They Threatened My Livelihood

My name is Herbert and I’m now 63 years old. I grew up here in Ergenzingen, went to school, completed my training as a heating and ventilation engineer, then also as a gas and water installer and later founded a company with my uncle.

And at that time, I also became involved in Scientology. Then it also became known within the company. And that was really a very tough time because people almost stopped looking at you. You were almost like an outcast. Things then continued in such a way that I became unemployed. For a moment, the world was falling apart. “What do I do now?” I had built a house. Our first daughter was already born, the second child was on the way. “What can I do?” And that was when I decided to really become self-employed.

And at the time, when I was newly self-employed, the board of the bank suddenly came and arranged an appointment, came to my house or to see us at the house, sat down at the dining table and told me, “Herbert, as a Scientologist we can no longer hold an account for you.”

So the consequence was all loans would be canceled and I would no longer have a bank account.

Afterwards, we tried to stay in contact with our relatives. This was very much avoided. There were disinvitations from weddings, you could say—following the invitation a letter arrived saying, yeah, as long as we are in Scientology they don’t want us to attend the wedding. And the whole thing culminated in an attempt at blackmail. So, either I leave Scientology or they would have me sent to prison. And after that, the extended family held a press conference.

And it got to the point where I was mentioned by name in the press that I was a member of Scientology, that I had supposedly accumulated a lot of debt since joining, and that the family was completely desperate. That was the statement. Then, I must add, I sued the newspaper because I was harmed as a result of this article. I really wouldn’t wish anyone to experience this. And to actually grow up in a beautiful place, knowing the people, and suddenly, various people become genuinely malicious towards you. It’s incomprehensible, and just because we’re members of Scientology.