Court Enjoins German Spying Agency

Harassment by government spies

Germany’s domestic security service, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (OPC), has made numerous attempts to disaffect parishioners from their religion, including offering bribes, and attempting to threaten or entrap them into working for the OPC as “plants” in churches of Scientology. Although the OPC is not authorized to use criminal means, the limitation is more technical than real. Surveillance of person’s phone conversations without his consent, entrapment of an individual, and other such activities are criminal acts under the German penal code, excepting the special license granted the intelligence services. These acts constitute a serious violation of individual privacy, at least from the point of view of the person concerned. Numerous incidents over the decades show that the OPC is not content with even its privileged authority, but has acted as it pleased, with no regard for legality.

There are 16 state OPCs and a federal OPC. Their agents have approached Scientologists with offers of money to bear false testimony against their Church and fellow-Scientologists. In some cases, veiled threats were made that a failure to cooperate would have negative consequences on the person’s career.

The individuals approached had done nothing wrong. They were selected only because of their religious beliefs. Following are some recent examples:

Mrs. R.B.

Mrs. B. has been a member of the Church of Scientology since 1997. She lives in Dresden.

On May 10, 2001, two male agents from the OPC Saxony contacted her at her home. Thinking they were dealers in handicrafts, she opened the door in response to their ringing of the doorbell. After showing their ID cards, the OPC agents told her they wanted to ask some questions about her son. Mrs. B. was afraid her son might be in trouble.

The agents asked intimate questions about her family, including who belonged to the Church of Scientology and for how long, and what each of the family members were doing. Given the personal tenor of the questions, Mr. B. decided not to answer.

The agents were insistent and would not leave until she explicitly ordered them out. As they departed, they warned her she would be in trouble if she told anybody about their visit.

Mrs. A. K.

Mrs. K. is a member of the Church of Scientology not in Germany, but in Basel, Switzerland. She lives near Schopfheim, Germany.

In February 2000, a Mr. Hardenberg from the OPC Baden-Württemberg visited Mrs. K. at her home. He attempted to recruit Mrs. K. to work for the OPC as a covert agent inside the Church of Scientology in Switzerland.

The OPC has no authority to operate outside the borders of Germany. Indeed, only the previous November, a Swiss court had sentenced Peter Goebel, also an agent for the Baden-Württemberg OPC, to 30 days in prison for spying and falsification of documents, with two years probation, and ordered him to pay costs. Goebel had been caught and arrested in the act of conducting surveillance of Scientologists on Swiss soil. The Swiss court emphasized that Goebel’s offence was serious and had created a diplomatic rift between Germany and Switzerland.

Mr. R. C.

Mr. C. is a member of the Church of Scientology and lives in Munich, Bavaria.

In August 2001, an OPC Agent, Mr. Rogandewski, stopped him on two separate occasions. Each time Mr. Rogandewski invited him to talk in a café near the Church of Scientology.

During both meetings blatant attempts were made to persuade Mr. C. to work for the OPC Bavaria as a spy inside the Church of Scientology in Bavaria.

Mrs. P. K.

Mrs. K. is a member of the Church of Scientology in Hamburg and lives in the city.

On January 19, 2001, a Mr. Farnhold from the OPC Hamburg paid her a visit at her home.

Mr. Farnhold stated that he had heard that Mrs. K. had problems. He then tried to recruit her as a covert operative for the OPC inside the Church of Scientology.

Mrs. K. refused and told the agent to leave.

Mr. J. O.

Mr. O. is an active member of the Church of Scientology in Bavaria. On February 4, 2002, an OPC agent approached him on a Munich street. The agent tried to persuade Mr. O. to meet him in a café to talk about Scientology. Mr. O. refused.

Stasi Agents Used by “Office for the Protection of the Constitution”

The OPC has employed former agents of the Stasi - the notorious East German secret police - against members of the Church of Scientology.

Focus Magazine (Germany)
January 17, 2000
BERLIN

An Agent with the name “Herbert.”

The stepson of the Deputy Head of the Stasi Wolfgang Schwanitz was an agent for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

In a restaurant close to the Friedrichstrasse station, Sven Schwanitz breaks silence: “I was an informant for the OPC under the cover name of ‘Herbert’”, the 36-year-old man confessed to Focus. The reason for his openness? “My real identity was exposed by a traitor in the OPC.”

This trained secret service man is the stepson of Wolfgang Schwanitz, the former deputy of the feared head of the Stasi, Erich Mielke. When in the DDR [East German Republic], Sven also worked in the secret service and placed agents inside church circles.

The agents recruited Schwanitz in March 1998 as a source for them and planted him in the center of the Berlin Scientologists. “I am exposed there now,” Schwanitz complains. The circle of potential traitors is “very, very small.” Only a handful of staff in the state OPC could link his real name to his cover name. Schwanitz suspects that the leak came from those who reviewed his reports.

At first the work for the capital city’s OPC went well for Schwanitz. “I met both my OPC case officers every two to three weeks under strongly conspiratorial conditions. I knew them only by their cover names, ’Aland’ and ’Doerfler’. Later on, men with names of ’Blum’ and ’Droste’ were put in charge of me.” At these meetings, “Herbert” delivered internal data, and identified Scientology staff and visitors. He claims that “after massive pressure from the top”, he finally “outed” the Berlin Police Director as a Scientologist. “Again and again the people in charge of me showed me pictures of [Berlin police director] Dreksler. But I had never seen him in Scientology.” The OPC did not believe him, and [falsely] labeled Dreksler as a Scientologist. The senior police officer has since been rehabilitated.

At the end of 1998, “Herbert” was “switched off” by the OPC. Berlin’s new Minister of the Interior Eckart Werthebach (CDU), after many problems, severed the connections between his secret service and former Stasi staff. Schwanitz felt secure.

Following the treason, Werthebach is establishing order. OPC chief Vermander has left voluntarily. But according to the Minister of the Interior, there will be further “personal consequences.”