Award: To Bluem?

Scientology

From: Joe's Garage <swatron@xenu.net>
Subject: Award: To Bluem?
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 18:23:46 -0500
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.1010226181019.118A-100000@darkstar.zippy>

Here is an introduction and an interview with Norbert Bluem, who I value as a person and a politician. The award site this year is http://www.leipzig-award.de.

Federal Minister Bluem,
"That is Psychological Warfare"

Minister Bluem accuses the Scientology Organization of psychological warfare, money-laundering and brainwashing.

In 1981 at an AGPF meeting on sects, Norbert Bluem had already expressed himself, "The enemies of freedom are the same ones that today are calling for freedom and tolerance."

(Book: "Destuktive Kulte" by Karbe and Mueller Kueppers) As Federal Labor Minister, Norbert Bluem accused the Scientology organization in the Sep. 18, 1994 "Welt am Sonntag" of laundering money, brainwashing, et al. an application for a temporary restraining order was denied by Muenster Superior Administrative Court case no 5 B 993/95 in a decision of May 31, 1996. The text of the decision is in a bulletin entitled "AGPF-Info 3-96." The lawsuit in the main issue has not been initiated to this day.

The Labor Minister had called Scientology a "criminal money-laundering organization."

--- The Spiegel 48/95 November 27, 1995 Spiegel Interview That is psychological warfare"

Labor Minister Norbert Bluem on the threat to society by the Scientology business sect "Octopus" is what Federal Labor Minister Norbert Bluem, 60, calls the worldwide psycho-business of Scientology. The sect, founded in 1954 by American L. Ron Hubbard, has been active in Germany for 25 years and has, according to what it says, more than 30,000 members in Germany. The sect deals with its critics aggressively. In a magazine called "Freiheit" ["Freedom"] it disparages not only Bluem, but also the Scientology Commissioner of the Hamburg Senate, Ursula Caberta, and the best-seller author and Scientology expert Renate Hartwig. "Scientology is an organization in which the end justifies the means," stated Robert Vaughn Young, a former management level member of the sect. "Its goal is complete control of schools, companies and governments"

(Spiegel 39/1995).

SPIEGEL:

Mr. Bluem, you are the only minister in the federal government who loudly warns people about the Scientology psycho-sect. What alarms you?

Bluem:

Two years ago at an election rally in southern Germany I met a mother who had lost her son to this sect which disregards human beings. The young man had been turned into a completely different person, and she no longer had any kind of contact with her child. It became clear to me then for the first time what kind of terrorism Scientology uses on people.

SPIEGEL:

In the meantime you have gotten quite high up on the sect's enemies list. In Scientology propaganda you are portrayed as a "spiritual arsonist" in the tradition of Adolf Hitler. The accusation goes that you have persecuted the Scientologists as the Nazis did the Jews in the Third Reich.

Bluem:

That would be OK if it only concerned me. But anybody who compares our campaign against sects, which we are leading by legal means, with the mass murders of the Jews is insulting the victims of the Holocaust. And that, as far as I'm concerned, is that.

SPIEGEL:

Don't you have to worry about slander and verbal attacks?

Sect founder L. Ron Hubbard gave the instruction that Scientology critics like you can be "harassed, lied to, deceived or destroyed" in order to silence you.

Bluem:

That is part of the intimidation strategy of this association. But if one believes he can worry me, then I can get real stubborn.

In case anything ever actually happens to me, someone will certainly get the idea to look for evidence. I am better protected than a labor office official, for instance, who denies a Scientologist a license for running a private employment agency. If they chose to take it out on him, that would, of course, have less effect than [if they chose to take it out] on me.

SPIEGEL:

Scientology makes claims of being a church - and would therefore enjoy the protection of Basic Law.

Bluem:

Scientology is the opposite of a church. The sect does not base belief on freedom, but on suppression; golly, you can't call that belief at all. It only has to do with satisfying their lust for power. Money, money and money - that is Scientology's trinity.

SPIEGEL:

You have described the organization as a "cartel which disregards human beings" ["menschenverachtendes Kartell"] and as a "criminal money-laundering organization. What makes Scientology so dangerous?

