Helnwein in Court 6/7
German_Scn_News <german_scn_news@hotmail.com>
5 Feb 2000

From http://members.tripod.com/German_Scn_News/has07.htm
This url has LOTS of graphics which are scans of the original documentation

Helnwein in Court - 1991 to 1997 - continued

Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter Reichelt, 1997 - Page 345

Sworn Affirmation

In recognition of the meaning of a sworn affirmation and the penalties of submitting a false, even a negligently false, affirmation, I hereby affirm and present to the court under oath:

Personal Information:

Gottfried Helnwein, painter, at the castle 2, D - 56659 Burgbrohl, born 8 Oct 48 in Vienna

At no point in time have I described myself as a "clergyman," nor have I ever been a so-called "clergyman." Neither do I have the slightest wish to be a "clergyman."

Since I left school 25 years ago, I have been an independent artist and have devoted myself entirely to this profession since that time.

The assertion that I was a so-called "Class IV" Auditor (whatever that may be) is pure conjecture and does not reflect any fact. I am not nor have ever been a "Class IV Auditor." The assertion that I was a so-called "Class 4 Auditor" who was shown some time ago in some publication by the Scientology Church is false and is absolutely sheer conjecture.

Burgbrohl, the 14th of March 1994

/signature/

Gottfried Helnwein

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Helnwein: "... I am not nor have I ever been a Class 4 Auditor" - 14 March 1994

Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter Reichelt, 1997 - Page 346

Written Transcript

[seal]

16 U 163 / 95
2/3 O 507/94
LG Frankfurt am Main
Recorded according to minutes on 20 June
1996

"Graefe"
employed by the Justice Department
as documenting official
of the business office

FRANKFURT AM MAIN
SUPERIOR STATE
COURT
IN THE NAME OF THE
PEOPLE
JUDGMENT

In the legal dispute

1. of the Association for the Interests of Tyrannized Fellow Humans, Inc., represented by its board, which is represented by its primary chairman, Mrs. Jeanete Schweitzer, 125 Ensheimer Street, 66386 St. Ingbert,

2. of the Association of Peace Education in Saarland, Inc., represented by its board, which is represented by its primary chairman, Mrs. Christa Janal, 14 Bismarck Street, 66111 Saarbruecken

Accused and Appellants,

- Process executor: Attorney Christoph Heyne, Frankfurt am Main -

vs.

the painter Gottfried Helnwein, Burg Brohl 2, 56659 Burgbrohl,

Complainant and Appeal defendant,

- Process executor: Attorney Dr. Foersterling, Frankfurt am Main -

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Frankfurt am Main Superior State Court: "... Helnwein is a Scientologist and a Class 4 Auditor ..." - 20 June 1996

Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter Reichelt, 1997 - Page 347

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in the 16th Civil Senate of the Frankfurt am Main Superior State Court presided over by Superior State Court Judge Baumecker, with Superior State Court Judges Dr. Deppert and Janzen in the oral hearing of 9 May 1996, has recognized as just:

On appeal by the accused the decision of the 3rd Civil Chamber of the Frankfurt am Main State Court of 25 May 1995 is overturned.

The accused were ordered to cease from distributing or expressing verbally or perceptually the following assertion:

"The profits from a limited edition of lithographies available in 48 Saarbruecker Gallery demonstrably flow to the Scientology Secret Service (OSA Munich)."

Moreover the charge is dismissed.

Further appeal of the accused is denied.

The costs of the legal dispute will be born 3/4 by the complainant and 1/4 by the accused.

The decision is temporarily executable for the complainant in security in the amount of 5,000 DM and for the accused in security in the amount of 15,000 DM.

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In accordance with P. 543 Abs. 1 ZPO the presentation of the facts of the case are omitted.

B a s i s of D e c i s i o n

The appeal of the accused is permitted. Specifically, the legal means, form and time limits were met and founded.

The appeal is also essentially founded.

