I Was Robbed of My Freedom

I am Hans-Dieter, and I was born in Saarbrücken, and at the age of eight I moved to Mainz.

And there I did my training as a hairdresser and as a master hairdresser. And I have been self-employed for 25 years. And I do my job with a lot of passion. I’m a Scientologist, and the first persecution I experienced as a Scientologist came about because a partner of mine, a business partner, submitted a report to a newspaper which led to my bank accounts being canceled, suppliers avoiding us and customers also avoided us because I’m a Scientologist. I actually experienced a financial collapse and had to start all over again. I really had big financial problems. So for me, it was an incredibly difficult time. I felt very oppressed, I felt very small and I was robbed of my freedom because of the fact that this happened. It was a feeling of no longer having freedom in life and to exist.

I’ve been a hairdresser for over 40 years, almost 50, and I provide lots of training. Every year I have four to five apprentices. And one day, through a consortium, I got two apprentices. And because there was a girl who was lying, I gave them a pamphlet about The Way to Happiness. This was found out by the school. Then, someone from the consortium came directly to my business and demanded a termination agreement from me. And that’s why they took the apprentice out of my company.

There was another situation, for example, where a customer told my employee that she won’t come back to the salon because the customer found out that the boss is a Scientologist. My employee was very upset and cried a lot because she had experienced a huge loss. And I approached this person to talk to her about it. And she said, “I will not give any money to Scientology.” And I explained to her that it is my belief and it has nothing to do with the business, that the salon is independent. And this lady completely spoke against it and never came back. Imagine if this person had gone to another business and said, “You are Catholic. I don’t want anything to do with you.” This is a deprivation of your freedom to believe what you choose. And this is massive discrimination that is very, very personal. And that just does not feel good.