a "traning to improve organisation" from his income as "further education". The court disagreed, as it couldn't be ruled out that these courses would contain material of the "church of scientology", even if courts had stated that scientology is not a "church".
(FG Hamburg, Az: V 186/93) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19951004.html On 10.10.1995, a scientologist real estate business in Hamburg loses a court case against the Berlin tenants organization, who had listed him as a scientologist.
On 15.10.1995, news come out that the german flavor of CCHR had contacts with serial killer Thomas Holst at the time he was in psychiatry.
On 13.11.1995, scientology Hannover loses two court cases, so that they cannot sell books in the public, nor approach passers-by in public (OVG Lüneburg, Az: 12 L 1856/93 und 12 L 2141/93) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19951113.html On 22.12.1995, Chick Corea loses his court case against the state of Baden-Württemberg in connection with his non-participation at the state-sponsored concert at the world athletics championship. The audience has a good laugh in court when the judge asks if a "world famous pianist like him" needs state-paid concerts to survive financially.
(VG Stuttgart, Az: 4 K 4019/93) * On 23.1.1996, Klaus Kempe's real estate company in Düsseldorf loses the right to teach students (as part of the german dual education system with practical education at work and a theoretical education in school) the business because of the use of the scientology personality test.
(VG Düsseldorf, Az: 3L 4227/93 and/or (?) 3 K 12881/94 ) (not final - a magazine claims he won in appeal ??????????????) On 23.1.1996, scientology agrees to register as a commercial business in Karlsruhe.
On / Around 24.1.1996, scientology agrees to register as a commercial business in Frankfurt.
On 29.1.1996, the scientology franchise in Mannheim loses a court case before the administrative court in Karlsruhe, thus is forced to register as a business (Az: 6 K 2681/95). The court says that it does not matter whether they actually earn money or not, since this is the purpose of scientology in any case.
On 7.3.1996, the Hamburg administrative court declines to set an emergency TRO to prevent the city from repeating the allegation that crimes against scientology critics are allowed and "ethical" according to the "fair game" law. The court did also not mind the allegation that if the scientology strategy gets through, freedom of meeting, speech and self-determination will not be granted. The court also said that the scientologists are consciously or unconsciously working to get rid of the elements of a democratic state.
(VG Hamburg, Az: 11 VG 4855/95) On 19.3.1996, an appeals court in Heidelberg confirms the conviction of scientologist Sascha Hermann to pay a fine for threatening to murder a 17 year old, who was critical of scientology and member of the students organization of the CDU party. He had said: "This is a real death threat from a real scientologist".
(1st court AG Heidelberg v 28.11.1995, Az: 7 Cs 15 Js 4193/95) Around March 1996: Franz Riedl, spokesman of scientology Germany, who appeared in the last two editions of "Freiheit" with an editorial, is no longer there. (he resurfaced in august, then disappeared again) On 15.4.1996, a member of the consumer organization ABI (Mr. Kleinman) wins his (criminal) trial for libeling a scientologist. He had called the scientologist a member of a "white collar criminal cult". The prosecution drops the case after hearing that the scientologist had previously called him a "nazi criminal who was born 60 years too late".
* On 5.6.1996, Labor minister Norbert Blüm wins again, this time before the superior administrative court in Münster, which allows him to continue to call scientology a "contemptuous cartel of oppression" and a "giant octopus". The court also didn't mind him saying that "its leaders are criminals" and that "the members are brainwashed", and that scientology is promoting a "deluded ideology". He can also name them as "criminal money-laundering organization", because the minister did not mean the crime of money-laundering as defined in the law, instead he stated in simple language that scientology gets huge amounts of money through reprehensible methods, this money partly coming from criminality, and then invests this money in corporations to hide all these circumstances. The court agreed with scientology being called a "giant octopus" because scientology's own doctrine of expansion and penetration qualifies for such an attack. (OVG Münster, Az: 5 B 993/95) http://www.religio.de/bluem.html http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/ovg0696.html On 21.6.1996, Painter Gottfried Helnwein loses his court case against scientology critics Jeanette Schweitzer and Christa Jenal. The court allowed them to call Helnwein a "class 4 auditor", "minister" and "member of scientology", and also "member of an organisation of total lay people who use a coercive hypnotic method to destroy people's souls and get them under mind control with the help of a lie-detector". The two critics were only forbidden to claim that a painting had been sold "demonstratively" for the benefit of OSA, because Helnwein's attorney successfully argued that it had been sold to the benefit for NARCONON only. (OLG Frankfurt, Az: 16U 163/95) http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/olg0696.html ***** Revoked by Supreme court, must go to trial again to consider Helnwein's defense that he left scientology ***** http://www.jura.uni-sb.de/Entscheidungen/Bundesgerichte/BVerfG/rufschad.html On 4.7.1996 scientology Hannover loses its appeal in federal court against the decision denying it to recruit on the streets.
