Religious Apartheid: 1996 – Official Repression of Minority Religious Rights in Germany
Mr. Corea’s beliefs are his private affair. He never “promotes” his personal religious beliefs to his audience “before, during or after” his concerts. Nevertheless, the actions of the Hessian Government to muzzle and censor Mr. Corea and the public proclamations regarding these actions are extremely prejudicial and offensive in principle. These governmental actions are designed to denigrate and stigmatize Mr. Corea and his beliefs, intimidate individuals from attending his concerts due to State disapproval and send a message to the public that Mr. Corea’s performance has been sanitized and controlled by the State. Such actions contravene fundamental freedoms guaranteed by international covenants on human rights.
Unfortunately, the discrimination experienced by Mr. Corea is not an isolated incident, but instead is part of a disturbing escalation of official intolerance against artists in Germany who are believed to be associated with Scientology in violation of these individuals’ fundamental, artistic and religious rights.
The Mainz State Museum of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate organized an exhibition sponsored by the Ministry of Culture beginning 18 May 1995 as part of its Cultural Summer program concerning the works of comic artist Carl Barks. This exhibition has been designed and the pictures to be exhibited have been loaned to the Museum by well known Austrian painter Gottfried Helnwein.
On 22 April 1995, the newspaper Die Rheinpfalz published an article about the planned exhibit and represented in the article that Mr. Helnwein and his wife were Scientologists and that the exhibition represented a “platform for Scientology.” A Spokesperson for the Minister of Culture, Rose Götte, responded by stating that “The Minister recognizes Gottfried Helnwein as a great artist and collector. Whether Helnwein is a Scientologist or not is not proven. Mere suspicion is not enough. We do not see a danger in that the exhibition will become a platform for Scientology.”60
This response was attacked in an editorial in the same issue as “highly negligent” because “as long as Helnwein does not disconnect from Scientology, not even his comic exhibition as part of the cultural summer is acceptable.”61
As a result of the political pressure resulting from press articles “accusing” Helnwein of being a Scientologist, the Minister informed the press that: (1) she had met personally with Helnwein and he assured her that he was not a Scientologist; (2) Helnwein agreed to swear in an affidavit that he was not a Scientologist; (3) Helnwein agreed to take legal action if Scientology promotes itself using his name or pictures and (4) Helnwein again made it personally clear in a meeting with the Secretary of State that he is not a Scientologist and he also denied that he was trained in the teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.62 Mr. Helnwein was interrogated by the sect expert of the Ministry of Culture, the Chief of the Cultural Department and a jurist.63
Politicians have seized upon this incident to exploit intolerance towards new and minority religions for their political gain. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) State Parliament Spokesperson for Social Politics, Manfred Kramer, has demanded that Helnwein must publicly disassociate from Scientology and its “ideas” or the exhibition must be prohibited.64 The Free Democratic Party (FDP) State Parliament Spokesperson for Social Politics, Arthur Bauckhage, has made similar public statements.65
The State Parliament posed parliamentary questions regarding the “accusations” that Helnwein is a Scientologist to the Ministry of Culture and to investigate why the Ministry of Culture is going forward with the exhibition in light of these “accusations.”66 In addition, the CDU published a press release denouncing the Minister, stating that this exhibition “destroyed the credibility of respectable cult politics in Rheinland-Palatinate”, and calling for the State Parliament to follow a model of Baden-Württemberg (which prohibited Mr. Corea from performing) “when persons close to Scientology are involved.”67
German officials have also suppressed the art of other artists due to their association with the Scientology religion.