"In the Crosshairs of Scientology" - Reiner Fuellmich and an operation to silence a CoS-Critic
Evidence suggests he was friends with a Hamburg State Commissioner who was charged with the task to keep Scientology at bay - but ended up helping the Organization big time. Question is: why?
Abstract
Extensive research in court files from the 1990s reveals further and ever greater doubts about Reiner Fuellmich's credibility. At the time, Fuellmich clearly slandered a woman, Renate Hartwig, with 'black propaganda', who had made things very difficult for the Scientology organization. He worked together with another woman, Ursula Caberta, who had been officially commissioned to curb the influence of the sect, but seems to have been 'flipped' by Scientology. Renate Hartwig, the woman who achieved enormous things against the worldwide occult organization with private means, threw in the towel in 2002. After continued attacks by Reiner Fuellmich and Ursula Caberta failed to crack her, the political decision was made to have Scientology monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution because of the psychological manipulation techniques developed by its founder and the resulting dangers to democracy, but to exempt sales of books, licenses and seminars from taxation. Hartwig, who no longer wishes to comment publicly on Scientology, had accused Reiner Fuellmich of "doing the dirty work for Scientology"in the ZDF report "Das Netz" (which, contrary to Fuellmich's claims, with the blessing of the courts called into question the integrity of the Hamburg Scientology commissioners Caberta and Fuellmich-Source). Why did Reiner Fuellmich not have the courage at that time to trust the courts to bring such accusations to a decision by hearing the evidence? Did he already have doubts about the judiciary back then? Why, then, did he put such doubts aside in 2020 and collect millions of euros for damages claims before these same courts, raising as yet unfulfilled hopes for thousands of plaintiffs? Why did he not come clean to his colleagues on the Corona Committee in the summer of 2022 about another loan that he had taken, paid from the funds for the class action? Doubts are growing about Reiner Fuellmich's credibility.
The present day controversy involving Fuellmich
Reiner Fuellmich is at the center of a great controversy. Many people think that Fuellmich is a hero who has become a threat to “the system”, which is why he has been “smeared, kidnapped & falsely imprisoned” to be put on trial in Germany for nothing but to make an example of him. Others have long been questioning whether “Reiner Fuellmich is a fraud lawyer”.
When he was expelled from the Corona Investigative Committee in September of 2022, the questions were about financial assets belonging to the CIC. Reiner Fuellmich insisted that he had always been willing to return them. But his reasons why he hadn’t been able to return them when they were needed, and asked for, in the weeks before the public break up, seem to have been somewhat changing. He had to sell his house, first, he said. But he was not able to provide a land charge or some other form of security.
Later, it became obvious why he may not have been able to do that: he had taken out another loan, from the funds which plaintiffs for the class action had provided. And for which Fuellmich had instructed his bank to issue a security on his property in return. Why this security was registered as a land charge only after the house was sold but (before the money was paid out by the notary public!) is one of many big questions which have surfaced during the trial in Goettingen. Multiple options seem plausible.
Another question is Reiner Fuellmich’s general credibility.
Old projects come back to haunt him, it seems. Reiner Fuellmich has been involved in several law suits and disputes involving the cult of Scientology. Whereas he himself, as early as 2021, claimed that reports about him “doing the dirty work” for Scientology were “fabricated”, showing a court ruling from 1999 as proof, the situation seems to be not quite as clear. For one, Fuellmich has not told the truth when asked by a journalist shortly after his expulsion from the Corona Committee, when he said: I did not even know what Scientology was. Fuellmich tried to laugh it off, making remarks about “Jaws” music being used to frame him. He is in the water, that’s for sure. But who is the shark?
What is Scientology?
Why bother about some cult that dates back to the 1950’s? As researcher Mathew Crawfrod pointed out in a recent lecture, Scientology may be much more than just a weird cult, but a part of the “intelligence arm of the U.S. government” to help control other governments. Therefore, it seems prudent to make an effort to understand the function of the occult in intelligence operations, or psy-ops.
Clearly, the past four years have turned out to resemble a giant psy-op. This makes it difficult to pin down what is real, and what is fake. But to shrug it off when something like Scientology comes up in connection with a prominent “leader of the movement”, such as Fuellmich, or even, as Crawford lays out, multiple people in leading positions of the “Medical Freedom Movement”, is not the smartest thing to do. Instead, someone should take up the job of digging down in an attempt to lay bare what evidence there is.
