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GERMANY: Scholz ‘ashamed’ at antisemitism wave on ‘Kristallnacht’ Day

GERMANY: Scholz ‘ashamed’ at antisemitism wave as ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom marked

By Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke

Reuters (09.11.2023) – Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “ashamed and outraged” at a recent wave of antisemitic incidents in Germany, warning Berlin would not tolerate such anti-Jewish hatred as he marked the 85th anniversary of the Nazis’ “Kristallnacht” pogrom of Jews.

Scholz was speaking at a ceremony at a Berlin synagogue to mark “Kristallnacht” alongside Jewish leaders. The synagogue was among 1,000 that were damaged or destroyed across Germany and Austria by Nazi mobs during the “Night of Broken Glass” in November 1938.

At least 91 Jews were murdered, about 7,500 Jewish businesses ransacked and some 30,000 Jewish men and boys arrested during the assaults which preceded the Holocaust, or Shoah, in which about six million Jews were killed.

The synagogue where Scholz was speaking was also attacked with Molotov cocktails in a surge of antisemitic incidents that followed the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the subsequent Israeli retaliation.

In the week following Hamas’s attack, watchdog RIAS reported 202 antisemitic incidents in Germany related to those attacks, a 240% increase from a year ago. Police said mosques were also targeted over the same period, with as many eight receiving parcels with torn-up Koran fragments mixed with fecal matter.

“Every form of antisemitism poisons our society,” said Scholz, who was wearing a kippah, the traditional Jewish cap, as is customary in a synagogue for men. “We will not tolerate it.”

Incidents of antisemitism have surged globally since the outbreak of the Israeli-Hamas war, causing particular soul-searching in Germany which has prided itself on its culture of remembering its dark past and drawing from it a historic duty to fight anti-Jewish hate.

A 10-minute video by German Economy Minister Robert Habeck expressing concern over rising antisemitism went viral last week. In it, he warned that Germans would have to answer for antisemitism in court, while anyone who was not German risked their residency status.

Indeed, new citizenship rules make clear that anyone who is antisemitic cannot receive German citizenship, Scholz said on Thursday.

Teaching about Germany’s historic responsibility in the wake of the Holocaust is especially important as the generations who experienced it first hand are no longer around to share their testimony, Scholz said.

It is also important given the fact Germany is now a major destination for immigrants, and many immigrants have not learned about the Shoah in their countries of origin – or have learned about it differently, he said.

He added: “At the same time, we must not be taken in by those who are now seeing an opportunity to deny the place of more than 5 million Muslim citizens in our society.”

“Never again” also means friendship with Israel, Scholz said.

“Israel has the right to defend itself against the barbaric terror of Hamas,” he said, reiterating his government’s commitment to do anything it can to ensure the release of the people taken hostage by the Palestinian Islamist group.

Jewish culture thrived in Berlin before the Nazis took power. It was one of the world’s 10 largest Jewish centres, and many of Germany’s leading scientists were Berlin Jews.

There were about 160,000 Jews in Berlin in 1933, when Hitler came to power, but only 1,400 in 1945 at the end of World War Two. The rest emigrated or were killed in death camps.

Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke, editing by Thomas Escritt and Bernadette Baum

Photo: Wikimedia

Further reading about FORB in Germany on HRWF website

GERMANY: Christian hybrid school forcibly closed by German authorities

The alleged objective is to protect “state’s educational mandate”

The Dietrich Bonhoeffer International School in Germany, forced to close by education authorities for this school year, operated successfully for 9 years with an award-winning pedagogical model. Germany bans homeschooling and hybrid schools, in addition to curtailing the right to establish private schools.

Two partner schools, run by the same school provider, also have been denied accreditation by German authorities; ADF International is bringing this egregious violation of freedom of education to the European Court of Human Rights.

ADF (19.10.2023) –Germany’s education authorities have forced the closure of the Dietrich Bonhoeffer International School, an innovative Christian hybrid school offering an award-winning pedagogical model combining in-school and at-home learning for children. In a letter to the school’s lawyer, the authorities write that “the immediate enforcement of the prohibitions is ordered”, preventing students from attending the new school year. The school also has been ordered to pay 600€ in administrative fees to the government. An urgency lawsuit to reopen the school is currently pending.