Bluem:

This sect is an octopus which ruins people and intentionally puts them in debt by obligating them to graduate unending, over-priced psycho-courses. It destroys the individual's personal essence, by a refined form of brainwashing, no less, which has only been developed this century. Those persecuted in former times can almost be envied, at least they could still think freely regardless of threat. But the victims of Scientology do not understand how they have been conquered by these manipulation techniques. That is a massive danger for our democracy.

SPIEGEL:

"Public Enemy Scientology" - this kind of classification used to only be used on political extremists. Aren't you giving the sect too much credit?

Bluem:

Not at all. A democracy needs voting citizens. If people turn into marionettes, though, there's no more democracy. All it needs then is a string-puller, and Scientology wants this world domination. Their goal is a new form of imperialism in which the opponent is not shot, but gotten rid of in some other manner. That is war, psychological war. The new conquerors like Scientology no longer arrive like Genghis Khan or Hitler on horses or tanks. Nor with atom bombs. But they can leave behind the same devastation if they manipulate an entire society.

"We have long underestimated the problem."

SPIEGEL:

Why doesn't the state just ban Scientology?

Bluem:

That would be the emergency measure. Our primary weapon is information. We have to immunize society against this soul peddler. The young people - they are especially at risk - and even their parents should have the alarm signals go off when they see the name of Scientology. Nobody can lead seeing people to their ruin.

SPIEGEL:

But that happens sometimes anyway. Many former sect members report that they had been informed about the risks.

But everything they had been warned about, psycho-terrorism or brainwashing, they did not see those things at first - instead they saw only nice, happy people who were ready to help.

Bluem:

That is the trick. This feigned friendliness is the bog in which people mire down. In it they believe they have found what society can no longer offer them. It is not good enough to say, "You have something to eat and drink, and once a year you can take a vacation." What that doesn't cover is an enormous void of meaning which people have - the yearning for transcendence. That is the market hole which Scientology exploits.

SPIEGEL:

Aren't the churches supposed to be doing that?

Bluem:

The churches frequently shy away from filling their role of supporting understanding. If I listen to morning services on the radio when I am in the bathtub, that is all quite interesting, but I really don't need a minister for that. The churches' message is reduced to social comforting, and the rest is almost shamefully kept quiet - the good God, the presence of the unknown. That area is wide open for charlatans and devils who take the place of the churches.

SPIEGEL:

Scientology has been spreading even into business for a long time. Entire areas, such as the real estate market, are under threat of being systematically infiltrated. The German Convention for Industry and Commerce has called the business sect a "danger to business in Germany." But the government is not doing anything.

Bluem:

We have been underestimating the problem for a long time.

But society is beginning to snap out of it. Using court decisions, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart and other cities are forcing the sect to officially put their business on record. In doing that the sect has to reveal its finances and show from whom it gets money and what it does with it. That is already quite a bit.

SPIEGEL:

These judgments have hardly influenced Scientology's drive for expansion. For instance, the sect may recruit for adherents on the open street and lure unsuspecting pedestrians in with its psycho-tests. There are no related decisions which apply nationwide.

Bluem:

As a first resort, this is a matter for the states. The Interior Ministers Conference will concern itself with that. As part of the federal government, we cannot make a presentation there.

SPIEGEL:

Why not? As Labor Minister you could, for example, systematically review the business relationships of the Scientology staff. Many are slaving away for pocket money 50 hours or more a week, and often get little or no social security. What would be the harm of making a raid on the sect?

Bluem:

That would also be a matter for the states. We have no central person who reviews labor relationships in Germany.

SPIEGEL:

Random checks at construction sites for illegal workers [who avoid paying tax] have become customary since you have requested this of the states.

Bluem:

I also strongly recommend this to the states in the case of Scientology. But the main thing is to gather information on activities. Facts and evidence of the sect's criminal machinations must be gathered by Constitutional Security.

They have not had a blind eye to the matter. But first, at the next State Interior Ministers' Conference, it will be decided whether a nationwide operation will take place. I am very much in favor of that.

SPIEGEL:

You keep Scientologists from operating private employment placement centers. Do the reproaches against the sect serve to curtail the rights of its members to freely elect a career?

