According to an article by Erik Raidt in the September 7, 2002 issue of the Stuttgarter Zeitung, in Stuttgart, Germany, that city cannot stop Scientology from recruiting in the city

Raidt states that the city is once again in a legal dispute with Scientology, which is currently advertising and recruiting on KronPrinz Strasse, but that the local administrative court has decided not to stop them. Apparently, on the morning prior, Scientology had set up a yellow tent near the downtown subway station for an exhibit about their volunteer ministers. By afternoon it had attracted some attention. In the exhibit were arranged pictures of staged scenes. One showed a man lying in a gutter, the next showed a Scientology staff member offering the man assistance, and the last depicted the man liberated from whatever his plight may have been.

It was along those lines that most of the scenarios were arranged. One after the next, Scientology offered solutions for drug problems, job problems and people problems. Free booklets were available which contained simple solutions, and for which donations were gladly accepted.

In the back of the tent, visitors could have one-on-one sessions with staff. Stuttgart Scientology public relations officer Manfred Schick reportedly stated that whoever liked what the group was doing could support it, and that people were being offered courses that cost between 100 and 150 Euro-dollars. Raidt stated that at first there was a table on which lay membership applications for the "clerical order" but that these forms were not meant for journalists, but were for internal use. The applications were then suddenly gone without anyone having seen where they had disappeared to.

Stephan Schorn, spokesman for the executive mayor's office, said Scientology had applied for a permit to put up the tent on August 22nd, but the application had been refused because Scientology had not kept to the conditions of applications in the past. Maja N(ue)esch, who supports Scientology in Stuttgart, said that this practice by the city was discriminatory to the disadvantage of minorities. The administrative court gave Scientology the permit for the tent, but put a condition on it specifying that staff were allowed to approach pedestrians no more than five meters away from the tent. A violation of this condition may result in a 5,000 Euro-dollar fine. It was reported the codes office and the police would be monitoring the situation.

other reports