So, here we go:
Fuellmich and Scientology - A criminal Complaint in 1998
As a start of the investigation we have the 1999 news program. This was not a program in which Reiner Fuellmich played a central role. The program had been set out to show how the Scientology cult operated in attempts to subvert businesses in Germany. The real estate sector was chosen for that program, but other fields of high Scientologist activity were the efforts to restructure and privatize the East German industrial conglomerates.
A certain real estate salesforce in the south of Germany had become the target of Scientology, probably because that company, led by two brothers Schaul, had achieved a strong market position. At first the company was led towards L. Ron Hubbard technology by a consultant who had been hired by the owners. When it became obvious that he was a Scientologist, he was fired, the news report documented. Immediately the Schaul company became the target of slanderous accusations by a certain attorney, Reiner Fuellmich.
»On June 7, 1998, the defendant sent a criminal complaint against the brothers Friedbert and Hans-Jürgen Schaul, among others, to the public prosecutor's office at the Braunschweig Regional Court, and it is undisputed that he forwarded this criminal complaint to the editorial offices of the business publishers „kapitalmarkt intern“ in Düsseldorf and „Gerlach report“ in Oberursel. (…) By making the criminal complaint accessible to third parties, namely press organs, he had left the privileged area applicable to criminal complaints to competent authorities. (…)
As the Regional Court correctly reasoned are all the statements in dispute factual allegations. The defendant made these statements.
(…)
Although the defendant quotes allegations from a book by the witness Ursula Caberta entitled "Scientology attacks", he has adopted these allegations as his own. This is evident from the criminal complaint itself, in which the defendant, following the statements in dispute, stated that he referred to the testimony of Ms. Caberta to prove that precisely the relevant procedure here, namely the anonymous accusation of third parties (ideological or other opponents) that they belong to Scientology, is part of Scientology-typical defamatory propaganda. The defendant thus uses the allegations in dispute about the plaintiff to substantiate his own argumentation and thereby adopts them as his own.
Incidentally, this also follows from the defendant's submission in this legal dispute (…) that the statements made by the plaintiff in Ms. Caberta's book are truthful statements and that he will therefore continue to reproduce these statements, should they be relevant, in the course of his work as a lawyer. (…) (T)his declaration also makes it clear that he himself stands behind the allegations in question here, which he believes to be true, and has used them as his own accusations against the plaintiff and will use them in the future if he deems it appropriate.«
— Court Ruling at OLG Duesseldorf, Case No: 15 U 82/99
In the above mentioned criminal complaint Reiner Fuellmich wrote the following, among other things:
“The witness Dr. G. represents numerous victims of „Trust model“ property deals against members of the Schaul salesforce. As soon as Dr. G. had become active in this way, a woman, Renate Hartwig, who had previously enjoyed a certain recognition as an opponent of Scientology, but now worked mainly for the Schaul brothers, suddenly spread the word, contrary to the truth, that Dr. G. was a leading member of the Scientology cult in Germany - an astonishing parallel to the anonymous letters aimed in the same direction concerning the lawyer H. who also worked against the Schaul brothers: Apparently, the Schaul brothers had succeeded in appropriating Ms. Hartwig (who was possibly initially ignorant) for themselves in such a way that she distracted from the suspicions of the Schaul brothers' Scientology affiliation, which in the meantime could no longer be suppressed. At the same time - and this was the Schaul brothers' intention behind this attack, as can now be easily seen at last - Dr. G's legal work was of course taken up in this way and he was hindered in his work on the liability cases against the Schaul salesforce. Ms. Harwig finally had to distance herself from her untrue and defamatory allegations against Dr. G. (…)
To prove that precisely the relevant procedure here, namely the - even possibly anonymous - accusation of third parties (ideological or other opponents) that they belong to Scientology, is part of Scientology's typical slanderous propaganda, we refer to the testimony of Mrs. Ursula Caberta...” [emphasis added]
This was not only untrue, as documented in the court decision. It was written by Dr. Fuellmich in 1998 in a criminal complaint and sent to several offices of State Prosecutors. It is therefore undeniably evident that Reiner Fuellmich did not tell the truth in his answer to the question about Scientology that was put to him in September of 2022. He knew positively in 1998 what Scientology was, and even how Scientology goes about in attacking enemies: by using - among other things - “untrue and defamatory allegations” and “slanderous propaganda”. That is exactly what the court found he, Fuellmich, had been accusing his opponent of.
In this respect it seems noteworthy to take a look at who this opponent was: Fuellmich knew Renate Hartwig, who, as he acknowledged to the court, “had previously enjoyed a certain recognition as an opponent of Scientology”. If he had not known what Scientology is, this statement would have been nonsensical.