Bluem:

Anyone who wants to operate a business needs permission from officials, in this case the Federal Office of Labor. But why issue someone a license when he uses this as a pretext to gain the personnel layout and personal data from a business?

It starts out quite harmlessly, with the psycho-tests, but the goal is a network of informants who exploit the needs and weaknesses of people.

SPIEGEL:

Which career should a Scientologist be permitted to follow?

May he be a teacher?

Bluem:

No.

SPIEGEL:

Kindergarten teach, professor, police officer?

Bluem:

No. Those are all tentacles of the sect. Why would they bother themselves with teachers? In order to timely prepare the next generation for their dirty business.

SPIEGEL:

Are you thinking of a legal professional ban?

Bluem:

A professional ban is the extreme, the last resort. Until then we are in the position of having to explain the techniques used by the sect. But in any case I want to prevent the Scientologists from settling themselves down in the nodes of society - kindergartens, schools, state agencies and commercial enterprises. These nodes link together to form a net for those being manipulated.

SPIEGEL:

In that you are alone in the federal government. Nothing on this subject can be heard from the departments of commerce, family or the interior.

Bluem:

Well, Manfred Kanther is not afraid, in any case; he has already expelled a Scientologist in his CDU state association from the party. And naturally I would be glad if his colleague Rexrodt joined him in the battle against psychic suppression which Scientology organizes. Freedom is a basic liberal theme. The FDP, like the CDU/CSU, excludes Scientology members. And Bavaria is at the forefront of the battle against Scientology.

SPIEGEL:

And your friend in party politics in the Families Ministry, Claudia Nolte?

Bluem:

She has recognized the danger.

"We need a public system of exit counselors"

SPIEGEL:

But apparently without suffering the consequences. Sect expert state that many members - some of them deeply in debt or at their spiritual end - would depart Scientology if there were institutions which would show them the way back to civil life.

Bluem:

That must not be permitted to fail because of money. We need a public system of exit counselors. To use military terminology, we need a psychological Red Cross which carries the wounded from the battlefield like the medics do in war. The Scientologists should be clear that we mean this seriously. They have to know that the game is over.

SPIEGEL:

Bluem:

Sir, we thank you for this interview.

Bluem(Footnote under Photo with: Hans-Joerg Vehlewald and Susanne Koelbl with Bl=FCm documents on Scientology) --- This page is a translation from the German language at:

http://home.t-online.de/home/Ingo.Heinemann/bluem95.htm Ingo Heinemann 1. Version 10.5.99 --- Joe Cisar: http://cisar.org/rfs0100.htm Overview of Scientology in Germany: http://cisar.org/overview.htm Save a Scientologist - http://mp3.cafepress.com/barbz On-line book: http://members.tripod.com/German_Scn_News/has00.htm From: Joe's Garage <swatron@xenu.net>
Subject: Award: Or not to Bluem?
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 18:24:49 -0500
Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.1010226181156.118B-100000@darkstar.zippy>
There must be a shortage of Scientologists who are allowed to post to the internet. All they need to do is just cut and paste as per routine to get all this great material their Thetan army has written about Dr. Norton Bluem posted to a.r.s. Perhaps they have succumbed to being victims of a new welfare state. Anyway, here is some anti-Bluem stuff to help you make up your mind about whether he is deserving of the Leipzig human rights award or not. (The web site is at http://www.leipzig-award.de). Enjoy.

--- http://germany.freedommag.org/press/page09.htm Such a policy designed to discriminate on the basis of religious belief and association is reprehensible. It is also manifestly illegal and in flagrant violation of international human rights treaties which protect the right to freedom of conscience and belief. Last year, the State Social Court of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany ruled against the government and for a Scientologist who had been denied an employment license solely because she is a member of the Church of Scientology. The Court held that the denial of her license, based on an order by former Federal Labor Minister Norbert Bluem, was unconstitutional.

--- http://www.bernie.cncfamily.com/ostra.htm The following statements is a selection taken from a CoS' report. I let the reader judge the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the comparison.

Jews:

"The Jews are our destruction ... What they mean to achieve by it is to destroy the German state and nation. This plan must be frustrated."

