Evangelical State Church Berlin-Brandenburg
Mr. Dr. Lütcke Georgenkirchstraße 69 - 70
10249 Berlin
Munich, 11 March 2003
Complaint against your weltanschuung representative Reverend Thomas Gandow
Dear Provost Dr. Lütcke,
Once again we direct a complaint to you today concerning the work of your
weltanschauung representative Reverend Thomas Gandow.
Without a doubt Reverend Gandow has been a member of probably the most
fanatical opponent of religious freedom nationwide since the early 1970s, whose
methods of operation have not been uncontroversial, even within their own ranks.
In fact I have never met another representative of any religious denomination who
so ruthlessly persecutes, torments and discriminates against people on the basis
of their alleged false beliefs. Whether it be attacks on the Dalai Lama,
obstruction of a construction project by the TM movement, or the disparagement of
the Jehovahs Witnesses or the Scientology Church, Reverend Gandow will always
abuse the freedom of opinion guaranteed by the constitution by disregarding to
the limit the facts of the matter on the whole.
Several months ago Reverend Gandow took the ex-Scientologist Gerald Armstrong
under his wing, who had left the Scientology Church in Los Angeles over 20 years
ago. Under Gandow's "protection" Armstrong has placed an especially
perfidious web site on the Internet, which libels the Scientology Church and its
members.
Gerald Armstrong came to Scientology in the 1970s and left in the Church in
1981. Contrary to his claim, Armstrong was at no point in time L. Ron Hubbard's
personal secretary. Because of the nature of his personality, he held a somewhat
pretentious position only for about one year (1974). Later on he was responsible
for incoming and outgoing mail for a while, he worked for a few months on
constructing stage scenery used by L. Ron Hubbard for filming, and later worked
in housekeeping. Among other things, Armstrong was responsible for the care of
the animals on Hubbard's farm. In 1980 Gerald Armstrong asked about helping with
L. Ron Hubbard's biography, only to make his getaway a short time later with
about 10,000 stolen documents, including original drawing by L. Ron Hubbard.
2
Even though you are an outsider, you are a religious person, and you will be
able to understand the great interest the Church had in reacquiring the original
writings of its religious founder. It was only for this reason that an agreement
was made with Gerald Armstrong. On 6 December 1986 a settlement was concluded
with him to end all legal disputes and to reacquire the misappropriated
documents. Armstrong obligated himself therenin to never again slander the
Scientology Church. A penalty was to be imposed in the event the agreement was
violated.
It doesn't even need to be mentioned that the Church did keep its part of the
agreement, but Gerald Armstrong did not. Based on the numerous violations of the
agreement he made with the Church, Armstrong has been sentenced to pay 650,000
dollars. Since then Armstrong has been on the "lam", so to speak.
(attachment 1, one of the diverse court decisions in this matter).
At the end of 2002 it finally was revealed that Reverend Gandow had not only
hidden the "fleeing" Gerald Armstrong, but was collecting donations for
him. Armstrong did not at first appear publicly, but then it was revealed that
he, with the help of Gandow, was making the rounds among politicians and
government representatives. Gerald Armstrong allegedly stated on one occasion
that he was enjoyed the special protection of "church asylum" from the
Evangelical Church in Berlin.
Based on this display and the hair-raising Internet site, which exclusively
serves the purpose of inciting hatred against the Scientology Church and its
members and of mass poisoning of the climate, the Church found itself forced at
last to once again take legal steps against Armstrong. But he had to be found
first. With the consent of an attorney, a public event with Gerald Armstrong was
used for this purpose.
All of Gandow's assertions contradicted evidence; findings of the police,
suspension orders, official investigation results from the police, state attorney
and federal police did not interest him in the least. In December 2002 the Bremen
Senate quite impressively described the pretext under which Scientology has been
investigated without ever having produced a worthwhile result. As the Bremen
Senate stated, even the federal police - based on the sort of hair-raising tales
that Mr. Gandow spreads - had established a special post that had to be stopped
years ago because no indications of wrongdoing could be found.
(attachment 2).
In the human rights report that has been appearing regularly since 1993 from
the US Department of State about the human rights violations against the
Scientologists in the German Federal Republic, the federal government has always
verifed that neither the Scientology Church nor its members could be accused of
anything tangible
(attachment 3).
These sort of facts leave not the slightest impression on Reverend Gandow. On
the contrary. For him, such vindicating paper is only proof that something is
going on behind the scenes and proof of how far our influence has progressed in
society. Neither doe he hesitate to use conspiracy theories of the most
scurrilous nature.
