VZCZCXRO9099
PP RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSL RUEHSR
DE RUEHRL #0864/01 1971321
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161321Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4627
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BERLIN 000864 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
PLEASE PASS TO NANCY HEWETT, DRL/IRF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: GM KIRF PGOV PREL PHUM
SUBJECT: JEHOVAH,S WITNESSES OPTIMISTIC ABOUT SECURING 
PUBLIC CORPORATION RIGHTS IN ALL STATES 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY:  The Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany have 
almost reached the finish line in their efforts to become a 
"corporation under public law" in all of Germany's 16 federal 
states.  Eleven federal states (Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg, 
Hesse, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony, Thuringia, 
Saarland, Brandenburg, and Saxony-Anhalt) have granted the 
Jehovah's Witnesses "Public Corporation Rights" status.  With 
the exception of Berlin in 2006, the Jehovah's witnesses were 
not required to resort to the courts to achieve their goal of 
becoming a "corporation under public law."  Five federal 
states (Baden-Wuertemmberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen, 
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and North-Rhine Westphalia) continue 
to drag their feet for various reasons but are expected to 
officially recognize the Jehovah's Witnesses as a public law 
corporation in the near future.  The Jehovah's Witnesses 
continue to express their confidence in the fairness of 
Germany's legal system, although the federal state 
governments' reluctance to enter into a substantial dialogue 
with the Jehovah's Witnesses on issues of mutual interest 
remains a sore point.  End Summary. 
 
BACKGROUND 
---------- 
 
¶2.  (U) In a conversation on 15 July with Pol Off and POL 
LES, a lawyer with the Jehovah's Witnesses, Gajus Glockentin, 
noted that there are over 165,000 active Jehovah's Witnesses 
members who perform missionary work in Germany and an 
additional 45,000 "inactive" members.  In Eastern Germany, 
there are about 40,000 active members; almost half of them 
live in Saxony, with many living in the city of Chemnitz.  On 
9 July, over 210,000 Jehovah's Witnesses gathered at Berlin's 
Olympic Stadium and four other major German cities (Dortmund, 
Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich) for an international congress. 
 Some 30,000 people arrived from abroad, and services were 
held in German, English, Polish and Russian. 
 
¶3.  (U) In February 2006 -- after spending ten years in the 
courts -- the Jehovah's Witnesses won an important legal 
victory when the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig 
confirmed the Berlin High Administrative Court's decision to 
grant Jehovah's Witnesses "Public Corporation Rights" (see 
para 6 for a full explanation of the concept).  In response 
to the Berlin court decision, the Jehovah's Witnesses 
immediately applied for "Public Corporation Rights" in all 
federal states, citing the Berlin ruling as a precedent. 
 
STATE POLITICS 
-------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Three years after their victory in the Berlin 
court, the Jehovah's Witnesses are now seeing the fruits of 
their labor.  Glockentin told us that the following states 
have now granted the Jehovah's Witnesses "Public Corporation 
Rights": Bavaria, Berlin, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, 
Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony, Thuringia, Saarland, Brandenburg, 
and Saxony-Anhalt.  With the exception of Berlin, the 
Jehovah's witnesses were not required to resort to the courts 
to secure "Public Corporation Rights."  Five federal states 
(Baden-Wuertemmberg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen, 
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and North-Rhine Westphalia) are 
withholding recognition.  According to Glockentin, Baden 
Wuerttemberg, despite some political opposition, is likely to 
confer "Public Corporation Rights" on the Jehovah's Witnesses 
on July 28 when CDU Minister-President Guenther Oettinger 
convenes his last cabinet meeting before the summer. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Bremen and North-Rhine Westphalia -- unlike other 
states -- must draft appropriate legislation to afford public 
corporation status and it is unlikely that this process will 
be completed during the current heated political climate 
before the upcoming September 27 parliamentary elections. 
According to Glockentin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's slow 
bureaucracy prevents the Jehovah's Witnesses from securing 
speedy recognition there.  The Rhineland-Palatinate, led by 
SPD Minister-President Kurt Beck, remains opposed to granting 
the Jehovah's Witnesses "Public Corporation Rights" and, 
according to Glockentin, it remains uncertain how the process 
of recognition will play out there. 
 
¶6.  (U) In Germany, religion and state are separate, although 
a special partnership exists between the state and those 
religious communities that have the status of a "corporation 
under public law."  Any religious organization may request 
that it be granted "public law corporation" status, which, 
among other things, entitles it to levy a tithe (averaging 
nine percent of income tax) which the state then collects, 
and to name prison, hospital, and military chaplains.  Public 
 
BERLIN 00000864  002 OF 002 
 
 
law corporations pay a fee to the Government for this tax 
service; not all avail themselves of it.  The decision to 
grant public law corporation status is made at the state 
level and applying religious communities must satisfy certain 
requirements, including demonstrating permanence, showing a 
certain number of members, and showing no hostility to the 
constitutional order or to fundamental rights.  Because the 
ultimate determination of public corporation status is placed 
with each state, inconsistent treatment has resulted as 
states have interpreted the same permanency requirement 
differently. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Gajus Glockentin was very optimistic about the 
Jehovah's Witnesses' chances in securing "Public Corporation 
Rights" in the remaining five states, although he was not 
sure how Germany's electoral dynamics over the next two and a 
half months would affect the decision making processes in 
those states.  Glockentin reiterated the Jehovah Witnesses' 
confidence in the fairness of Germany's legal system, 
although he complained that his dialogue and outreach efforts 
vis-a-vis several state governments were not always 
reciprocated.  Germany's political establishment wrestled 
over three years -- despite significant resistance from 
certain political and religious quarters -- with the question 
of granting public corporation status to the Jehovah's 
Witnesses.  One state may be holding out with significant 
reservations but the Embassy senses that it is only a matter 
of time before this issue is resolved -- by court 
intervention, if necessary -- in favor of the Jehovah's 
Witnesses.  Unfortunately, it will take more time for the 
German public to become comfortable with the Jehovah's 
Witnesses' religious practices, a fact Glockentin 
acknowledged when he told us that a "great amount of public 
education would be necessary to allay German concerns" about 
the Jehovah's Witnesses and their mission in Germany.  End 
comment. 
Pollard