Scientologists Speak Out on the Human Cost of Germany’s 30-Year Surveillance Campaign

As Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution ends nearly 30 years of Scientology surveillance without establishing the threat it long claimed existed, Scientologists in Germany are now speaking publicly about the human consequences of that campaign.

For decades, Scientologists in Germany were portrayed as suspected enemies of democracy despite the absence of terrorist acts, violent conspiracies or criminal campaigns tied to the Church of Scientology.

But while the allegations never materialized, the damage to innocent people was real.

Journalists lost careers.

Elected officials faced public destruction.

Families were ostracized.

Parents and children endured intimidation and humiliation because of their religion.

Former political reporter Hans Bschorr describes losing his professional standing and livelihood after rumors spread regarding his Scientology faith.

Former local parliament member Thomas Röder recounts relentless public attacks, media targeting and even death threats directed at his family because he was a Scientologist.

Billie Wegmann describes escalating hostility at her child’s school that culminated in physical aggression and threats of police removal after parents discovered she was affiliated with Scientology.

These stories are not isolated incidents.

They are part of what Scientologists say became a decades-long climate of institutionalized discrimination fueled by government suspicion, sect filters and public campaigns portraying Scientologists as dangerous despite the continuing absence of evidence supporting those claims.

Now, after nearly 30 years, the surveillance itself is ending without the German government proving the threat it used to justify the campaign.

For many Scientologists, that outcome confirms what they lived with all along:

The real damage was never what the government found.

It was what was done to people.