Joseph Goebbels - Reichminister of propaganda, November 1941 Scientologists:

[Scientology pursues] secret campaigns of conquest unknown to the public... we must use all available means to uncover Scientologists. We must resist them.... We must form a chain of defense.

Norbert Bluem, Federal Minister of Labor, May 1995 --- http://www.scientology.de/scnnews/press/eng/apr/97041901.htm This week, two German members of the Church of Scientology filed separate complaints with the federal data commissioner in Bonn, alleging that Germany's Labor Minister Norbert Bluem has violated both European and German data protection laws by ordering that all companies owned by Scientologists be identified by an "S" label=97an "electronic Star of David"=97in computerized records held by labor offices in Germany.

--- http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol31I1/page19x.htm Scientologists and celebrities John Travolta, Chick Corea and Isaac Hayes testified alongside Engel in the September 1997 hearings. Engel returned to Washington in June 1998 and briefed congressmen and senators individually on her case=97a paradigm of German government discrimination.

Engel filed suit in 1995 against the German Federal Labor Ministry challenging a 1994 decree issued by the former Minister of Labor, Norbert Bluem, which denied Scientologists the right to own or operate employment agencies.

--- http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/relfree/freedomalert/HRWF_G= ermany/990625Germany.html "Appeals Court Rules that Government Decree Against Scientologists is Illegal"

June 25, 1999 HRWF (25.06.1999) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - In two separate but related cases, the State Social Appeals Court of Rhineland-Palatinate has ruled that a directive from the German Ministry of Labor that denies Scientologists the right to own or operate employment agencies is illegal.

The rulings are significant. They are the first decisions by a German court, since the new administration took office, to address the acts of the previous government towards Scientology.

The controversial decree was issued in September 1994 by Norbert Bluem, Helmut Kohl's Minister of Labor and a Catholic theologian.

This is the man who, as Labor Minister, called for the exclusion of Scientologists from the civil service, who personally demonstrated outside the Church of Scientology in Hamburg, and who, in late 1996, ordered labor offices throughout Germany to brand any firms owned by ordered labor offices throughout Germany to brand any firms owned by Scientologists with an "S" in government computer records.

His hostility to new religions dates from before he assumed his Minister's post in 1982. In November 1981, he spoke at an international conference organized by a group called AMPF (Action for Mental and Psychic Freedom).= He told his audience that "beyond all ideological discourse, we are in need of psychology and psychiatry's competence in this specific matter (of new religions)". Theologian Bluem closed his speech by announcing his intention to solve the "sect question" and rhetorically asked, "Who else but the Christian Churches and science are most competent (to deal with sects)."

Bluem's order led to further measures against Scientologists. In June 1996, the President of the Federal Labor Office ordered all labor offices to a) identify employers who might be Scientologists, b) inform prospective employees of the employer's association with Scientology, c) exclude businesses which the Labor Office believed were owned by Scientologists from the "vacant jobs" computer bank, and d) ban Scientologists from holding positions as trainers in professional training fields.

The Cases at Hand Soon after Bluem issued his directive, the Labor Office of Hessia withdrew the licence of a German Scientologist named Claudia Engel to operate an au pair agency. She had refused to sign a declaration from the Office stating that she is not a Scientologist, believing that her religious membership is her private concern and no business of the government's.

Claudia filed suit against the government over the cancellation, and when her cancelled licence expired, she applied for a new one. The Labor Office denied her application, again citing Bluem's order and the alleged "unreliability" of Scientologists. Claudia filed a second suit over the denial.

Claudia lost her first suit in the lower court and brought both her suits to the Appeals Court.

She has now won both cases.

The Appeals Court ruled that:

1.Bluem's decree was illegal and violated Article 12 of the German Constitution, which protects the right to choose one's profession.

2.Therefore, the cancellation of Claudia's past licence as well as the denial of a new license was also illegal.

3.There is no basis to assume that an individual is "unreliable" because he is a member of the Church of Scientology.

4.Claudia's conduct shows no evidence of alleged "unreliability" and she fulfilled all her legal obligations.

5.Therefore, Claudia is fully entitled to a private job procurement license and may operate her au pair agency.

Freedom Alert Religious Freedom Home This item appears with the permission of Human Rights Without Frontiers.

