German Bias Against Scientologists Claimed

WASHINGTON--Some local authorities and private firms in Germany use “sect filters” focused on the U.S.-based Church of Scientology in hiring and contracting, the annual report from the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom said.

Federal agencies in Germany have discouraged property sales to Scientologists. Civil service job applicants in Bavaria must list Scientology ties, and followers elsewhere report employment problems.

The German government has said Scientology has some traits of organized crime that potentially undermine democracy, and placed it under scrutiny by domestic intelligence agents in 1997.