Problem Grows More Serious
Yet the situation faced by Scientologists remains a profoundly disturbing one. Teachers, students, executives, athletes, artisans—indeed, people in almost any walk of life in Germany—know that they risk losing their job, their business or their rights solely because of their religion. Hundreds already have. Popular American movies like Mission: Impossible and Phenomenon have been subject to officially sanctioned boycotts in Germany because Scientologists starred in them. Political parties and activists have disseminated booklets which portray religious minorities as “insects” to be exterminated and specially packaged condoms for the stated purpose of preventing the conception of “new Scientologists.” Letters, bearing the Nazi eagle, swastika and “SS” logo, have been sent anonymously warning that “Your Association is under observation by the SS; You are requested to cease your activities and retreat overseas!”
And Scientologists aren’t alone. An estimated 100 million DM is spent annually to fund attacks on minority groups in the media and through the government. That money supports, among other things, a vast network of “anti-sect commissioners"—government officials paid with state funds and select priests and pastors who are their church counterparts. These officials forward government propaganda attacks on those singled out for ostracism, which have included Muslims, Christians and Hindus. Any organization which supports values or beliefs different from the German status quo—not just religious and ethnic minorities—can expect to be deemed “enemies.” That fact was underscored by the State Department in a report released on July 22 by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs, highlighting discrimination against Christians, but also criticizing mistreatment of Scientologists. (See “New State Department Report Reproves Germany”.)
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.”
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German political parties and activists, utilizing Nazi-like propaganda "art," have disseminated booklets (middle right) which portray religious minorities as insects to be exterminated, while letters bearing the Nazi eagle, swastika art and SS logo (middle left) have been sent to churches anonymously. A condom, handed out in a black box (right) — the cover art of which was conceived by the Youth Union of the Christian Democratic Union (Chancellor Helmut Kohl's party) — promotes it as "90% effective" in preventing future Scientologists, while the CDU's enrollment form (left) requires applicants to attest they are not Scientologists. | |
Yet even more alarming was an act directly connected to the U.S. State Department’s 1996 human rights report. In June, German federal and state ministers of interior announced that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution would begin national surveillance of the Church of Scientology—a measure which explicitly includes tapping phones, opening mail, trailing parishioners and even sending “undercover agents” into churches.
This announcement was a total reversal of the position taken by the German interior ministers just months earlier—when, in October 1996, the same interior ministers took up various challenges to the constitutional rights of Germany’s churches of Scientology and unequivocally rejected every case—a fact which had been praised as a “positive development” by the State Department. It is now apparent that this display of “justice” was simply a pretense, to be reversed as soon as State had noted it as a “positive” sign—a conclusion further borne out by the fact that there has been only one significant event since the publication of the State Department’s report: a new government vindication of the Church.
Since 1980, 158 unfounded government complaints have been brought against Churches of Scientology, staff and individual Scientologists in Germany. None of these produced any evidence linking the Church or its officials to any wrongdoing and every single investigation has been dismissed. And only days before the interior ministers’ decision to place Scientologists under “observation,” another major inquiry was dismissed. After a searching five year investigation, the Stuttgart Public Prosecutor not only determined that there was no credible evidence to support the allegations made against the Church, but further noted that many of the allegations were simply invented by third parties, and concerned events that never took place.
Concern and anger have been voiced both within and without Germany. Member of Parliament Angelika Koester-Lossack of the German Green party said, “This is an authoritarian move,” adding that it was simply “state repression.” (She would know; the Greens were subject to “observation” for years in the 1980s.) “It is not good news [for Germany],” commented one U.S. official.
Morton A. Kaplan, Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Chicago, commented that, although many in Germany may have learned from the past, “When present-day officials of the ruling party refer to Scientologists as insects, destroy their jobs and businesses, and remain in office, it suggests, however, that the lesson has not been learned well enough.
“I long supported and was delighted by the reunification of Germany. This ugly situation does dishonor to the new united Germany. Chancellor Helmut Kohl, for whom otherwise I have had great respect, should be ashamed of himself for failing to move strongly against the proto-Nazis in his party who are willing to dehumanize others.”
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