Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution as an Instrument for Character Assassination

It is not necessary, however, to go all the way to the highest court in Europe to bring about a dialogue. It can occur whenever the disputing parties decide to end their differences.

Members of the present government know what it is like to come under surveillance. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was a target in the OPC's computers when he became head of the Young Socialists in 1978. Federal Minister of the Interior Otto Schily came under surveillance as an attorney in the 1970s and again in the 1980s. It is more than probable that Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer was under observation, too, with or without his knowledge. Yet today, these are the men in charge, and there is no reason to believe that the surveillance of them was ever rightful.

There is an equal lack of justification for the observation of the Church of Scientology in Germany. We therefore conclude with an appeal to rational minds to take charge of this issue. The government does not have to carry forward the politics of its predecessors, whether their refusal to dialogue “on principle” or their unconstitutional treatment of members of minority religions.

As the official spokesperson for the European Union at the conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Vienna in March 1999, Germany called for dialogue in matters of religion. The time to make good on that promise is now.