Reprinted from the San Francisco Chronicle 12/26/96
(author Ed Meza, Chronicle Foreign Service)

German Government has Scientology in Its Sights
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Charges of Nazism fly in bitter fight

:Berlin:

The battle between the German government and the Church of Scientology
is reaching a Hysterical pitch, as both sides ressurect memories of the
Third Reich to press home thier arguments.

Federal and state officials have likened the church to the Nazi party,
accusing it of violating the German constitution by employing
totalitarian tactics on its members and seeking world domination.
Scientologists, meanwhile, say they are being persecuted with a vigor
that symbolizes Hitler's legacy of hatred and discrimination.

Authorities have been cracking down on the organization's 30,000 member
German branch, which has operated since 1970. At a late November party
conference on cults in Dresden, members of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's
Chritian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian
Social Union, presented a proposal that would severely limit the rights
of Scientologists.

The plan would put the church under surveillance, bar its members from
government employment and prohibit awarding government contracts to
Scientology-run companies. The major political parties already prohibit
membership by Scientologists.

(Typist's note : This sounds like an awfully good idea. )

Scientologists in Bavaria were dealt a severe blow last month when a
law prohibiting members from working for the state went into effect.
Government workers can be fired if they are found to be church members.

It is likely that the law will be found unconstitutional, and even some
government officials who are working to clamp a lid on Scientology
believe it goes too far.

"Such extremism by the Bavarian Government will only give Scientology
the appearance of legitimacy," said Anne Ruhele, the Berlin state
commisioner for religious cults.

Bonn's long-building case against the Church of Scientology was
bolstered by several federal court decisions in 1995.

An administrative court ruled that Scientology's extensive marketing of
courses, books, and other materials define it as a commercial
enterprise. A labor court then ruled that the organization is not a
religion, stripping it of the tax-exempt status enjoyed by recognized
religions.

(Typist's note : Scientology is _not_ accepted as a religion in any
country of the E.C. at this time, nor as a charitable organization.)

And in a decision that some legal experts call highly political,
another administrative court ruled that Labor Minister Norbert Bluem may
continue to refer to the church as a "contemptible cartel whose
oppression and ringleaders are criminal."

Hubert Buttel, Scientology's spokesperson in Berlin, said the
government's attacks show how little has changed in Germany since the
Nazi era. In 1994 the church took outfull-page ads in leading U.S.
newspapers likening the German government's policies to those of the
Third Reich, and portraying itself as a minority singled out for
discrimination.

The chairman of the German Jewish community, Ignatz Bubis, has called
the church's statements insulting and denounced Scientology's attempts
to equate its travails with the fate of the Jews under the Nazis.

Bruttel also accused the Catholic and Protestant churches with
conspiring with the government against Scientology in an attempt to
protect their religious monopoly.

"There is no other Western country where church and state are so
closely linked," he said.

The Catholic and Protestant faiths are recognised as state religions
and financed by a tax levied on church members. The extra tax is
calculated at 9 percent of a person's income tax. Although the tax is
the churches' main source of financing, the also recieve government
subsidies for social programs as well as funds for the restoration of
churches and cathedrals.

Ruhele says Germany's 20th century history has made authorities
extremely wary of the possible dangers of organizations like
Scientology. Countless government reports have labeled it a
totalitarian group with political designs that pose a threat to
Germany's citizens and to democracy as a whole.

Dr. Hans-Gerd Jaschke, author of a 1995 report on Scientology for the
state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said the group's political intentions
are apparent in its tenets and in its stated goal of establishing a
utopian world based on the philosophy of its founder, the late
science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard.

Jaschke, a professor of political science at the University of
Frankfurt, said the organization fits the paradigms of totalitarian
groups that teach strict, unwavering dogma, follow the convictions of
thier leaders unquestioningly and brand thier critics enemies. He draws
parallels between the methods of Scientology and those of the Nazis and
Stalinists.
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