Germany has just released its annual “Constitution protection report” for 2020. The last section of the report concerns scientology.
One of our readers helped us with a translation:
“Scientology Organization” (SO)
The “Scientology Organization” (SO) intends to establish a worldwide “Scientology Society”. The number of members in Germany in 2020, as in 2019, was around 3,500 people. In the year under review, SO online activity increased again as the otherwise usual information stands in cities throughout Germany could not be operated due to the corona pandemic.
The SO dogmatically bases its ideology on the writings of founder and leading figure Lafayette Ron Hubbard (1911-1986). In it he developed a method that he called “technology”, designated as “Dianetics” respectively “Scientology”. The aim of this method is to create the perfect person who is called “clear” or synonymously “non-aberrant”. People who do not belong to the “Clears” should be denied basic rights and human dignity.
In the reporting year, the SO reacted to the corona pandemic in Germany with a “Stay Well” campaign. This is multimedia scattering of Scientology information material with tips on “how to stay healthy“, targeting fears and insecurities of the population in connection with the pandemic situation to recruit members. In response to the corona pandemic in Germany, the SO’s sub-organization “Volunteer Ministers” with its German offshoot “Ehrenamtliche Geistliche” distributed flyers nationwide which introduce a QR code leading to websites of the SO under the pretext of prevention of infection.
Videos especially produced for the pandemic situation with the title “How To Keep Yourself & Others Healthy ”or“ How to Stop the Spreading of Diseases through Isolation ”on the YouTube channel of the SO aim to lure one to the official website of the SO and joining a Facebook group – especially set up for the “Stay Well” campaign .
The SO continues to carry out various social campaigns and runs alleged aid organizations. Here too, the aim is to recruit new members via what appear at first sight to be charitable organizations not affiliated with the SO.
Germany is not fooled by scientology. They see through the front groups and campaigns as charades to recruit new members.
I wonder about the figure of 3500 scientologists in Germany — seems perhaps a bit high. Though there are 7 orgs, 3 of them ideal, in Germany, crediting them with 500 scientologists each is about 2X what actually exists.
The matter of fact, uncomplicated assessment of scientology is refreshing after seeing so many government agencies, courts and media fooled by the veil of religiosity scientology hides behind to give them the “benefit of the doubt” or a full pass.
Wake up world.
Good to see that Germans are not blinded by the loop holes of First amendment as in USA.
May be it is because as they do not follow Common Law and not carried away with what happening in other English speaking countries in the name Religious Freedom.
500 per org? Mike, you are way too generous! Most orgs have between 25-75 staff, and at most a couple hundred active scientologists. At most! More likely less than a hundred, and most of those are on extension courses or very part time schedules.
Altho, Flag has more staff and more public, but still not up to impressive numbers. And the other SO staff in LA and other continents are simply captive members.
The orgs are at, in my opinion, the irreducible minimum for both staff and public.
Congratulations Defendant Captain David Miscavige. You’ve achieved the status of irreducible minimum for the cherch.
No Ruby, most orgs have no where NEAR 25-75 staff. Only SO orgs. Class V orgs have MAYBE a couple handfuls of staff.
“People who do not belong to the “Clears” should be denied basic rights and human dignity.”
Well, that pretty much sums up the mindset of Scientology. Excellent summation Germany. Scientology’s denial of “basic rights” and “human dignity” (even with their own members, including children) is the main reason people speak out against them. It has nothing to do with any sort of self-described “attack on religion”. They can believe whatever the hell they want to believe, but when they act outside of the law and with a total disregard for fundamental human rights, covering up abuses committed in its name, amongst many other despicable practices, that’s the reason they are deservedly looked down upon with such disdain by the general public.
US scientologists like to brag about how they are an internationally recognized “religion.” This boast is usually based on being a tax-exempt organization in the US. It is debatable whether this amounts to being the “government-approved religion” they claim to be; let’s not forget that the Constitution expressly forbids gov’t from endorsing religions or “religions” (wink, wink). Still, the international recognition is clearly a mirage.
By and large, Europe has been making me proud. Germany has been unequivocally clear about the fact that they have the cult’s number. In France–famously the place of Hubbard’s second criminal conviction–the cult is one scandal away from prohibition. Holland failed to convict them, but the trial itself should have gone a long ways toward educating and warning off the public. Although they claim “religious recognition” in England this is clearly untrue (other than repeal of the archaic law that one must get married in a traditional place of worship–a dispute that has very little if anything to do with religion, let alone its recognition). The Irish press and public have been unrelentingly scathing in their assessment of the cult. Russia may be criticized for heavy-handedness but it’s clear that they are not fooled either and are intending to protect their population. It’s hard not to recognize that these are the leading countries in Europe!
