--> Germany Imprisons Mum. Dad and Kids Flee to Austria

The Brussels Journal ^ | Tue, 2006-09-12 | lexandra Colen

[nathanbedford]

Last Thursday the German police arrested Katharina Plett, a homeschooling mother of twelve. Yesterday her husband fled to Austria with the children. Homeschooling is illegal in Germany since Hitler banned it in 1938. The Plett family belongs to a homeschooling group of seven Baptist families in Paderborn. We wrote about their case last year. (snip)

Yesterday, Katharina’s husband fled with their children to a Christian family center in Wolfgangsee in Austria. A homeschooling couple from Hamburg has also fled to Wolfgangsee. Their case was covered in the media. In Austria parents are entitled to homeschool during a one year trial period, after which the authorities decide whether the parents are allowed to continue homeschooling or not.

[nathanbedford]

As an ex-pat living in Germany most of the year (Winters thank heavens in Florida), I have been intrigued by the Germans' treatment of matters of conscience such as the proscription against Scientology and, this instance, of antagonism towards homeschooling.

I first became alerted to this issue when acquaintances of mine here in Germany on occasion would spontaneously launch into diatribes against homeschooling. This began at the time of the first election of George Bush and his statement of his commitment to Christianity. As you may recall, and his remark about his admiration for Jesus Christ as a role model and his practices of meditation and prayer drew huge and negative response across increasingly secular western Europe. At first, the suddenness and vehemence of these remarks caught me by surprise.

You will note from the embedded links in this article a reference to the facts that homeschooling was first prohibited in Germany in 1938 by Hitler. Apparently it took them a few years to get around the homeschooling because one of his first acts was to confiscate guns.

When one engages Germans in discussion of this topic one is struck by the disconnect between the abhorrence of the "Hitler time" on one hand and the perpetuation from that time of intolerance against dissent on matters of conscience. If there is a problem with my neighbors in this regard it is not that they are Nazis, or neo-Nazis, or anything far to the right, but that they are too far to the left.

I believe the foundation for these attitudes was laid before Hitler's time by Bismarck and perhaps even below before that at the time of the Thirty Years War. In any event, there is something in the water here which leads the average Burgher to look to the state to protect him from his fellow citizens, rather than to look to his individual rights to protect him from the state. In other words, the German fears the mob more than the state, indeed, he sees the state is his shield.

Having lived here now off and on for to almost 20 years, I am still astonished that the nation which has learned so many lessons from the Holocaust could have got this part backwards.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I have a response for your German friends when it comes to Christianity and/or homeschooling....Mind your own Business!

[Bahbah]

Thank you for this most interesting post.

[Hydroshock]

Ve have vays to get you do to vhat ve vant!!!!!

[MaDeuce]

Lets see ... in da Fatherland Homeschooling is BAD, but being a mu-slime terrorist murderer is OK and they let you out of prison ... makes sense doesn't it?

[Irish Rose]

Homeschooling is illegal in Germany since Hitler banned it in 1938.

As Hitler declared, "Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state." That's why homeschooling bothers a lot of leftists: The government is losing power when it stops controlling the next generation's education.

[Right Wing Assault]

Hitler banned it in 1938

Does that mean they aren't allowed to have their trains run on schedule?

[The_Media_never_lie]

Wow, this is not the 1930s, right?

[American in Singapore]

As Hitler declared, "Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state." That's why homeschooling bothers a lot of leftists: The government is losing power when it stops controlling the next generation's education.

And that's why a voucher program bothers American leftists.

[Schweinhund]

Maybe the homeschoolers should have kidnapped German citizens, like the guys who pressed this terrorist free. Anyway, I did not know about this homeschooling thing up to now...the government reaction seems way out of line.

[flynmudd]

I'm for vouchers and homeschooling. Anything to keep the government out of the education system.

[libertylover]

I believe the foundation for these attitudes was laid before Hitler's time by Bismarck and perhaps even below before that at the time of the Thirty Years War. In any event, there is something in the water here which leads the average Burgher to look to the state to protect him from his fellow citizens, rather than to look to his individual rights to protect him from the state.

Thanks for the article. In your opinion then, do the Germans have almost as much hatred for the Christians as they did/do for the Jews? If this goes way back, does that help to explain how/why they allowed Hitler his "Final Solution"?

[ketelone]

LIke sound of music? Rolf mustve ratted them out.

[sumocide]

That's a new record for Godwin's law.

[kittymyrib]

Their attitude toward homeschooling is just a manifestation of one of the flaws in the German people. The majority are control freaks who crave conformity. If one sunflower raises its head above the rest, it should be chopped off so that all are alike. It makes for a boring people and a restrictive environment that is rarely on the cutting edge of anything. No wonder they need to get drunk in order to have fun.

[bill1952]

Why the instant connection between devout Christians of any stripe and homeschooling there?

I do see many such parents that homeschool or use church schools since they find the value system abhorrent, but then so do many who are not affiliated with any church. - Such as myself.

Send my children to the NEA to be schooled? - Never.

[FreedomPoster]

>>If there is a problem with my neighbors in this regard it is not that they are Nazis, or neo-Nazis, or anything far to the right, but that they are too far to the left.

There's nothing "right wing" about totalitarianism, in my mind. National Socialists *are* leftists.

See the third quote on my profile page, the two-paragraph one by Hayek, for some very interesting commentary on the matter. He was an educated contemporaneous observer of German Nazis, Communists, and Socialists, in the 1930s and 1940s.

[freedomfiter2]

I'm for vouchers and homeschooling. Anything to keep the government out of the education system.


You're right. We won't be able to take back the government until we take back education.

[BenLurkin]

"Homeschooling is illegal in Germany since Hitler banned it in 1938."

Kinda says it all.

[Leisler]

Everything in Germany is forbidden, unless expressly permitted. Nothing is permitted unless a written order is authorized.