In the letter demanding the closure, authorities stated: “The prohibition … serves to protect the state’s educational mandate. In the now-closed school, the state’s educational mandate … would be completely displaced.” Furthermore, the school has been ordered to give up its internet domain as this would constitute “advertisement for the impermissible school.”

“Parents are the first authority for the education of their children. And parents have the right, enshrined in international human rights law, to choose the kind of education that is best for their children, including by embracing innovative approaches like hybrid schooling. Germany has one of the most restrictive educational systems in the world. The ones who suffer are the children and their families, whose longstanding and beloved school was forced to close,” said German lawyer Dr. Felix Böllmann, Director of European Advocacy for ADF International, who filed the case regarding the accreditation at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

Successful and innovative hybrid school restricted and closed

The Association for Decentralized Learning, a German education provider, operated the Dietrich Bonhoeffer International School (DBIS) for 9 years as a “supplementary school”. In the German system, schools classified as supplementary do not require accreditation. Nevertheless, the school now has been forced to close.

The DBIS combined in-class learning with digital online lessons and independent studying at home. The system has proven its success: students maintain above-average grade points in state examinations. DBIS also employed state-approved teachers.

“Children have a right to a first-class education. At our school, we were able to provide families with an education that meets their individual learning needs and allows students to flourish. It saddens me deeply that our students and teachers had to leave our school community,” said Jonathan Erz, head of the Association for Decentralized Learning and school principal.

Additional schools rejected – case pending at ECtHR

Since 2014, the education provider repeatedly has filed for accreditation for two additional hybrid schools based on the same pedagogical model. These would be “substitute schools” requiring official accreditation so that students could attend in place of a state school.

The administrative courts acknowledged the satisfactory level of education but criticized the model on the basis that due to the hybrid nature of the school, students spend little time together during breaks and between lessons. Therefore, the state’s “educational mandate” could not be satisfied, and accreditation was again and again denied.

On 2 May 2023, ADF International filed a case on behalf of the Association for Decentralized Learning at the European Court of Human Rights, citing an egregious violation of freedom of education for the inability to open and run its schools.

Böllmann stated: “It is our hope that the ECtHR will take this crucial opportunity to bring justice to the Association for Decentralized Learning and its students, parents, and administration. In so doing the court would take an important step toward a reform of freedom of education in Germany. We are honored to defend parental rights and the freedom of education in this important case.”

“We hope that Europe’s top human rights court takes this case and acknowledges that our substitute schools provide innovative and high-standard education through modern technology, individual student responsibility, and weekly attendance hours. Our school fulfills the educational mandate – we educate kids to be responsible democratic citizens,” Erz further noted.

Germany in violation of international and national law

Germany, with a ban on homeschooling and severe educational restrictions, is in violation of the right to educational freedom as enshrined in its own constitution and in international law. International law specifically recognizes the liberty of bodies, such as the Association, to establish and direct educational institutions without interference, subject to “the requirement that the education given in such institutions shall conform to such minimum standards as may be laid down by the State”. (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 13.4)

Governments are obliged to respect “the liberty of parents … to choose for their children schools, other than those established by the public authorities, which conform to such minimum educational standards as may be laid down or approved by the State and to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions”. (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 13.3)

The German Basic Law (Article 7 of the Constitution) guarantees the right to establish private schools—however, the domestic courts’ interpretation renders this right ineffective. ADF International lawyers argue that this, in turn, is a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights. Time and again, the European Court of Human Rights has made it clear that the Convention rights must be practical and effective.

Photo source: ADF International

Further reading about FORB in Germany on HRWF website

GERMANY: State-funded Lutheran Church’s “Sect Filters” for school teachers

You should state you have not attended events of, or sympathize with, Scientology, Jehovah’s Witnesses, “Moonies,” “Hare Krishna,” or Universal Life (other religions are not mentioned).

By Massimo Introvigne

Bitter Winter (11.10.2023) – “Bitter Winter” has denounced in the past the discriminatory practice of “sect filters”—now an expression in common use in English, although “cult filters” would be a more accurate translation—used by certain institutions in Germany. While Scientology is not banned in Germany, those who want to be hired for certain public and private jobs, or obtain state benefits, including subsidies to buy ecological electrical bikes, should declare that they are not Scientologists, have not taken Scientology courses, and do not support the ideas of Scientology. Courts of law in Germany have occasionally recognized the discriminatory nature of these “filters,” which should look obvious to anybody who reads them, but so far have not banned the practice altogether.

