It Turned Violent at My Front Door

My name is Thomas. I am now 52 years old. I am from the southern region of Germany, from Bavaria. I studied sociology, and I have four children.

I got to know Scientology through Study Technology, which I really liked, and it really helped me toward the end of my studies. So, I have always taught. I gave piano lessons and tutoring, for example, I tutored my brother. Then more people came and then we—yeah, we opened a tutoring academy and more and more students and university students came. And, using Study Technology and its materials, [we] were able to help the children a great deal. We had excellent results. And, yeah, one day there was a student—we had a book that described this Study Technology. He found the name L. Ron Hubbard and said, “Oh, that’s Scientology. Oh my god.” His father, he was on the municipal council, or rather, in the council of the Protestant Church, and that really caused quite a stir. They then met behind closed doors and were concerned: “Oh, there’s someone who uses Scientology,” or something like this. Then there was also a nonpublic municipal council meeting in the community where I was and some parents were worried. This led to children no longer attending tutoring. My family was harassed. My brother was approached on the street. Warnings were issued and it escalated from there. The last stage of escalation was when my brother came to my door on a Sunday, knocked really hard, angrily. He grabbed me by the throat and pushed me against the wall. He said, “You can do whatever you want, but leave us out of it.” Well, there was real discord in the family. That was really bad.

Eventually after two or three years, I said, “I can’t do this anymore.” We spoke with everyone, with the teachers, with everyone—we knew so many people there. In the end we said, “That’s enough. We’re leaving the community and are moving to the city.” Well, that made me personally really sad, I have to say, because I just wanted to help.