Scientology is famous for its interest in conducting lawsuits. Scientology Germany is no exception. This page offers the full text of some rulings related to Scientology.
- Ruling of the Superiour Administrative Court Baden-Württemberg, May 10th, 1993: It may be claimed that Narconon has cured noone from drug addiction.
VGH Baden-Württemberg, 1 S 3021/92.- Ruling of the Upper Administrative Court Hamburg, July 6th, 1993: Scientology has to register its commercial activities.
OVG Hamburg, Bf VI 12/91.- Ruling of the Local Court Munich, November 9th, 1993: Scientology has to pay back membership fees. (This ruling was not issued because of a prior settlement.)
LG München I, 28 O 23490/92- Ruling of the Administrative Court Freiburg, June 6th, 1994: Members and workers of a sub-organization of Scientology who publicly advertise for books and courses by talking to passer-bys engage in a trading activity which has to be accredited by the city.
VG Freiburg, 4 K 758/93.- Ruling of the Local Court Miesbach, Jan 12th, 1995: Narconon must be applied under supervision of a physician.
AG Miesbach, Cs 65 Jz 21802/90.- Ruling of the Federal Administrative Court, February 16th, 1995: Scientology has to register its commercial activities.
BVerwG 1 B 205.93
(Result of Scientology's appeal of the OVG Hamburg, Bf VI 12/91 decision.)- Ruling of the Federal Labour Court, March 22th, 1995: Scientology is not a religion.
BAG 5 AZB 21/94- Ruling of the Local Court Freiburg, February 6th, 1996: Scientologists are free to distribute leaflets on the streets.
AG Freiburg, 23 OWi 643/95 a.- Ruling of the Upper Administrative Court Münster, May 31st, 1996: Federal labour minister Norbert Blüm may continue to call Scientology a "giant octopus".
OVG Münster, 5 B 993/95- Ruling of the Upper Local Court Frankfurt, June 20th, 1996: Painter Gottfried Helnwein may be called a Scientologist and Class IV Auditor.
OLG Frankfurt, 16 U 163/95- Ruling of the Superiour Administrative Court Baden-Württemberg, July 12th, 1996: Members and workers of a sub-organization of Scientology who publicly advertise for books and courses by talking to passer-bys engage in a trading activity which has to be accredited by the city.
VGH Baden-Württemberg, 5 S 472/96- Ruling of the Superiour Administrative Court Baden-Württemberg, October 15th, 1996 (the "Chick Corea" ruling).
VGH Baden-Württemberg, 10 S 176/96- Ruling of the Financial Court Baden-Württemberg, March 20th, 1997: Fees for Scientology courses are not tax-deductible as company expenditures.
FG Baden-Württemberg, 6 K 185/96- Ruling of the Superiour Labour Court Berlin, June 11th, 1997: advertising Scientology on the job may result in immediate firing.
LAG Berlin, 13 Sa 19/97- Ruling of the Local Court Bonn, July 9th, 1997: membership in a political party is not compatible to membership in Scientology.
LG Bonn, 7 O 55/97- Ruling of the Superiour Court Hamburg, February 10th, 1998: Scientology may put forward a lot of aggressive claims about Ursula Caberta but may not claim that she lied in court.
OLG Hamburg, 7 U 128/97- Ruling of the Superiour Court Köln, April 21st, 1998: Membership in Scientology is not compatible with membership in the CDU.
OLG Köln, 22 U 190/97- Ruling of the Superiour Administrative Court Hamburg, June 15th, 1998: "Fair game" is a policy of the Church of Scientology.
OVG Hamburg, Bs III 65/96- Ruling of the German Constitutional Court, November 10th, 1998: The ruling of the Upper Local Court Frankfurt (OLG Frankfurt, 16 U 163/95, see above) violates the German constitution.
BVerfG 1 BVR 1531/96- Ruling of the Labour Court München, October 24th, 2000: An employee may not be forced to fill out the Scientology questionnaire if not suspicious for anti-constitutional deeds.
AG München, 21 Ca 13754/99- Ruling of the Labour Court München, April 5th, 2001, which acknowledges the ruling from the same court done on October 24th, 2000.
AG München, 23 Ca 1178/00- Ruling of the Local Court München I, June 8th, 2001: It is illegal to threaten advertising companies only because they distribute advertisements for Scientology.
LG München I, 30 O 21972/03
Recently, German Scientology critics have begun to sue each other. (I bet Scientology is not unhappy about this.) Here are some of the court rulings in these cases.
- Renate Hartwig vs. Ursula Caberta.
LG Düsseldorf, 12 O 219/00- Renate Hartwig vs. Norbert Potthoff.
LG Krefeld, 3 O 469/96- Thomas Kruchem vs. Peter Reichelt.
LG Mannheim, 7 0 100/99
[ Summaries of more German rulings ]
[ Legal actions involving
Scientology in the U.S. ]
[ Scientology court files (from Operation Clambake) ]
[ Scientology court cases (from the application for tax exemption) ]
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