Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution as an Instrument for Character Assassination
Dreksler was right. A policeman for 34 years, he had started at the bottom and worked his way up the ranks. He had an unblemished record. But he evidently had unscrupulous rivals, and his honest answer about the Scientologists armed them in mounting an outrageous intrigue. His nightmare – as he called it – was about to begin.
On March 20, 1998, one of four identical anonymous letters arrived in the office of Berlin police president Saberschinsky. The sender claimed to be a policeman. He wrote that he had obtained access to the Church of Scientology and met Dreksler there. When the writer tried to leave the Church, Dreksler had pressured him to stay. The anonymous source alleged other irregularities by Mr. Dreksler.
The OPC was alerted. Its agents examined the letter. The sender, they reported, knew what he was doing – neither the letter, the envelope or the stamp carried fingerprints or saliva. The undersecretary of the Interior, Kuno Boese, couriered the letter, together with photos of Dreksler, to the president of the Berlin OPC, Eduard Vermander. And the OPC swung into action against the Berlin police officer.