Fuellmich’s attacks a woman who was a threat to Scientology
Renate Hartwig, indeed, had started a self-help group against Scientology in 1991, and subsequently went on to become a sought-after expert for German Captains of Industry who wanted to keep the ideology of L. Ron Hubbard out of their organizations. Hartwig not only founded the self-help group, “Robin Direkt”, but also worked for the German Ministry of Economics where she conducted seminars about how to detect Scientologists, and how to guard organisations against being highjacked by L. Ron Hubbard Technology. Hartwig resigned from this position as Government expert in 2002, after the German Foreign Minister at the time, Fischer, came back from a visit to US Secretary of State, Albright, and instructed his German Colleague, Minister of Finance Eichel, that Scientology was to be granted tax exemptions for the sale of their books, seminars and licences. Which is what happened, even though Scientology remained under observation by the office for protection of the constitution as a „potential threat to democracy“.
It seems interesting that Fuellmich, in all of the statements he made about Scientology since he became a leading member of the „Medical Freedom Movement”, he never mentions Hartwig’s name, even though it was she who he was engaged with in several lawsuits.
Maybe it is because there seems to be no case where he succeeded in multiple attempts of getting injunctions against her. In fact, he did not even try to sue Hartwig for her statement in the 1999 program, where she accused him of having “taken over the job of doing the dirty work for Scientology”. If that program was indeed “a total fabrication”, as Fuellmich repeatedly claimed it was, why would any decent lawyer let her get away with that kind of defamation?
In the several attempts Renate Hartwig took Dr. Reiner Fuellmich to court, he, Fuellmich, frequently called one prominent witness to substantiate his claims: Ursula Caberta.
As it is documented in the above court decisions, Fuellmich and Hartwig had met in court over Scientology well before the 1999 news program, it should be noted that Fuellmich’s defense in the 2022 interview is misleading in a second respect: Asked by journalist Martin Lejeune, Fuellmich not only said he did „not know what Scientology was“ [which the above mentioned criminal complaint he filed in 1998 proves to be untrue]. Fuellmich also stated, that „after this“ news program he went to Hamburg and met the Commissioner against Scientology, Ursula Caberta, to „be educated about Scientology“. But according to witness statements, he had met with Ms. Caberta before: In the garden of his house in Goettingen in July 1999, with several other people present. Before the program had been aired.
What was the problem with Hamburg Commissioner Ursula Caberta?
Caberta had been a member of the State parliament (Buergerschaft) of Hamburg, and a political rival of a certain Olaf Scholz. In a move which eliminated her as a competitor in the district of Altona, which she represented until 1992, Caberta was made “head of the working group ‘Scientology’” within the Interior Ministry (Senatsbehörde fuer Inneres) of the State of Hamburg. She was later promoted to commissioner against Scientology. The said Olaf Scholz later went on to become the Governor (Erster Buergermeister) of Hamburg, as well as Chancellor of Germany in 2021 (he today is unable to remember details of a meeting with Bankers of the Warburg Bank who were let off the hook about the Cum-Ex-Tax-Fraud). But in 2001 Scholz became Caberta’s boss as Senator of the Interior of Hamburg. In this capacity Scholz failed to find anything wrong with Caberta’s breach of neutrality, that was later attested by court ruling.
One of the people who Caberta supplied with information about Renate Hartwig, was attorney Dr. Reiner Fuellmich. In a court ruling in June of 2000 (9 month after Fuellmich had obtained the provisional injunction against the news program “Das Netz” which he mentioned), the court decided against Commissioner Caberta, who had sued for a permanent injunction against the same film (Reference: 324 0 510/99). Instead, the court found, according to attorney Frank Büser, “that it is a fact that Ms. Caberta supported Dr. Füllmich in his attempts to cast you, dear Ms. Hartwig, in a bad light and to contribute to the degradation of your reputation.”
Soon after Caberta took her new office as anti-Scientology officer, “a man appeared by sheer ‘coincidence’ who had been a true-blue, highly trained Scientologist for over 20 years. Versed in the business of PR, Caberta was immediately convinced she had the right advisor at her side. She herself spoke of a symbiotic relationship.”
This man was Gunter Träger, who - as scientologist - even worked for Helmut Kohl, who went on to become German Chancellor from 1982 to 1998. Träger is one of two translators of Hubbard’s book “Fundamentals of Thought” into German. At the time he advised Caberta, it was said that he had become a Scientology apostate. This is doubted by many, not just because he was said to have left Scientology more than once, but also because high level scientologists who turn their back on the cult become “Fair Game” and get viciously attacked. Träger instead went on to live a happy life - until he shot himself in 2018 because of fear of not being allowed to fly his plane again.