HRWF is located at 5 rue de la Presse, B-1000 Brussels. Tel: 32 2 2198880 - Fax: 32 2 2190285 - Email: willy.fautre@hrwf.net - Website:

http://www.hrwf.net. To be put on the Email press service list on "religious Intolerance and Discrimination," send requests to info@hrwf.net. The material presented here may not be reproduced without the written consent of HRWF. We encourage readers to visit HRWF and explore the broad array of material about religious freedom.

--- http://www.religioustolerance.org/scie_neg.htm German Persecution of the Church of Scientology The following lists a few of the oppressive actions by State and Federal governments in Germany against the Church, and some of the reactions by human rights and other groups concerned with religious freedom. We seem to be observing a descent into madness that has ominous similarities to some of the events in Germany in the early 1930's. Although the Church of Scientology seems to be the main target of the Government, the Jehovah's Witnesses and other small religious groups are also seriously effected.

...

Labor Ministry Norbert Bluem, Labor Minister for Germany ordered that labor offices in the country must identify companies owned by Scientologists by an "S" in all of their computer records. One is forced to compare this with the Nazi Governments decree of 1938-JUN-14 which required all businesses owned by Jews to be identified with a Star of David.

--- [photo] Claudia Engel of Frankfurt told the Commission she was driven out of her job by German Labour Minister Norbert Bluem because of her private religious beliefs.

For Trademark Information --- http://www.alarmgermany.org/newpage31.htm This is illustrated by so-called =84sect filter" clauses in contracts recommended by the government to exclude Scientologists from employment and from joining associations. Such clauses have been adopted and promoted by the Permanent Conference of Ministers and Senators of Interior of the States (See, e.g., Decision Minutes of the Permanent Conference of Ministers and Senators of Interior of the States on 15th December 1995), by state governments in Bavaria, Hamburg, Berlin and Baden-Wurttemburg, by the major political parties, and by federal ministers such as Federal Minister of Family Affairs Claudia Nolte and Federal Minister of Labor Norbert Bluem, who have called for a ban of all Scientologists from occupations which "intersect with society", including schools, the government and business companies.

Respectfully submitted, William C. Walsh Send mail to Webmaster with questions or comments about this web site.

Copyright =A9 1998 Alliance for Liberty and Rights of Minorities This page was last updated Monday, December 14, 1998 --- http://www.scientology.de/scnnews/hatewach/publi/ny/nyissu04/nyissu04.htm This bloodless discrimination is exactly what German Scientologists are experiencing today. Germany's Federal Minister of Labor, Norbert Bluem, has repeatedly tried to exclude Scientologists from employment because of their religious affiliation. A Bluem edict to the Federal Labor Office in 1994 ordered the revocation of any licenses issued to Scientologists that authorized them to operate employment agencies.

Fueled by such government authority, the bureaucratic gears of discrimination have been grinding at all levels of the country's economic life. Various businesses, acting on the false propaganda, require that their employees sign unconstitutional and illegal "declarations"

confirming that they are not Scientologists. Failure to sign means no job.= The discovery that one's religion is Scientology has led to immediate dismissal. Scientologists are denied bank accounts and in Bavaria, Scientologists are not allowed to bid for public contracts.

When such abuses have reached a court, they have been declared unconstitutional. Undeterred by the judicial condemnations, however, the bureaucrats continue to discriminate.

For example, this past December, a state court called "illegal" and "inappropriate" a Federal Labor Office order which revoked the license of a woman, who ran her own business, solely because she is a Scientologist.

Despite this, a Federal Labor Office order surfaced in June 1996 which instructs all labor offices to initiate arbitrary and discriminatory measures against any employers who are suspected of being Scientologists.

This September, a court ruled illegal the dismissal of a Scientologist, on the basis of his religion, from a leading German engineering company. An outstanding employee holding a position of responsibility, the Scientologist had been given only one day's notice in December 1995 despite a contract extending through September 1996.

In a climate of intolerance created by irresponsible politicians, legality is forgotten and constitutional rights are ignored.

German officials have refused every request to engage in dialogue to resolve the discrimination occurring in their country.