It seems that “sect filters” are now being extended to religious minorities other than Scientology. Every länder (state) in Germany offers religious instruction in public schools. Religious communities with Public Law Corporation status (or those without such status that have entered into agreement with the states) appoint religion teachers. The länder pays the teachers’ salaries and supervise them.

One such state-supported churches offering religious instruction in schools is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria. A “sect filter” statement by its Munich School Department now includes the usual questions about Scientology and the ideas of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, but also wants to know whether applicants have had anything to do with other “cults” singling out the “Hare Krishna” (i.e., the International Society for Krishna Consciousness), “Moon” (by which they mean the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, once known as Unification Church, and perhaps other groups based on the teachings of the late Reverend Sun Myung Moon), the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Universal Life (a German new religious movement founded by Gabriele Wittek).

A translation of the application reads as follows:

“On the occasion of my application for employment, I answer the following questions:

1) Do you have or have you had any relations with cults or other religious associations (e.g. Hare Krishna, Moon, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Universal Life) in the last twelve months?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)

2) In the last three years, did you or do you participate in events, courses, trainings, seminars or the like with the above-mentioned groups?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)

3) Do you support the above mentioned groups ideally, financially or in any other way?

__No
__Yes, namely (specify)

1) Do you have any business or other relationships (e.g., volunteer or employee, member of an association, holder of a contractual right to use the technology of the founder of the Scientology organization, L. Ron Hubbard) with an organization that, to your knowledge, uses or distributes the technology of L. Ron Hubbard or operates according to these methods? (The term ‘organization’ includes all organizations, groups and institutions of the Scientology organization, i.e. also, for example, those that are active in the social and economic field or in the educational field).
__No
__Yes, namely (more detailed designation)

2) Are you subject to the directives of an organization that uses or distributes Hubbard’s technology?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)

3) In the last three years, have you attended or are you attending any events, courses, trainings, seminars, etc. with the above-mentioned groups that use or disseminate the technology of L. Ron Hubbard or work according to these methods, or have you registered for future events and similar?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)

4) Do you support the above mentioned groups ideally, financially, or in any other way?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify)

5) Do you work according to the methods of L. Ron Hubbard or have you been trained according to these methods?
__No
__Yes, namely (specify).”

In this strange document, even participating in an event without being a member of the targeted minority religion is ground to be refused employment. In fact, applicants should disclose their inner thoughts, where perhaps lies hidden an “ideal support” for a “bad” religion even if not accompanied by any participation in its events.

Obviously, it is part of the religious freedom of the Evangelical Lutheran Church to make sure that those who teach its religion on its behalf in public schools share its theology. It would be normal to interview them and make sure they adhere to Lutheran theology rather than, say, its Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, or Hindu counterparts, or any other different belief or religion.

The “sect filter,” however, is something different. It doesn’t ask whether the candidate teacher has attended a Catholic or Buddhist event but only singles out certain “cults.” As such, it introduces an unacceptable invasion of the candidates’ privacy and discrimination, one we may suspect is needed because the teachers are paid by the state and all state-supported activities and jobs in Bavaria should be performed only by those who have passed through the “sect filters.” Remember the electrical bikes.

****************************

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNSectUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio. From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

Photo: The Evangelical Lutheran Deanery in Munich, which hosts the School Department. Source: Evangelical Lutheran Deanery, Munich.

Further reading about FORB in Germany on HRWF website

GERMANY & EU in the dock at the OSCE on religious discrimination

GERMANY/EU: Germany and the EU in the dock at the OSCE on religious discrimination

OSCE (06.10.2023) – At the Warsaw Human Conference, Germany and the EU were jointly in the dock in a statement on religious discrimination made on 6 October by Ivan Arjona, President of the European Office of the Church of Scientology for Public Affairs and Human Rights:

“Madam Chair,

We would like to start by praising the efforts of countries such as Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Portugal and the USA for their constant effort in improving the situation of freedom of religion or belief, and non-discrimination.

We would like to also acknowledge the Germany court system for the circa 50 court decision at different levels for ruling and recognizing that members of the Church of Scientology deserve and are entitled to the protection under Article 4 of the Basic Law.

We would like to address specifically to the delegation of the European Union, and more specifically to the Delegation of Germany, with special appeal for effective dialogue.

Do you still ask people to declare their religious belief before accepting them for a job, a public position or any other tenders that count with public funding?

