"This new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take

youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."...Adolf Hitler

(www.RemnantNewspaper.com) Concerned that  decisions taken by the German Supreme Court in matters of religion have resulted in “a kind of freedom for all sorts of behavior,” the German federal Minister of Justice, Brigitte Zypries, has called for limitations on religious freedom. “We should not place any behavior under the protection of this important basic right”, said the Social Democrat in a “Speech on Religious Policy” in Berlin on December 12th.

According to the ASSIST News Service (Dec. 14, 2006), Zypries, 53, has no religious affiliation and was the only member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet who did not use the affirmation “So help me God” when she was sworn in. She believes that religious freedom should be defined more precisely in order to prevent  citizens from citing them as an excuse to defy the general laws of the land.

Zypries also challenged the churches’ role in religious instruction in schools, claiming that churches cannot claim a monopoly in teaching values. She also wants all students to be educated in the beliefs of a variety of religions, “irrespective of their own affiliation and certainly not from a confessional perspective,” as a means to promoting “respect.”

In most of the 16 German federal states, school curricula include religious instruction. The subject is taught at public schools in partnership with the churches separately for Catholics and Protestants. Roughly two thirds of the 82 million Germans are church members.

In May of 2006, Brigitte Zypries expressed concern that the Muslim minority in Germany was suffering from a growing religious discrimination with many Germans associating Islam with terrorism. She called for a law banning discrimination against minorities in Germany, and proposed the introduction of school uniforms to avoid sparking furor over Muslim students wearing the hijab (headscarf).

In September of 2006, a ruling from the European Human Rights Court affirmed the German nation's Nazi-era ban on homeschooling, concluding that society has a significant interest in preventing the development of dissent through "separate philosophical convictions." The court had addressed the issue on appeal from Fritz and Marianna Konrad, who had originally argued that Germany's compulsory school attendance endangered their children's religious upbringing and promoted teaching inconsistent with their Christian faith. The court ruled that schools represent society, and "it was in the children's interest to become part of that society.” The ruling also stated that “the parents' right to education did not go as far as to deprive their children of that experience.”

Unfortunately, the criminalization of homeschoolers has become the national sport of some German politicos. There was the report in the  Brussels Journal concerning Katharina Plett, who was arrested and ordered to jail while her husband fled to Austria with the family's 12 children. Because homeschooling is illegal in Germany, Katherina’s home was invaded by police officers, who forced their way in and took her away.

How about the story of the Loeffler family of Nuremberg, as reported by Homeschool World? This homeschooling family received a letter stating that the government would freeze their bank accounts and come into their home to take anything of value up to the amount of the $14,000 fine assessed against them.

Then there is the saga of the Remeike family of Baden-Wuerttemberg. According to World Net Daily (Oct. 25, 2006), on October 20th, the home-schooling parents “were confronted by police officials, who, in an incredibly inconsiderate manner, forced their crying children into a police car and drove them to the school.” Interestingly, it was Adolph Hitler himself who declared, in 1937, that “this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.” Achtung, baby!

The US-based Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has confirmed that nearly 40 homeschooling families are embroiled in legal battles over the issue in Germany. And all because the German Federal Constitutional Court claims that it is in “the general interest of society to avoid the emergence of parallel societies based on separate philosophical convictions and the importance of integrating minorities into society.”

The pro “reproductive rights,” pro embryonic stem-cell research, pro same-sex “marriage” German Minister of Justice, Brigitte Zypries, is into all the fashionable “rights” (which, of course, does not include those of  “embryos” or “fetuses”).  But, when it comes to “religious rights” – hey, we don’t want any “parallel societies” springing up! As though “gay marriage” did not represent the very essence of a “parallel society.”

In Germany, good parents and their children are suffering and being persecuted by petty dictators and, once again, the police are on hand to perform the requisite strong-arming. And all this is in direct contradiction to Catholic teaching, as reiterated by Pope Pius XI in his 1929 encyclical, Divini illius magistri, which states that “The family, then, holds directly from the Creator the duty and the right to educate its offspring; and since this right cannot be cast aside, because it is connected with a very serious obligation, it has precedence over any right of civil society and of the state, and for this reason no power on earth may infringe upon it.”

This past September, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) announced a campaign to address the persecution of  homeschoolers in Germany. The campaign has garnered a large response from American homeschoolers, with e-mails and telephone calls pouring into the German embassy. For more information on HSLDA, go to http://www.hslda.org