Scientology Volunteers in Germany Promote Drug Prevention, Human Rights and Community Help

BERLIN, Germany - 28 May 2026 - Churches of Scientology and their volunteers in Germany carried out community-focused programmes in several German cities, including Hamburg, Munich, Berlin and Stuttgart. The activities focused on drug-prevention education, human-rights awareness and volunteer service. A fuller account is available through the Scientology Europe article.

The activities are part of humanitarian and educational programmes backed by the Church of Scientology and rooted in the writings of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. In Germany, they have included drug-prevention booths, public open days, awareness sessions, dialogue with representatives of religious communities and volunteer assistance.

In Hamburg, volunteers connected with the Church of Scientology Hamburg held a public information stand for the initiative “Sag Nein zu Drogen, Sag Ja zum Leben” - “Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life.” The volunteers distributed over a thousand drug-education booklets and recorded dozens of drug-free pledges. The activity focused on prevention through direct public information and community-level outreach.

The Hamburg activity took place against a wider national concern. Federal figures for 2024 recorded 2,137 deaths in Germany as a result of illegal drug use, including increased concern over people under 30, synthetic opioids, new psychoactive substances and mixed consumption. Against that background, accessible information for young people and families remains an important public issue.

Hamburg was also the setting for peacebuilding and human-rights 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 drug-prevention outreach, including information activity near Sendlinger Tor, and held a prevention-focused seminar. 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 more than one German city.

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 distributed drug-education materials from Foundation for a Drug-Free World with football supporters and the wider public. 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 cultural presentation 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. “Drug prevention, human-rights education and volunteer help are practical expressions of dignity, news eu economy responsibility and solidarity - values that remain central to Europe’s democratic and human-rights tradition.”

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 religious community contributing to civic life through education and service in areas of shared public concern. The activities are local in form but broader in meaning: they touch on prevention, human rights, dialogue and community support.

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 belief.