Trouble seems to be brewing in Australia as well. Local laws and procedures requiring secrecy make it impossible to tell whether there is the political will to act on it but the right questions are clearly being asked. (Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that Oz has a public benefit requirement for religious exemption which makes the cult highly vulnerable.)
Overall, the international situation is highly encouraging–just not for Miscavige or anyone who wishes to perpetuate the myth of international religious recognition.
For German speaking readers of Mike’s blog I’d like to point you to a TV series from 2012. It’s part of a German crime TV Series called SoKo Leipzig – Clear. (SoKo stands for Sonderkommission = Special Unit). It’s on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24jHcX_OuOw
And this is what it is about:
A well liked private tutor is found – killed by a bullet. He was a member of Scientology. The Special Unit suspects the killer to be found in the ranks of anti-Scientologists. Suspects are parents who did not know to whom they had entrusted their kids. But it turns out that the tutor had been sick with cancer and had wanted to leave Scientology. The Special Unit next suspects the tutor’s colleague, also a Scientologist. Suprisingly she confesses to the murder. But the Special Unit remains suspicious because her confession comes a bit too fast. In the end, it’s 3 teenagers/students who killed the tutor “to protect the organization”.
What suprised me were the extremely smooth details with which the writer of this series has the Scientologists voice their convictions.
While I am on the subject of TV Series: Another series from the UK, Pure from 2019, has a mention of Scientology in Season 1, Episode 5 as a brainwashing cult. Doesn’t beat the kinky Scientologist in Californication, Season 1, Episode 2 (2007) where Hank asks if she’s Clear yet while having sex with her.
AnEx
Thanks for the tip. My days in Germany, “Tatort” was the thing. I know…
If only our country would wake up and shut them down. Thanks for getting this out to us. I always feel a bit better knowing they took a hit. Of course, I wish the establishment was totally dismantled but I’ll take whatever we can get!
My guess is that each of the 7 orgs might have 10 scns, making the German scn population about 70.
3500 would be wildly inflated, and possibly based on the numbers fabricated to send ‘uplines’ to keep from being hit by scn’s ‘ethics’ punishment.
Jere, we see around 3 to 4 dozen people in the promo pictures for big events at orgs in the US, that I assume represent the truly active membership – and in the case of at least a couple of orgs I have some additional information to validate that. Then, in one case I knew about, there were around twice as many more ‘dilettantes’ who might show up for one or two of the major annual events, to socialize and see old friends. And on top of that, there are those higher up on the bridge who are mostly involved at advanced orgs and have little or nothing to do with local orgs.
You can look at the pictures of “ideal” org openings in recent years in Stuttgart and Milan, and see that Scientology can still get relatively large numbers of people to turn out in Europe. We don’t know how far people have come from, but it’s likely to represent a couple of hundred in each of the larger countries.
I assume that org sizes are similar in Germany so i think there might turn out to be 350 to 500 active members in the country. My guess is that 3,500 is the count of people who hold IAS memberships, but in many cases those were life memberships pushed through hard sell, and those members haven’t set foot in an org in years if not decades.
The number is estimated from a blown staff who managed the Central Files or heard about that number of files in that place, most of them maybe just bought a book 30 years ago and pased away, Germans are less fools than Italians but 3500 is better than 1500 for their matters.
Anyway, at this moment i supposed there are maybe only 300 DM followers
My info is , thankfully, well out of date of course. It really is hard to estimate the actual size of any org’s “field” really is. Probably the best rule of thumb would be the attendance at the org’s March 13th Event. That doesn’t give an “active” membership but would give an approximation of those who consider themselves as “in”.
Scientology offers a pseudo-therapy for followers, and upper Scientology offers extensive unique type of exorcism, five extensive stages of exorcism.
Scientology is a pseudo-therapy and exorcism practice.
It’s pay as you go. You supposedly achieve a personal soul powerful state increasingly as you progress up through receiving the pseudo-therapy and exorcism.
Scientology just uses nonstop other words deflecting off of what their mainline practices are.
Pay as you go pseudo-therapy and exorcism, addressing a person’s “case” (like in mental “case” or medical “case” and Scientology thinks it is addressing your “spiritual case” thus making it religious in nature, as it all supposedly addresses a person as a soul).