"Never again" must not be an idle slogan, it must be a promise we keep.

True, no one has been killed or hauled off to death camps. But history has taught us that we would be at fault if we stood by and did not point out the alarming similarities between the 1930s and today. German officials protesting these comparisons should stop recreating the past and they will remind no one of it.

--- http://www.scientologie.ch/scnnews/hatewach/appeal.htm Scientologists Appeal to International Labor Organization For further information contact:

Leisa Goodman (323) 960-3500 e-mail: publicrelations@scientology.net The Church of Scientology International is asking the International Labor Organization (ILO), Director-General Michel Hansenne, to examine evidence that Germany has failed to comply with the ILO's Convention No. 111 concerning Employment and Occupation Discrimination. The convention specifically prohibits religious discrimination in employment. William C.

Walsh, a Washington, D.C. based human rights attorney, filed a submission on behalf of the Church which includes dozens of documented instances of Scientologists being blacklisted and economically boycotted in Germany for only one reason: their religious affiliation.

The submission contends that contrary to its commitment to the ILO Convention, Germany, one of the ILO member countries, has "engaged in an officially encouraged pattern and practice of employment and occupation discrimination against German Scientologists simply because of their association and personal beliefs."

In May 1995, German Minister of Labor Norbert Bluem authored an article that appeared in a national German publication advocating that private companies and schools join in a "war" against Scientology and "use all available means" to "unveil" members of the Church who might keep their religious belief to themselves.

Although criticized by scholars and experts, in November 1995 Bluem publicly called for a ban of all Scientologists from occupations which "interact with society," including schools, the government and business companies.

The ILO, which has been closely identified with the promotion and protection of human rights, approved in 1995 the prevention of discrimination as one of its three primary fundamental human rights concerns and has repeatedly affirmed freedom of religion and conscience in its international agreements. Germany ratified the ILO Convention in 1961 and must submit an annual report demonstrating compliance with the accord.

For Trademark Information --- http://www.scientology.org.mt/p_jpg/scnnews/press/eng/2000/02052000.htm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For further information Contact: Karin Pouw (323) 960-3500 May 2, 2000 =2E..

The Report states, in part:

"Policy guidance issued by the German Federal Government has raised concerns about a potential for discrimination against U.S. firms in procurement decisions by German entities... at least one major U.S.

supplier has had to undergo a qualification process that was significantly more extensive than that required by its competitors."

Such a policy designed to discriminate on the basis of religious belief and association is reprehensible. It is also manifestly illegal and in flagrant violation of international human rights treaties which protect the right to freedom of conscience and belief. Last year, the State Social Court of Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany ruled against the government and for a Scientologist who had been denied an employment license solely because she is a member of the Church of Scientology. The Court held that the denial of her license, based on an order by former Federal Labor Minister Norbert Bluem, was unconstitutional.

--- http://www.scientology.org/scnnews/hatewach/publi/ny/nyissu08/nyissu08.htm German Federal Labor Minister Norbert Bluem, a senior official of the ruling political party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is at the forefront of the drive to exclude Scientologists from employment. He has vowed to prevent Scientologists from obtaining jobs in schools, the government, or businesses. Mr. Bluem decreed that Scientologists cannot operate employment agencies. True to style, Bluem ignores his country's own courts. His order has twice been subjected to judicial scrutiny. Twice it has been declared illegal. Mr. Bluem, however, has not rescinded the decree.

For a country currently facing a job crisis=97Germany's unemployment rate i= s the highest since World War II=97one would think it could ill afford to be denying jobs to capable, industrious people. One would also think the Labor Minister would be offering leadership, but instead he uses his office as a platform for prejudice.

When, in 1994, we ran a series of advertisements in this newspaper to draw attention to the discrimination, Minister Bluem agreed to meet with us to discuss our concerns=97if we stopped the ads. As a sign of good faith, we did so. But Mr. Bluem never did meet. He flatly refused. Instead, he stepped up his propaganda efforts and attacks on Scientologists in Germany. His prejudice has driven him so far as to band together with a small group of extremists and demonstrate personally in front of two of our churches in Germany=97most recently, in December 1996, at the Church of Scientology in Hamburg.