3
It's true that Gerald Armstrong came to Berlin to make money from the
Scientology-hunt. Together with Reverend Gandow he traveled through eastern
Europe to dispense his unprovable assertions about Scientology to outsiders.
While he can count on being prosecuted in the USA, he may travel at will and at
ease in Germany among the churches and among federal representatives under the
protection and with the help of the Evangelical Church. As part of their mission,
on 12 December 2002 Thomas Gandow and Gerald Armstrong, along with a delegation
of Russian Orthodox Scientology opponents, forced their way into the Dianetics
Mission in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and caused a tumult. Property was destroyed,
papers were misappropriated, and members were attacked verbally. Demands to leave
the premises were not heeded until the police were finally notified. The Russian
media reported the incident. You can find a video on this in the attachments
(attachment 4). Questioned by representatives of the Berlin media about this
proceeding, Reverend Gandow stated, in contradiction to the truth, that a
Scientology official had invited him to Yekaterinburg.
Even before that, Gerald Armstrong, Thomas Gandow and Ursula Caberta, director
of the "Arbeitsgruppe Scientology" worked together in the Hamburg
Senate. The state attorney investigated Caberta for almost two years for
suspicion of corruption because she had accepted a "private loan" from
a Scientology opponent in the amount of 75,000 dollars. The proceedings were
dropped upon payment of a 7,500 euro fine. Ursula Caberta nevertheless is still
under fire. Just recently the Hamburg Administrative Court declared Caberta to be
biased and severely reprimanded her employer, who still idles away today despite
the clear evidence. Caberta herself was prohibited from making diverse untrue and
slanderous assertions in this connectino
(attachment 5).
The three met in places including Leipzig, where Thomas Gandow, Gerald
Armstrong and Ursula Caberta distinguished the American multi-millionaire and
former Scientology opponent Robert Minton with a "human rights award",
which exists on Reverend Gandow's account. Robert Minton, who at the time was
hoping to win millions of dollars in damages in a lawsuit against the Scientology
Church, had placed a large number of Scientology opponents, both foreign and
domestic, on his payroll. Those included Gerald Armstrong and Ursula Caberta.
Thomas Gandow also curried favor with the rich benefactor from America, and
carried out numerous events to attact Minton's interest. In various interviews,
the reverend would always complain about low funding and inadequate cash. In
Renate Hartwig's newest work, "Die Schattenspieler," interesting
details from the so-called anti-sect scene are revealed. There can be found, as a
matter of necessity, a comprehensive chapter about Reverend Thomas Gandow. The
book talks about and envelope being handed over. A request for information by the
FREIHEIT newspaper as to whether Reverend Gandow had also taken money from Robert
Minton was answered roundabout with a threat of pursuing legal channels, but not
with a clear "NO, money did not change hands."
Perhaps you could be the one who followed up on this question.
4
Just as much cause for consternation is that the disinformation department of
the NVA, of all things, only had positive things to say about Mr. Gandow as late
as 1987. In a book, which was made out to be a factual novel, published by the
military department of the GDR about the "Moonies," there was only one
verifiable fact: name and account number of Reverend Gandow, who was presented by
the NVA in the work as a trustworthy western preacher. This book, which Reverend
Gandow states in contradiction to truth does NOT contain his name, probably led
to a discussion about his former membership in a communist organization that was
said to be steered by the GDR or directly out of Moscow. Reverend Gandow was
already trying to dodge this question back in 1993 by saying that an examination
of his Stasi documents should have been undertaken. He was not aware of the
current outcome of this process.
In a press release from the Karlsruhe federal court of 24 February 2003, it
said, concerning the requirements of a church sect representative in his public
information work: It was required that the so-called sect representative of a
state-recognized major church exercise "a certain degree of care, factuality
and truth."
In any differences it is expected that all - and not just selected negative -
court judgments and suspended proceedings in favor of the Scientology Church and
its members, international and national recognition by government and agency
reprentatives, as well as investigations and opinions should be considered, even
by Mr. Gandow, in the scope of his official duties.
In this sense I would appreciate it if you would remind Reverend Thomas Gandow
of his duties as a Christian, as a weltanschauungs representative and as a
representative of the Church.
I thank you for your attention and hope that you understand my concern.
Cordially,
Sabine Weber Vice President of
Scientology Kirche Deutschland e.V.
attachments
copy to: Professor Wolfgang Huber;
representatives of the German Bundestag