Scientology in Germany - "Sect Filters"

"Sect Filters"

A "sect filter", also known as a "protective declaration" (Schutzerklärung), is a document that requires a job applicant to acknowledge any association with a sect or new religious movement before being accepted for a position of employment. Such sect filters, primarily used to screen out Scientologist job applicants, have been drafted by German government agencies for use by businesses. "Sect commissioner's" offices exist in Germany as part of regional or local government.

A work instruction introduced in 1996 requires government staff in the Arbeitsämter – local employment agencies and social security offices operated by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs – to mark companies owned by Scientologists with the letter "S". Where companies are suspected of having Scientologist staff, prospective employees are alerted to this fact by government staff. Government officials have publicised the names of individual Scientologists and conducted media campaigns against their businesses; some businesspeople have placed advertisements in the press saying they are not Scientologists in order to avoid the associated stigma.

Due to concerns about possible government infiltration by Scientologists, applicants for civil service positions in Bavaria are required to declare whether or not they are Scientologists, and a similar policy has been instituted in Hesse. Companies tendering for government contracts were likewise required to state they are not Scientologists; in 2001, this requirement was changed, and firms are now asked to sign a form stating that "the technology of L. Ron Hubbard will not be used in executing the contract". When it became known that Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system included a disk defragmenter developed by Executive Software International (a company headed by a Scientologist), this caused concern among German government officials and clergy over data security and the potential for espionage. To assuage these concerns, Microsoft Germany agreed to provide a means to disable the utility. Following letters of complaint about discrimination from Scientology lawyers, some American companies such as General Electric, IBM and Ford Motor Company instructed their German subsidiaries to cease the use of protective declarations.

The city-state of Hamburg set up a full-time office dedicated to opposing Scientology, the Scientology Task Force for the Hamburg Interior Authority, under the leadership of Ursula Caberta. In 2005, in a case brought by a Scientologist, the Federal Administrative Court of Germany ordered the city of Hamburg to cease recommending the use of protective declarations to its business community, finding that the practice infringed religious freedom. In June 2008, the Hamburg Administrative Court fined the city of Hamburg 5,000 Euros ($7,000) for not complying with court instructions banning the use of "sect filters." Internet links to sample filters to be used by businesses had continued to remain available. Eileen Barker, a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics, has noted that "Germany has gone further than any other Western European country in restricting the civil rights of Scientologists." The Hamburg task force was closed down in August 2010 as a result of budget cuts; Caberta moved to a position within the Hamburg interior authority, where she continues her work on Scientology.

Scientologists have been banned from joining major political parties in Germany such as the Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Free Democratic Party. Existing Scientologist members of these parties have been "purged", according to Time Magazine. Scientologists have been prevented from running employment and au pair agencies in Germany; Scientologists who were running such agencies had their permits revoked. In 1995, a sports scientist and former member of the German national fencing team was dismissed from his job at the German Olympic fencing centre after he stated in an interview that he had enjoyed reading books by L. Ron Hubbard and had participated in a course run by a Scientologist management and communication consultancy firm. Thomas Gottschalk, a German TV presenter, was falsely accused in 1993 of having taken part in Scientology courses; Gottschalk responded by announcing that he had not, and that he would henceforth cease all contact with a friend who had links to Scientology. In 2007, Günther Oettinger, the Minister-President of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, expressed concern that Scientologist John Travolta was to appear on Gottschalk's programme, and asked the ZDF TV station to consider revoking the invitation; the ZDF said that uninviting Travolta would cause greater damage, and that Scientology was not going to be discussed in the programme.

In 2010, the Bavarian Administrative Court ruled that a woman working in a children's daycare centre, whose employment had been terminated when her ex-husband identified her as a Scientologist, should be reinstated. The woman had demonstrated to the court's satisfaction that her Scientological beliefs were irrelevant to her work. According to the agreement that concluded the case, she promised not to use Scientology methods in her work, and to inform the children's parents of her membership in Scientology.