Yet, when we recount these alarming incidents to German government officials, many of them simply deny that a problem exists. After all, they think, persecution on a major scale could not happen again because Hitler isn't around any more and nobody has written a book calling for the extermination of minorities.

The world, however, thinks otherwise, and has promised never to forget the lessons the Holocaust taught. Too many German officials are practicing the slogan, "Never Remember." If they were not so blind, they would see the historical parallels and cringe at the reprise of history's crimes.

Like Mr. Bluem, other German officials have refused every request to engage in dialogue to resolve the discrimination occurring in their country.

"Never again" must not be an idle slogan, it must be a promise we keep.

For Trademark Information --- http://198.95.10.33/p_jpg/scnnews/hatewach/appeal.htm For further information contact:

The submission contends that contrary to its commitment to the ILO Convention, Germany,one of the ILO member countries, has "engaged in an officially encouraged pattern and practice of employment and occupation discrimination against German Scientologists simply because of their association and personal beliefs."

"This Church has been fully recognized by the government of the United States, --- http://plummco.simplenet.com/sciento1.html The seriousness of this discrimination was highlighted on March 31st when a German appeals court granted a Scientologist a preliminary injuction prohibiting the government from enforcing an order denying her the right to run an employment agency. The Court held that the discriminatory decree issued by Federal Labor Minister Norbert Bluem against Scientologists was illegal and unconstitutional.

--- http://germany.freedommag.org/press/page01.htm January 29, 1999 APPEALS COURT RULES THAT GERMAN LABOR MINISTER ACTED ILLEGALLY TOWARDS SCIENTOLOGISTS =97Government will have to pay damages: Scientologists demand removal of responsible ex-minister from human rights committee=97 A German member of the Church of Scientology has won rulings from a German appeals court that a government order denying Scientologists the right to operate employment agencies is illegal.

The Church of Scientology said today that based on the ruling, they will demand that Norbert Bluem, the Labor Minister who issued the order and who is now an MP in the new Parliament, removed from a Parliamentary human rights committee to which he was appointed last month.

Ms. Claudia Engel's licence to operate an au pair agency was withdrawn in 1994 following a discriminatory directive from the Federal Labor Minister of the former German government. The directive denied Scientologists the right to obtain job procurement licences, solely on the basis of their membership of the Church.

--- http://int.freedommag.org/page16a.htm Discrimination against religions in Germany's business sector was instigated by decrees of the former Minister of Labor Norbert Bluem, a high-ranking leader of the Christian Democratic Union who was voted out of office in the 1998 elections. Bluem policies have been ruled by courts to be unlawful. One of the most significant decisions to date occured at the end of January 1999 when the Rhineland-Palatinate state Court of Appeals in Mainz ruled that the 1994 denial of a Scientologists' license to operate an au pair agency=97denied solely on the basis of the woman's religion=97was blatantly illegal.

Disarming the Intolerant continued...

For Trademark Information --- http://freedom.org.il/english/vol29I4/page20b.htm Problem Grows More Serious =2E..

But recent events indicate that overwhelming criticism has yet to bring either meaningful change or an end to the abuses. In early 1997, under instruction from German Labor Minister Norbert Bluem, all labor department offices began marking the computer files of companies which employ or are owned by Scientologists with an "S" code symbol. Many outraged by this act described the symbol as an "electronic Star of David."

--- http://freedommag.org/english/vol31I1/page16a.htm Discrimination against religions in Germany's business sector was instigated by decrees of the former Minister of Labor Norbert Bluem, a high-ranking leader of the Christian Democratic Union who was voted out of office in the 1998 elections. Bluem policies have been ruled by courts to be unlawful. One of the most significant decisions to date occured at the end of January 1999 when the Rhineland-Palatinate state Court of Appeals in Mainz ruled that the 1994 denial of a Scientologists' license to operate an au pair agency=97denied solely on the basis of the woman's religion=97was blatantly illegal.

--- Joe Cisar: http://cisar.org/rfs0100.htm
Overview of Scientology in Germany: http://cisar.org/overview.htm
Save a Scientologist - http://mp3.cafepress.com/barbz
On-line book: http://members.tripod.com/German_Scn_News/has00.htm