Well, as of October 6, in the European Union’s website for tenders by public bodies throughout the region, the EU is showing, without regret and without any corrective action, how Germany is asking in no less that 357 tenders in 2023, for bidders to declare that

they are not members of the Church of Scientology, and

that they will not hire Scientologists, based only in their religion, and this applies to clothes cleaners, kinder garden personnel, architects.

In addition to that this religious discrimination is backed by propaganda produced for example by the Bavarian state Ministry of Interior, depicting Scientologists as robots, dehumanizing us in a video aimed to be shown in high schools and publicly.

Would the European Union Delegation or even Germany be willing to start a dialogue to resolve this religious discrimination? Your answer to this will determine your position and level of respect of OSCE guidelines and international standards.

Our churches are open for you to carry out the needed dialogue. Thank you.”

Recommendations:

Cancel the regulation in Germany that justifies the state- imposed obligation for citizens and companies to deny jobs and contracts to Scientologists, practice under the euphemist name of “protective declaration”.

Further reading about FORB in Germany and in the EU on HRWF website

GERMANY denies Christian private school accreditation, case filed in Strasbourg

GERMANY: Germany denies Christian private school accreditation, case filed at Europe’s top human rights court

German hybrid school—innovative in-class and at home learning model—takes challenge to European Court of Human Rights after accreditation denied
Germany has one of the most restrictive educational systems worldwide; lower court cites lack of socialization for students

ADF International (05.05.2023) – A Christian hybrid school provider, based in Laichingen, Germany, is challenging the German state’s restrictive educational system. After the initial application in 2014, the Association for Decentralized Learning was denied approval to offer primary and secondary education by German authorities, despite fulfilling all state-mandated criteria and curricula. The school run by the Association is based on an innovative and increasingly popular model of hybrid education with both in school and at home learning.

On 2 May, lawyers from the human rights organization ADF International filed the case at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

“The right to education includes the right to embrace innovative approaches like hybrid schooling. By restricting this educational model, the state is violating the right of German citizens to pursue education that conforms with their convictions. When it comes to the requirement of physical presence, Germany has one of the most restrictive educational systems in the world. The fact that an innovative school based on Christian values has been denied recognition is a serious development worthy of scrutiny by the Court. The case brings to light the egregious issues with educational freedom in the country,” stated German lawyer Dr. Felix Böllmann, Director of European Advocacy for ADF International, who filed the case at the ECtHR.

The Association initially filed for accreditation in 2014, which was ignored by state educational authorities for 3 years. In 2017, they filed a suit due to the inaction, with the first court hearing taking place only in 2019, appeal in 2021, and third instance court in May of 2022. The Constitutional Court rejected the last domestic appeal in December 2022.

Hybrid education, successful and popular, yet restricted

For nine years, the Association for Decentralized Learning has been successfully running an independent hybrid school, combining in-class learning with digital online lessons and independent learning at home. The school employs state-approved teachers and follows a set curriculum. Students graduate with the same examinations as those in public schools and maintain above average grade points.

“Children have a right to a first-class education. At our school, we can provide families with an education that meets their individual learning needs and allows students to flourish. It is our great hope that the Court will right this injustice and rule in favor of educational freedom, recognising that our school provide innovative and high-standard education through modern technology, individual student responsibility, and weekly attendance hours,” stated Jonathan Erz, Head of the association for decentralized learning.

The Association has been denied approval to open any new schools. The administrative courts acknowledged the satisfactory level of education but criticized the model on the basis that due to the hybrid nature of the school, students spend little time together during breaks and between lessons. Per the domestic courts, this is an essential part of education that hybrid schooling fails to provide.

Educational restrictions violate international law and national law

With regard to the law, Dr. Böllmann stated: “It is established clearly in international law that parents are the first authority for the education of their children. What the German state is doing to undermine education is an overt violation of not only freedom of education, but also of parental rights. Moreover, distance learning during Covid-19 lockdowns demonstrates that a complete ban on independent and digitally supported learning is out of date”.

The German Basic Law (Article 7 of the Constitution) guarantees the right to establish private schools—however, the domestic courts’ interpretation render this right ineffective. ADF International lawyers argue that this, in turn, is a violation of the European Convention of Human Rights.Time and again, the European Court of Human Rights has made it clear that the Convention rights must be be practical and effective.

Further reading about FORB in Germany on HRWF website

Photo: European Court of Human Rights- Strasbourg France

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