Träger, it is suspected by observers, was directed to “turn” Ms. Caberta against Renate Hartwig, who initially had developed a friendly relationship with Caberta. Indeed, Caberta had initially lacked the detailed info about Scientology’s practises which Renate Hartwig had researched and collected via the self-help-group. For this reason Caberta received the full detail of Hartwig’s research in copied files to get her started.
Hartwig also had become a serious adversary for scientology not just because she managed to torpedo several attempts for acquisitions of large industrial entities in the former communist east. One such incident involved the Steel Works in Riesa, East Germany, which were to have been bought by known Scientologist Gerhard Haag. Hartwig and her husband traveled to meet with the Treuhand State Agency who was charged with the task of privatization of former state-run businesses. When Hartwig later informed the German minister for economics, Rexroth, about Haags attempts to infiltrate the Republic of Albania on behalf of Scientology, she received a cease and desist order by the lawyers Scheele and Zielcke, according to DER SPIEGEL.
Michael Scheele, a member of the Constitutional Commission of the Republic of Albania from 1991 to 1993, is, emphasized DER SPIEGEL, “the lawyer who rejects any suspicion of Scientology support”. He was, according to Sueddeutsche Zeitung also the lawyer for Steven Goldner, who had Ursula Caberta write a foreword for this book.
It would be very interesting to hear from Reiner Fuellmich whether the Munich based lawyer and friend, whom he mentioned in his answer about the Scientology connection, is also known to Mrs Caberta. As writes Renate Hartwig in her book “Im Visier von Scientology” (In the Crosshairs of Scientology):
“Another fact that is of public interest: Ursula Caberta was on television as an expert and was interviewed about the case of Scientologist Gerhard Haag described above. Incidentally, this program was the decisive factor for the affidavit of the lawyer Scheele before the Bonn District Court [in order get the cease and desist order against Renate Hartwig in the Albania issue, mentioned above, ed.].
Today, however, the course of events strikes me as adventurous. There is a television program in which Caberta appears as an expert on the subject of Scientology. The law firm Scheele, Zielcke und Partner is attacked in connection with the Scientologist Haag [and the Albania project]. Caberta even inspects the files at the public prosecutor's office. I receive a temporary injunction, partly because of this program, even though I had nothing to do with it. The affair did not damage the Caberta/Scheele/Zielcke relationship. In 1995, a publication by Christ/Goldner revealed that Caberta and Zielcke had worked together on this publication. Christ/Goldner's lawyers are called Scheele and Zielcke!"
Renate Hartwig, "Im Visier von Scientology", p. 354”
What is known beyond any reasonable doubt is that Fuellmich and Caberta were connected, as was laid out in the ZDF news program. Fuellmich claimed that was “completely fabricated”.
It was not.
Reiner Fuellmich based his claim of “complete fabrication” on a provisional injunction which he sought, and won in a Hamburg Court. It was based on a handful of qoutes which the Journalists were not allowed to disseminate further. But Reiner Fuellmich did not sue those individuals which the journalists qouted.
However, the News Broadcaster ZDF did challenge another provisional injunction which Ms. Caberta had also achieved against the program. Whereas Fuellmich had attacked a number of qoutes in the program, the Caberta injunction was of graver substance. She had been portrayed as “possibly manipulated”. The name Träger was not mentioned in the program.
“On July 28, 1998, the Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen (ZDF) broadcast ‘Das Netz’ by television journalist Jens Monath. In that documentary the question was asked of whether Scientology had succeeded in manipulating state people. "Caberta's powerhouse" was in an uproar! The Hamburg Interior Senate supported Caberta in her suing the ZDF. Represented by the offices of attorney Prinz, they effected a temporary restraining order against the ZDF in Hamburg State Court. The main point of contention was the word "manipulated" being used in connection with Scientology.
Verbal proceedings were held on May 26, 2000. On the basis of the proof submitted by the ZDF, the court decided against Caberta (case 324 0510/99). The judgment is legally in effect.” — Renate Hartwig
The court, when hearing the main point of contention of the program, the question of whether Scientology might have been successful in manipulating a state officer responsible for fighting the cult, had ruled in favor of the program. Meaning: it was not fabrication, but good reason for the journalists to raise the question of integrity with regards to Ursula Caberta. And also with regard to Reiner Fuellmich!
