Government Censorship in Public Libraries: Germany
The Jerusalem Library in Berlin has stated that it is “a decision of the office heads for the whole of Berlin not to accept books of the author L. Ron Hubbard because of their content.”
This blanket censorship extends to works that have nothing to do with Scientology, as shown by the city library of Koepenick, Berlin’s refusal to accept a donation of the international bestseller (now a major movie), Battlefield Earth. In fact, when contacted directly, the librarian confirmed that there is an order that no public libraries in Berlin may accept works by the founder of Scientology.
In mid-1998, the Deutsches Bibliotheksinstitut (German Library Institute), a state-founded and state-supported institute which advised all German state and city libraries, issued a directive listing several state censorship regulations in regards to the works of Mr. Hubbard. Although the German Library Institute closed in 1999, all the orders cited in its 1998 directive are still valid and current.
The directive included an order from the Ministry of Culture for Hessia to all regional and local libraries not to accept or offer books from “Scientology” and an order from the Minister for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony to state libraries to reject any book donations from “Scientology.”
The directive instructed librarians that “in public libraries it should not be possible to loan publications of Scientology” and noted that “the regional association of German libraries in Baden-Wuerttemberg (DBV) established already in 1994 that it will take care that publications of Scientology cannot be loaned in public libraries.”
The directive instead informed the librarians that “information material about new religions and ideological movements, youth sects, ‘psychogroups’ and especially about the Scientology church can be ordered from state and Church authorities (sect commissioners).”
Such “sect commissioners” are appointed by the predominant Catholic and Lutheran Churches in Germany and are neither objective nor informed on religions other than their own. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance’s report on Germany includes complaints about the bias and intolerance of the major churches’ sect commissioners from Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Baha’i community, the Unification Church, and the Hare Krishna movement as well as Scientologists. The information about Scientology given out in publications by sect commissioners is highly inaccurate and replete with distortions and stereotypes.
Continued
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