German Agency to Conduct Surveillance on Scientology

BONN — German law officials agreed Friday to place the Church of Scientology under nationwide surveillance by counterintelligence agents, citing alleged anti-democratic aims of the church.

The decision marks the first formal nationwide action against Scientology. Individual states, political parties and Cabinet ministers have frequently spoken out against the group and have organized anti-Scientology boycotts.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s main counterintelligence agency, which has primarily gathered information on right-wing and left-wing extremists, often uses informers or employs state-of-the-art electronic surveillance systems.

Interior Minister Manfred Kanther told reporters that Germany is not launching a “witch hunt” against Scientology members.

“When government organs fulfill their legal duties in Germany, one never has to fear that a witch hunt will occur,” said Kanther, a hard-nosed law-and-order man and the country’s top law enforcement official.

But the Los Angeles-based Scientology said its lawyers will file legal action “against this senseless decision that violates human rights.”

Scientology was founded in 1954 and is based on the teachings of the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. Its members take personality tests and are then offered courses and literature to help them realize what the group believes is their full potential.

Germany argues that Scientology is purely an economic organization that exploits the insecurities of its members to extract big profits from the self-improvement courses.

While officials met to discuss starting surveillance, Scientology members protested outside the federal Interior Ministry building, holding placards accusing Germany of encouraging “hate and violence against religious minorities.”

Kanther said at a news conference that “all means available to the state” will be used to observe Scientology, which claims about 30,000 members in Germany.

Kanther did not discuss how the organization would be monitored.

A fax from Scientology’s office in Munich said Friday’s decision means German counterintelligence agents will become like the totalitarian “thought police” in George Orwell’s novel “1984,” on the lookout for anyone whose thinking doesn’t agree with the state’s.

Scientology said it suspects “business people and workers will be turned into dangerous infiltrators” employed by the counterintelligence agency to spy on the organization.

The decision to put Scientology under surveillance got a mixed reception from German politicians.