“These documents were among those that the plaintiff [i.e. Caberta ] had given him [i.e. Fuellmich ], and for the plaintiff, in view of her many years of experience as head of the Scientology working group at the Ministry of the Interior, it must have been obvious that Dr. Fuellmich used the same strategy in his action against Ms. Hartwig as was used by the Scientology organization.”
(…) “Finally, it cannot be disregarded that the plaintiff is a senior employee of an administrative institution, namely the official working group whose task is, among other things, to provide information about the Scientology organization. However, it can hardly be reconciled with the resulting duty of neutrality that the plaintiff supports a third party, namely Dr. Fuellmich, in an effort to discredit a well-known Scientology critic, which is solely in his private interest.”
Why would a public officer do that? The court in Hamburg upheld reasons to speculate about Ms. Caberta having been manipulated:
“In view of this situation, an assessment of the plaintiff's conduct to the effect that the plaintiff [i.e. Caberta ] had allowed herself to be instrumentalized is a permissible form of critique, so that the defendants cannot be prohibited from stating that the plaintiff could have been instrumentalized.”
Why would Scientology have reason to manipulate against Renate Hartwig?
Renate Hartwig, who had started the self-help group “Robin Direkt” against Scientology in 1991, and became a sought-after expert for German Industry Captains who wanted to keep Scientology out of their organizations. In this position, Ms. Hartwig was a threat to Ms. Caberta, who herself was sold to be the “toughest critic of Scientology”.
However, in terms of pushback against Scientology, it was Renate Hartwig, wo had developed the legalese wording by which corporations and public administrations were able to lawfully restrict “L Ron Hubbard Tech” gaining influence in their organizations. It proved nearly impossible for Scientology to argue discrimination against their “Church”, as neither “Church” nor “Scientology” were items that were banned. It was the “Tech” which was excluded for use in organizations.
Just how valuable an “asset” Ms. Caberta might have become for Scientology if Ms. Hartwig was out of the way became obvious on October 9, 2000, when Ms. Caberta gave sworn testimony in Clearwater, Florida. As WELT am SONNTAG Newsmagazine reported:
“In the document signed by Caberta on 9 October 2000 and which she even imprinted with the official seal which she apparently brought with her to America, it says under number 10: The Scientology Security Statement "was developed as a result of inquiries by companies which inquired about infiltration by Scientologists." [emph. added]
In the best case this admission is misleading. For the Scientologists it could even be the long sought basis for which they sue German government agencies and companies before the European Court in Luxemburg for violation of human rights. "Germany is threatened by a wave of lawsuits," Scientology critic and best-seller writer Renate Hartwig ("Ich klage an") fears. Alienation of Scientologists fuels the suspicion that the Hubbard adherents are being discriminated against here at home.
This would be a clear violation of the European Human Rights Convention, according to which "every person has a right to freedom of religion, conscience and thought." "In the US court, Caberta did not use the possibility to make it clear that the security statement is not discrimination, but is solely a rejection of Hubbard's methods," said Hartwig.”
Reiner Fuellmich has been working with Ursula Caberta for a long time. Photos are in circulation which show him sitting next to Caberta, both laughing seemingly about a “Scientology kills” T-Shirt which Caberta holds to the camera.
What does this mean?
For the Freedom movement in general it seems important to understand: this may not mean much, it might even be totally coincidental. But it is equally possible that the matter is indeed of consequence.
A lot would be gained if Reiner Fuellmich started to explain in a manner of reason. People all around the world have a right to know why he was attacking a Scientology critic in the late 1990s. And why he keeps what the court in Hamburg in 2000 termed the “same strategy in his action … as was used by the Scientology organization”, namely attacking an opponent (today: his former colleague Viviane Fischer) on a personal level. He did that back in September of 2022 when he questioned Fischer’s mental health in several public statements, and accused her of nepotism.
Sure, it is possible that these questions also need to be answered by Fischer. But only under conditions where circumstancial evidence is interpreted in a particularly negative way, assuming a conspiracy against Reiner Fuellmich. If he upholds the possibility of such a scenario, he must acknowledge the legitimacy to assume something similar against him, on the grounds of a surprising amount of circumstancial evidence of actions and connections that benefitted the Scientology organization in the late 1990s, and taking into account the information about possible Scientology involvement during Covid, which researchers like
and have reported on.
Your work is way too under appreciated. Another outstanding article.
I smelled a rat from the very first moment that Fuellmich and Fischer created their info gathering exercise online.
https://francesleader.substack.com/p/fuellmich-fischer