The complainant is not entitled to have a desist order issued in regard to most of the accused's expressed assertions analogous with P. 1004 Abs. 1 BGB in connection with PP. 823, Abs. 2 BGB, 186 StGB

As far as the complainant demanding the statements desist, he described himself as a clergyman, whether it is a genuinely honest assertion by the accused and whether this assertion is true is all the same, the complainant has himself to blame.

The accused may therefore leave the published statements in the press.

With the Federal Constitutional Court (NJW 1992, 1439), the Senate is also of the opinion that the requirements of the duty of presentation would be overtaxed if someone who expressed a derogatory assertion about a third party which did not come from his own realm of experience and exceeded his own capability of review could not rely on uncontested press releases. The Federal Constitutional Court indicates that for the individual serving the public interest it is regularly not possible

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to contribute proof or facts of evidence based on his own investigation. He is dependent upon the media.

The accused referred to an interview which appeared in 1993 in the "Celebrity" magazine major issue 262. In it the complainant was described as an "Auditor IV."

An auditor is a clergyman in the sense of the terminology of the Scientology Church. The accused may perceive this article as if the complainant described himself as an "auditor" and therefore as a clergyman. This description is found in the title of the complainant's interview. From that the impartial observer would have to conclude that the complainant was interviewed as a clergyman and had also given the reporter the impression that he was a clergyman.

The accused may rely on this publication. It is, indeed, the Scientology Church's own publication and meant primarily for its members. At the same time it is publicly available. People who rely on such publicly available sources can be ordered to desist or withdraw their statements if the article has been withdrawn or is recognizably outdated. (BVerfG, a.a.O.)

Neither provision is fulfilled. The complainant did not present an outdated event, nor is one visible to the Senate. Neither has the assertion by "Celebrity" magazine been withdrawn. It seems rather questionable that the complainant turned to the Scientology Church Germany for the desist order when the article itself was neither written nor published by Scientology Church Germany. The complainant

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therefore could only have applied to the editorial staff of "Celebrity" magazine in the USA to have the assertion withdrawn. He indisputably did not do that.

Even so, the Scientology Church Germany, as has been revealed by the correspondence presented by the complainant, still did not sign a desist order nor did it have a retracting statement printed.

Therefore the complainant has not contradicted the publicly made assertion that he described himself as a clergyman.

On this same ground, the accused are not ordered to desist from stating that the complainant is an "Auditor IV" of the Scientology Church. That also applies to statements they had published in the press.

The accused are not ordered to desist from making the statement that the complainant belongs to a group which uses coercive hypnotic procedures with the help of a lie detector to destroy people's psyches to control them. This statement contains two elements. For one, it contains the assertion that the complainant is a member of a group, i.e., a member of the Scientology Church. For another is it asserted that this group uses coercive hypnotic procedures to control the consciousness of people.

The first part of the statement is an assertion of fact. This assertion is true, because the complainant is a Scientologist. In any case he professes to this organization. This can be concluded from numerous circumstances. For instance it states in the "College" magazine from 1975 that the complainant at that time said he had been a Scientologist since 1972. The Scientology Church had also sent out invitations to a summer festival with the complainant in 1986. It was stated in the magazine "Scientology

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Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter Reichelt, 1997 - Page 351

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heute" as well as in "Spiegel" that the complainant is a Scientologist. Also the presented list of Scientology "Patrons" has the complainant as a member of the organization. Also the complainant told Mrs. Melissa Mueller, a journalist, in 1991 that he was a Scientologist, and she then published that in a magazine "Cash Flow," without being contradicted by the complainant.

Besides that the complainant contributed to an advertisement in the "Frankfurter Allgemeinen" newspaper about the death of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Scientology Church, and he did not oppose the statement by the accused that he was on a board of the Association of Responsibility-Conscious Businesspeople, Inc., a cover organization for the Scientology Church.

The second part of the statement concerns itself with the character of the Scientology Church. Not only the Scientology Church is involved with this statement, but also the complainant himself, since a poor light is also shed on him by the negative characterization of the Scientology Church.