(BVerwG, Az: 11 B 23/96, also in NZV 1996, 468-469 (LT); NJW 1997, 406-408 (LT)) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19960704.html On 12.7.1996, scientology loses a court case in Stuttgart, prohibiting them to sell on the streets.
(VGH Baden-Württenberg, Az: 5 S 472/96) http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/vgh0796.html http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19960712.html On 8.8.1996, the Bavarian culture ministry wins against four scientologists who had tried to prohibit them to distribute material critical to scientology in a magazine for schools.
(Az: M 3 E 96.2692) On 13.8.1996, scientology withdraws a lawsuit against the state of Hessen. The state president had said that he anxiously watches the cult activties, and that it should be fought on a federal level. Scientology sued, and later withdrew the lawsuit, and has to pay the costs.
(VG Wiesbaden, Az: 4/3 E 1000/92) On 6.9.1996, the Stuttgart state court lifts a TRO that scientology had asked to prevent the postbank from closing scientology's bank accounts near Ulm. Scientology had unsuccessfully argued that 17 banks had refused to open an account for them; the postbank had successfully argued that 400 banks exist in the area. (In Germany, money is usually transferred between accounts directly instead of sending checks as in France or the US, therefore the bank account is written on every business stationery). The court also suggested that scientology could open an acount from a US bank doing business in Germany, as it would be unlikely that these banks would participate in an anti-scientology "conspiracy".
(LG Stuttgart, Az: 27 O 343/96, see also NJW 1996, p. 3347) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19960906.html On 14.10.1996, the administrative state court of Baden-Württemberg in Mannheim denied a motion (pending the main trial) to allow scientology to distribute pamphlets or to talk to passers-by. Reason: commercial activity. The court expresses strong doubts whether scientology is a religion. The ruling cannot be appealed.
(VGH Mannheim, Az: 5 S 472/96) On 21.10.1996, four Bavarian scientologists lose their appeal against the bavarian culture ministry in trying to prevent them to distribute material critical to scientology in a magazine for schools.
(VGH München, Az: 7 CE 96.2861) 16.9.1996 the Hamburg state court confirms the sentence against Franz Riedl, but reduced the fine to DM 5,400. Riedl had appealed several times, the last decision was only about the amount (Riedl claims to earn only DM 1,000 a month) (LG Hamburg, Az: 702 Ns 71/95) On 15.10.1996, Chick Corea loses his appeal in court case against the state of Baden-Württemberg in connection with his non-participation at the state-sponsored concert at the world athletics championship.
The court:
"The defendant [state] has shown evidence that has been undisputed by the plaintiff [Chick Corea], showing that some methods used by scientology are dangerous for human dignity and individual freedom of the recruited members, and that because of their partly contemptuous and totalitarian tendencies, the views [of scientology] are in contradition with liberal and democratic values of western democracies."
(VGH Mannheim, Az: 10 S 176/96) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19961015.html http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/vgh1096.html On 26.11.1996, the administrative court of Augsburg prohibits scientology to recruit on the streets or to distribute propaganda.
Scientology had appealed an order of the city of Kempten. Reason:
commercial activity. The court leaves it open whether scientology is a religion.
(VG Augsburg, Az: Au 3 K 94.671) On 19.2.1997, the scientologist business "Beauty-Colours-System" drops an appeal against a lost lawsuit in Munich. In that case, a scientologist company had licensed the "beauty colors system for color, type and image advice" to a woman without telling that at the beginning of the education there would be a "communication course" of L. Ron Hubbard. When learning this, the woman terminated the contract immediately and requested a refund, and sued. The Munich state court brought a judgement fully in her favour; with the retraction of the appeal, the judgement is now final.
http://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/presse/daten/scientology/8597.htm (LG München I, Az: ???) On 25.2.1997, the Bremen superior administrative court forbids scientology to advertise on the streets without a permit, because it is a business, for which a permit is needed.
(OVG Bremen, 1 BA 46/95 and 1 BA 30/96) On 20.3.1997, a real-estate scientologist loses an attempt to deduce the "Executive Training and Councelling Program, the L's" as a business expense. Reason: the scientologist was unable to show that this course is connected to his real estate business in any way; he also refused to show the course materials to the tax office - he only provided a copy of the book cover! He was also unable to provide the names, addresses and professions of the other participants of the course, or the course teachers. He also claimed that there were no records about who attended the course. Because of all these flaws, it did not matter whether the course fees were donations to scientology.
