Paderborn County, Germany–Seven German Christian families were forced to enroll their children in the Public Schools in Germany–public schools that are teaching views and doctrine totally opposite of that of their own. Thankfully, as of March 1, 5 of 7 (as it seems) families have still not been prosecuted.
Rich Guenther, who is the director of the School Instruction At Home organization was fined $1,500 just for defending the German Homeschoolers in Paderborn.
“The Loefflers, a homeschooling family who lives near Nuremburg, just received a letter stating that the government will freeze their bank account and come into their home to take anything of value up to the amount of the fine assessed against them. The fine is approximately $14,000. The family does not have the money. If the state of Bavaria follows the usual process the father will be put in jail, and the process of removing their eight year-old daughter will begin.”
They also reported on another homeschooling family:
“The Grosseluemerns, were recently in court for refusing to pay the fines assessed against them for not sending their child to school. The Grosseluemerns attorney proved that the prosecution attorney was not aware of the laws of Bavaria concerning the facts of this case, and that he was not upholding the federal law guaranteeing the freedom of religion and parental rights. The prosecuting attorney then turned to the judge and asked that the fine against the family be tripled, which the judge readily consented to. Two days later a press story carried a quote from Bavarian officials saying that if it becomes necessary, they will put Mr. Grosseluemerns in prison until he complies and pays the fine.”
Last week, another court in Paderborn ruled that two Baptist couples lost their parental authority over their children in the matter of education. The court interfered “in order to protect the children from further harm” because the parents had shown “a stubborn contempt both for the state’s educational duty as well as the right of their children to develop their personalities by attending school.” The local education board said it is “a right of the child not to be kept away from the outside world. The parents’ right to personally educate their children would prevent the children from growing up to be responsible individuals within society.”
Those two couples were on of the seven mentioned above.
These homeschoolers are still fighting, and the battle is raging hard.
In a Washington Times article by Michael Smith, President of the Homschool Legal Defense Association, he put the situation well.
“The German government says it won’t tolerate families who want to live by their religious tenets in peace or who espouse a Christian world view. According to the German government, the only route for Christian home-school families is to be forcibly integrated into the majority population. Minority rights are not being respected.”
“…There is great cost in standing up for freedom and liberty. Americans have been willing to pay the price for freedom, and American home-schoolers have felt the sting of state officials driven to control and oppress. Because American home-schoolers recently have won their fight for freedom, many have been willing to help other home-school families around the globe.”
“…The Czech Republic removed restrictions on home-schooling in 2002 after receiving letters and calls from American home-schoolers. The story repeated in Hungary and Romania in 2003.”
It can be repeated in Germany, and hopefully shall very soon.
(It was interesting to note this piece from Homeschool World:
“One of Hitler and his buddies’ first acts on taking office was to establish the Reich Ministry of Education and give it control of all schools, including private schools. Nobody was to have the right to teach children from a different point of view than the State (with a capital “S”). There would be no right to teach from a distinctively religious point of view, especially.”)