Pay as you go pseudo-therapy and exorcism, that’s Scientology, supposedly resulting in increased soul powers. (Neither Hubbard nor his wife achieved even the “exteriorisation” out of the body soul travel state for themselves, they failed at Hubbard’s own pseudo-therapy and exorcism to achieve the spiritual promises of Hubbard.).
Germany is a pragmatic country. Would be great if they put their fact sheet out in English.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/09/us/scientology-s-puzzling-journey-from-tax-rebel-to-tax-exempt.html
Scientology’s Puzzling Journey From Tax Rebel to Tax Exempt
By Douglas Frantz, March 9, 1997
“…The German Government regards the organization as a business, not a tax-exempt religion, the very position maintained for 25 years by the American Government….”
I wonder if anything has changed, and is this still the German government’s stance today? They hopefully maintain the US’s IRS’s earlier views pre the 1993 IRS tax exemption.
The NY Times point of 1997 thus bears repeating if Germany still holds that position.
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I remember back in the 1990s, it was OSA’s strategy to get other countries to follow suit, as the US IRS had done.
I wonder country by country, which if any other countries did follow the 1993 US change in attitude.
That’s a relevant scorecard to constantly present Scientology’s actual progress or not.
Off topic but important to anyone leaving Scientology:
In Jon’s video with Karen today they emphasize an important point for ex-Scientologists who may read it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W76rG1VbcnU&t=4078s
When leaving Scientology, be sure to send a resignation letter.
I sent one to the Hubbard Communications Office of my organization, Golden Era Productions, after months of “routing out” security checks etc. Within a week I was out of there. I had to go through the videoed “non-disclosure agreement”, but otherwise I was declared and gone. I even got a copy of the Declare order. No cash. This was in 2005, things are probably different now.
Important points: the resignation letter has to clearly state that you formally resign any position of authority or status you may have.
The temptation is to add all kinds of recriminations and upset. No. Keep it short and sweet. I resign. I am no longer bound by the membership rules and regulations.
If you can add that you no longer believe, that helps. But it is a bridge too far for most recent escapees. I didn’t put that in and it still worked.
I used the example of Nixon’s resignation from the Presidency. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Letter_of_Resignation_of_Richard_M._Nixon%2C_1974.jpg
All it says is:
Legally it is important to get this done as soon as it is clear that you are leaving. It takes away their legal justification for applying Scientology “Justice” etc.
Truly a “step one” action of ex Scientologists!
It ought to be right at the top of the “Ex Scientologist Checklist”.
Maybe there ought to be a web site:
“EX SCIENTOLOGIST CHECKLIST/CHECKSHEET” web site.
And something linkable, which all the various today ex Scientologist frequented sites could link to.
Mike, With this formal description by the German government, I do agree. It helps me to see the reality—all these faux gestures toward helping society are merely hook-baiting to reel in new people. As those of us in this blog community know, immediately after the task of staff becomes rege and fundraise the person into an inescapable* oblivion and justify the financial nightmare as “the price of freedom.” I found it odd how C of S was repeatedly positioning themselves during this pandemic as… what? Self-appointed infectious disease specialists? Now, it all makes sense: hook baiting.
*I characterize as “inescapable” because, unless you can somehow assume a new identity or go live underground, there is no escaping the banks, credit card companies, collection agencies, or legal action threatened or taken against you for inability to pay your bills. This is an opposite lifestyle to the “total freedom” you are wholeheartedly assured that you will enjoy because of AGREEING TO all the crazy financial transactions, which truly are THE HALLMARK of Scientology. Achingly sad. There is some good stuff in there, but it is SELF-BURIED in a constant snowstorm of ludicrous bad behavior not easily dismissed and never forgotten.
Germans have a long tradition of Philosophy despite the Hitler era. I agree that 3,500 Scientologists seems high. They probably inflate the figure to emphasize the threat. Good work Germany. I always liked a Mercedes and my German vacuum cleaner is outstanding.
Western Germany’s (today Germany’s) current constitution was greatly influenced by post WW II US legal persons.
I’d be very surprised if there were even 1,000 actually active Scientologists in Germany.
But you MIGHT be able to generate those sorts of numbers by realizing that a scientologist us anyone who has ever bought ANYthing from the organization. Even if they’ve been declared SP, they’re still on the rolls forever. By that logic, I must count as 5 scns, since I should be in the CFs of NY, DC, Philly, ASHO, and Flag, never mind that I haven’t done ANYTHING in scn for coming up on 41 years, now. THEY kicked me out as incapable of doing anything useful; I wasn’t even a good enough RPFer.