(FG Baden-Württemberg, Az: 6K 185/96, final) On 10.4.1997, scientology's complaint at the European Commission of Human Rights is dismissed unanimously by all 31 members on grounds the cult had not exhausted domestic legal channels, as scientology hadn't attempted to get a judgement by the german Federal Constitutional Court.
The argument that a constitutional complaint in Germany would be hopeless from the beginning was also disputed by the commission. The Commission decided not to pass on the case to the European Court of Human Rights, which may rule only after legal means within the country concerned have been thoroughly explored. The commission specifically mentioned the failure to appeal the labor court decision to the supreme court.
(NJW 1997, H. 19, S. XXXIX) http://www.dhcour.coe.fr/Hudoc2doc/hedec/sift/3490.txt On 15.4.1997, scientology agrees to a settlement with Jürgen Behrndt:
they pay back the half of DM 90000 in the Hamburg state court. Two of the three judges had already hinted that the whole contract might be "indecent".
On 13.5.1997, an "individual scientologist" fails to prevent the city of Hamburg from recommending businesses to ask their business partners to sign a statement that they do not use the technology of L. Ron Hubbard.
(VG Hamburg, 16 VG 1778/97) On 15.5.1997, Chick Corea loses for the third time: the federal administrative court dismisses a complaint against the previous court decision.
(BVerwG, Az: B 19/97) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19970515.html On 25.6.1997 the administrative court of Cologne rules that scientology may not review the folders of the parliament investigation committee on "so-called cults and psycho-groups". Reason: the papers are not public.
(VG Köln, Az: 23 L 180/97) * On 9.7.1997, the Bonn state court decides that parties have the right to exclude scientologists, and dismisses a lawsuit by three ex-CDU members. As reasons it named the requirement of obedience, the control of the individual by other members, and the placement of the socially weak to the border of society because of their uselessness.
(LG Bonn, Az: 7 O 55/97) http://members.xoom.com/lars_baehren/german/courts/19970709.html In July 1997, Painter and celebrity scientologist Gottfried Helnwein fails to get an ex-parte TRO against book author Peter Reichelt. The courts set a hearing date for August 21th; Helnwein dismisses his suit a few days before the hearing and has to pay the costs.
(LG Berlin, Az: 16 O 407/97) On 12.09.1997 the Berlin state labor court publishes a decision upholding the dismissal of a scientologist from her job at an agency that did counseling for foreigners. The scientologist, a trained psychologist (!), had not only distributed invitations to scientology events in the workplace, but also defended the scientologists towards young people as "harmless". The court said that this allows an "exeptional" (i.e not regular) dismissal, because of the danger of a one-sided influence, because an employer expects its employees to be neutral - which her employer can no longer trust her. The court added that the targets and the methods of the scientologists are seen by the public as contemptuous for humankind and criminal.
(LAG Berlin, Az: 13 Sa 19/97) http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/lag1997.html On 15.12.1997, the president of the Hamburg org, Mark Chapman Lizer, gets convicted a $1000 fine for violation of the state press law.
That law requires that publications name an inland resident to accept legal service. Members of Scientology Hamburg distributed "Freiheit", a german flavour of "Freedom", and the magazine did not fulfill the requirement. A state official had already told scientology about that problem before, through an OSA person. Lizer told that he wasn't informed about the distribution of the magazine, including a press release about it, nor about the requirement to have an inland resident to accept legal service.
[AG Hamburg, Az: 142b - 367/96 http://home.t-online.de/home/Ingo.Heinemann/impres1.htm ] On 28.11.1997, Bavaria announces that scientology has withdrawn a lawsuit against the state. The lawsuit had tried to prohibit Bavaria from asking job applicants about their scientology affiliation, and from asking businesses to sign the declaration that a business does not use the technology of L. Ron Hubbard. For Bavaria, the withdrawal of the lawsuit shows that scientology is unwilling to submit itself to a court scrutiny.
http://www.innenministerium.bayern.de/presse/daten/scientology/69397.htm 9.1.1998: The Berlin tenants association can continue to distribute a list of "scientology-linked companies and their helpers".
(KG Berlin 9 U 6416/96) 27.2.1998: Four scientologists (Mark Lizer, Franz Riedl, Jürgen Brock as members of the board plus Sabine Weber, spokesperson) must pay fines of DM 2000.- each (about $1200) for libel (claiming that Prof. Hermann Arnold (85) is a student of Mengele and supports the forced sterilization of Sinti and Roma) and violation of press law (distributing the propaganda "Freiheit" with a bogus masthead). In exchange, the state attorney will drop the case. All four scientologists claimed to earn only DM 1500.- per month.
4.3.1998: Four scientologists fail to have a complaint against Bavaria accepted at the european commission for human rights, because of an article in a publication of the minister of education. The commission refused the complaint because the four had not proven that they had been targeted specifically.