Nevertheless the accused may express this assertion because they are relying for their information on the appropriate release from the standing conference of the Interior Ministers and Senators of the States from 6 May 1994. In this press release, the Scientology Organization was described, among other things, as one which conducted psycho-terrorism under the cloak of a religious society.

In view of these findings of the State Interior Ministers, there is no objection to the accused asserting that this organization employs a coercive hypnotic process and uses a lie detector.

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The Scientology Church did not contradict this publication by the State Interior Ministers. No retraction of its statements were demanded or published. Therefore the accused may assume correctness of the statement in this press release.

It plays no role that the publication of the press release happened only after the accused authored the open letter of March 3, 1994. In that regard the press release may only repeat that which has been long communicated by the agency responsible for defending against the danger, and also that which could be obtained from publicly accessible sources.

But even if that would not have been the case, the decision of the legal dispute at hand depends on the factual and legal situation at the point in time of the last oral hearing. Therefore, whether the accused at the time of the distribution of the open letter of March 3, 1994 could trust the rightness of what it said, can remain undecided, because they had learned the facts from other published communications. As to the question of whether the accused must be stopped from making their statements, or if they can trust press releases for what they say, that depends only on the situation at the time of the last oral hearing.

At that point in time, the uncontested press release from the State Interior Ministers Conference of May 6, 1994 was available.

The basic rights of the complainant have not been violated by the distribution of the statements under discussion. The complaint is able to use his general personality rights and his basic right to free exercise of religion in opposition to the basic rights of the accused to freedom of opinion.

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Nevertheless, in the case at hand, the interests of the accused prevail in their publication of the assertion that the complainant, as a clergyman, a Class IV Auditor and a Scientologist, belongs to an organization which employs psychological terrorism.

The complainant is an internationally known artist who has fallen into the public eye with his artistic works and actions. He has also stated that he was ready to cooperate with the artistic arrangements at the "Neue Bremm," a former Nazi era concentration camp in Saarbuecken. The question of whether the complainant will get this contract is of interest to the public. In connection with this, it is also of interest to the public of whether the complainant is a member of the Scientology Church and whether he has gotten so far as to obtain Class IV Auditor and what kind of an organization the Scientology Church is.

It should also be taken into consideration that the complainant, in numerous publications, has described himself as a Scientologist and a Class IV Auditor, and has been described as such by the press. Therefore the complainant has not exactly kept his membership and his concepts of Scientology a secret in the past.

But the complainant wants to stop the statement that there is evidence that the profits from a limited edition lithograph which is available in the Saarbruck Gallery will go to the Scientology secret service (OSA Munich). This statement is dealing with an assertion of fact. Indisputably, no money has yet gone to OSA. As can be seen from a letter from the chairman of the Scientology Church on May 7, 1992, the complainant stated that he was prepared to put one of his works of art on the market for the purpose of supporting Narconon and the OSA.

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The complainant only commented that the money was supposed to have been meant for Narconon. But when he learned that the money was being planned for other uses, he withdrew his statement. This was not explicitly contested by the accused. With their undisputed statement they only meant that the correctness of the assertion would be proven if the profits were to go to Narconon. It could not be excluded from the accused's statement that the complainant had only promised to have the profits go to the Narconon company. The words "demonstrably flow" define a description of a present event, and are not a statement of the complainant's intent.

Since this assertion is false, and the accused themselves do not maintain that money has already flowed, there is a claim to have them desist analogous to PP. 823 Abs. 2, 186 StGB, 1004 Abs. 1 BGB.

The decision of costs is based on P. 92 Abs. 1 ZPO. In doing that the Senate has considered that each of the four assertions from the complainant are of equal value.

The current execution of this decision is based on P. 709 ZPO

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The Senate saw no reason to permit appeal, because legal questions of fundamental significance have not been an issue

Baumecker Dr. Deppert Janzen

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Helnwein & Scientology, Lies & Treason by Peter Reichelt, 1997 - Page 355

Scientology member magazine "IMPACT" 19, 1988 Helnwein appeared for the first time on the "Patron" list

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