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Home > Official Documents > Government Censorship in Public Libraries: Germany
Government Censorship in Public Libraries: Germany
In addition to the above, the Church has documented state government censorship of Mr. Hubbard’s books in public libraries in, at least, Hessia, Hamburg, Berlin and Lower Saxony.
When Scientologists attempted to place publications by Mr. Hubbard in public libraries in Hessia, the Hessian Minister of Science instructed the libraries to return the books to their senders.
The Ministry of Culture of Hessia has stated that libraries do not accept or provide to the public materials of the Church of Scientology. Similar communications have been received from the Ministry of Science and Arts and the Social Ministry of Hessia.
A Scientologist who contacted directors of public libraries in Hamburg to invite them to the opening ceremony of the Church’s new quarters was informed that “there is an internal instruction given by the management of the public libraries that we are not allowed to accept either telephone calls, books from L. Ron Hubbard nor any visits from Scientologists in the Public Libraries.”
A library system which issues such a blanket and outrageous order to its branches is most certainly not complying with the Free Hanseatic State of Hamburg development plan for the public libraries, which states that,
“The [Hamburg] Senate sees it as an important task of state, cultural politics to finance a public library system which contributes to ease the access to literature and knowledge for broad parts of the public.”
The Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture has ordered all libraries in that state not to stock Mr. Hubbard’s works. In Bavaria, a senior official over the city libraries refused to accept Mr. Hubbard’s books, stating that he had received a verbal order from his superiors not to stock them.
There is evidence of government censorship of Mr. Hubbard’s works in the form of letters from public libraries in Rottweil, Baden-Wuerttemberg; Halle, Saxony-Anhalt; Ahlen, North-Rhine Westphalia; Neumuenster, Schleswig-Holstein; the state library in Saarland; and Rostock, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
In the city of Osnabrueck in Lower Saxony, not only did the town council implement a discriminatory “sect filter” against Scientologists, it also ordered that all city and school libraries be inspected to ensure they contained no works by Mr. Hubbard.
On the other hand, books which describe Scientology in negative terms, containing hateful stereotypes and chockful of false and flagrantly distorted information, are readily available in city and state libraries throughout Germany. In Stuttgart, a computer list of books about Scientology contained the titles of no less than 29 anti-Scientology publications, while not one single publication by the founder, the Church or individual Scientologists writing about Scientology is permitted on the shelves or in stock.
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