(Complaint Nr. 36283/97, EuGRZ 1998, 321) http://www.dhcour.coe.fr/Hudoc2doc/hedec/sift/4004.txt 22.4.1998: The Köln superior court confirms that the CDU has the right to exclude three scientologists. (See above) The court mentions that Hubbard's aggressive language is not the one that is normally used in a democratic society, and may not be compared to language used in a different historic period and society.
(OLG Köln, Az: 22 U 190/97) 15.6.1998: Scientology loses its appeal against the refusal of a lower court to set a TRO against the city of Hamburg, to prevent them from quoting scientology's "fair game". Scientology loses because it has indeed a policy of "fair game", which is even confirmed by scientology's own dictionary. Additionally, the court explains that - Misleading understanding of "fair game" are the responsibility of the author and not of the person quoting the author.
- "fair game" means "what may be lawfully hunted or shot"
- "suppressive acts" are defined by Hubbard as activities against scientology, not activities against scientology critics; therefore, even massive criminal acts are OK in the scientology ethics.
(OVG Hamburg, Az: Bs III 65/96) http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~krasel/CoS/germany/ovg6596.html 10.11.1998: Scientology loses once again a lawsuit against the city of Stuttgart. The court confirmed a decision prohibiting scientology from recruiting on the streets, since this is a commercial activity that needs a license.
17.11.1998: Scientology is prohibited from selling books on public streets.
(VG Freiburg, Az: 4 K 2141/96) http://home.t-online.de/home/Ingo.Heinemann/2141-96.htm 2.6.1999: The "Celebrity Center Munich" loses a lawsuit against the city, which had pursued the deregistration of the center, alleging it was a for-profit operation. Scientology had alleged that it is independant from other scientology organisations; the court concluded therefore that the CC *competes* with the other Munich scientology franchise.
(VG München, Az: M 7 K 96.5439, not final) http://home.t-online.de/home/Ingo.Heinemann/entzug3.htm 17.6.1999: "ARC Music" loses a lawsuit where it had attempted to prohibit Reverend Joachim Keden from alleging a link to scientology, claiming that this hurts their business. The court: "It is generally known that Scientology does not restrict itself in spreading its teachings; to support this it is also involved in general business life and maintains to this end a worldwide network in order to maintain influence on member or aligned companies to bring about social change to their own manner of thinking."
(AG Düsseldorf, Az: 52 C 9864/98 - not final) http://home.t-online.de/home/Ingo.Heinemann/arcmusi1.htm in english: http://cisar.org/990817c.htm 22.6.1999: A scientologist job placement company loses a lawsuit against a former client and is forced to pay a full refund. The court held that job placement needs a high level of trust, and that the defendant was required to disclose the scientology membership. The defendant paid $40,000 to a "war chest" which is used for activities against critics of scientology, and was also member of WISE, which aims to place scientology into the business world, and to take over the economy. The defendant has also known that the public is critical to its activities, because the press reported on its activities several times already - i.e. it can be assumed that the defendant would never have agreed to a contract.
OLG Stuttgart, Az: 12 U 3/99 published in: NJW 99, 3640 http://home.t-online.de/home/Ingo.Heinemann/12u3-99.htm http://cisar.org/990622a.htm 25.11.1999: Scientology Munich loses four consolidated lawsuits in which it had attempted to get the permission to recruit on the streets.
VG München, Az: M 2 K 97.771 http://home.t-online.de/home/Ingo.Heinemann/97-771.htm 7.4.2000: Scientology and two "individual" scientologists lose a lawsuit against the city Hamburg. They had tried to prohibit them from distributing a "technology declaration" to businesses. (This declaration states that a company / a person does not use the technology of L. Ron Hubbard) ---------------------------- Gabriele H. may be called a scientologist LG München, 1995, Az: 9 0 22 182/95 and OLG 21 U 1981/96 (source: RH in 4th book) AMK (a "management" front) has to pay back course fees OLG Karlsruhe, 1996, Az: 10 U 25/94 and 1 U 233/95 Martin Kolb (AMK) may not claim that allegations from Hartwig's book are "untrue or refuted by court decisions"
Amtsgericht Wiesloch, Az: 3 C 189/95 ---------------------------- LG Heidelberg 27.1.1994 - 1 O 36/93 (refund of WISE-linked seminar costs) -- Tilman Hausherr [KoX, SP5] http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/#cos Tom Marcellus is a Holocaust denier (IHR-director for 14 years until 1995) and is also a $40,000 "Patron of the IAS". Question: would Marcellus dare to tell a scientologist who lost a family member in a gas chamber that it didn't happen ?
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