As reported by Bitter Winter and by a press release from the Church of Scientology, Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution has quietly ended its 30-year surveillance of Scientology. According to Bitter Winter:
The official reason is that the agency needs to focus its efforts on more pressing issues: violent extremism, Russian spying, cyberattacks, and terrorism. All these threats are, to say the least, more credible dangers to public order than the notion of Scientologists in Munich plotting a coup. However, the timing also indicates a realization that surveillance had become a costly routine without a clear purpose.
The roots of this monitoring date back to the 1990s, a time when Germany was still adjusting to reunification and the political elite was particularly receptive to alarming stories about “cults.” Scientology became an easy target. The movement faced accusations of having “anti-constitutional aims,” a phrase in Germany that carries significant weight in national security cases. Yet, the evidence never materialized. What followed were years of observation, reports, and legal battles—none of which resulted in a single validated finding of anti-constitutional actions....
