BERLIN, Germany - May 28, 2026 - Churches of Scientology and their volunteers in Germany supported a series of community-based initiatives in Hamburg, Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart and Bavaria. The activities focused on drug prevention, human rights education and practical volunteer help. A fuller account is available through Scientology Europe.
The activities are part of international social betterment programmes backed by the Church of Scientology and inspired by its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. In Germany, they have included community information stands, information events, public education activities, dialogue with representatives of religious communities and hands-on community service.
In Hamburg, volunteers connected with the Church of Scientology Hamburg held a community information stand for the initiative “Sag Nein zu Drogen, Sag Ja zum Leben” - “Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life.” The volunteers distributed a large number of drug-education booklets and recorded dozens of drug-free pledges. The activity placed emphasis on prevention through clear prevention materials and personal conversations with residents and visitors.
The Hamburg activity took place against a challenging drug-prevention context. Federal figures for 2024 recorded 2,137 deaths in Germany as a result of illegal drug use, including increased concern over young consumers, synthetic opioids, new psychoactive substances and mixed consumption. Against that background, public prevention work remains a matter of continuing social importance.
Hamburg was also the setting for civic education events in 2025. The Church of Scientology Hamburg held an open house for the International Day of Peace, with discussion on human rights, social cohesion and peaceful coexistence. Representatives of different religious communities exchanged views on social cohesion and dialogue.
In December 2025, Hamburg Scientologists marked Human Rights Day with a human-rights open house and benefit concert. The event presented the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through public information displays. It also linked human-rights education with support for access to clean water through a project intended to help build a well in Guinea-Bissau.
Munich provides another local example of the same prevention work in Bavaria. Volunteers with the “Sag Nein zu Drogen, Sag Ja zum Leben” initiative carried out public drug-education activity, including information activity near Sendlinger Tor, and held an educational seminar on drugs. A further March activity focused on promoting drug-free living among young people. Together with the Hamburg activities, the Munich examples show how the campaign has been carried out in different German cities.
The same prevention message was visible during the UEFA European Championship in Germany, held from 14 June to 14 July 2024. Volunteers from Scientology Churches and Missions across Germany provided drug-education materials from Foundation for a Drug-Free World with championship visitors and community members. The outreach used printed materials and public information displays to help people learn more about the effects of commonly abused substances.
Human-rights education has also formed part of Scientology social activity in Germany. In Berlin, the Church of Scientology marked the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with an exhibition and public reading focused on freedom of expression. The programme used artistic works and spoken word to make the language of human rights visible in a community setting.
Volunteer service has also been visible in moments of public need. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Germany distributed “Stay Well” booklets in cities including Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Munich and Ulm. The materials helped families, businesses and local organisations understand basic prevention measures. In Stuttgart, Volunteer Ministers also provided prevention information and sanitisation assistance to a local mosque.
In 2021, after severe flooding affected parts of Germany, Volunteer Ministers from the Church of Scientology Munich travelled to a community in the Bavarian Alps. They worked with local emergency responders, cleaned homes, helped residents salvage belongings and delivered clothing, shoes and toys to a family that had lost nearly everything.
“These activities show the importance of steady and practical help,” said Ivan Arjona, representative of the Church of Scientology to the European Union, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. “When citizens help others through prevention, education and service, they strengthen dignity, responsibility and solidarity in society.”
The campaigns supported by Scientologists in Germany are linked to international social betterment activities backed by the Church of Scientology. Foundation for a Drug-Free World provides drug-education materials used by volunteers in many countries. Youth for Human Rights and United for Human Rights promote public understanding of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Scientology Volunteer Ministers programme, developed from the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, is based on the principle that individuals can be trained and organised to provide practical help in times of need.
For European observers, the German examples are significant because they show a minority religious community taking part in civic service through education and service in areas of shared public concern. The activities are local in form but broader in meaning: they touch on youth prevention, public understanding of rights, interreligious dialogue and emergency assistance.
The Church of Scientology, its churches, missions, groups and members are present across the European continent. Scientology Europe reports a continent-wide presence through more than 140 churches, missions and affiliated groups in at least 27 European nations, alongside thousands of community-based social betterment and reform initiatives focused on education, prevention and neighbourhood-level support, inspired by the work of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Within Europe’s diverse national frameworks for religion, the Church’s recognitions continue to expand, with administrative and judicial authorities in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany Slovakia and others, as well as the European Court of Human Rights, having addressed and acknowledged Scientology communities as protected by the national and international provisions of Freedom of Religion or news europe belief.