Press Release of the Community in Klosterzimmern on 12 March 2014:

County Chief Stefan Rößle

On this day, we, the affected families from Klosterzimmern, filed a disciplinary complaint with district chief Rößle against the responsible employees of the Jugendamt (Youth Office) on suspicion of serious criminal offenses in connection with the removal of our children and demanded immediate suspension of these employees.

Likewise, today, because of this suspicion, we will make criminal charges and indictments against the responsible employees of the Jugendamt of the district of Donau-Ries to the Augsburg prosecutor.

This involves the following allegations:

On September 5, 2013 in Klosterzimmern, all 29 children that were found there were taken under threat of physical coercion in state custody, managed in the District Office and held there.

11 Children were taken from Klosterzimmern who were covered by No Court Order!

In the process 11 children were taken in care for which there were no decisions of the district court Nördlingen. This is more than a third of all children. We and our children were herded like animals.

These children were placed under the responsibility of the Jugendamt against their will in the District Office and held there for several hours.

This constitutes the offense of false imprisonment – the deprivation of their liberty. Since there were no judicial decisions about them, this deprivation of liberty was not justified.

Other legal bases according to Code of Criminal Procedure or under SGB VIII were not available.

Coercion and Abuse of Official Powers

All children taken into care were examined medically Office on September 5, 2013 in the district office.

To this end, all children and youths between 12 and almost 18 years of age had to undress down to their underpants and show also the naked buttocks.

The investigation showed that no signs of ill-treatment could be determined by the medical officer.

For these studies, in which all children and young people were forced to undress down to their underpants and show even the bare buttocks, there was no legal basis.

This behavior, coercion under § 240 of the Criminal Code, is moreover a very serious matter because the offender has abused his powers or his position as a public official, and thus can be a criminal offence.

Reading our Mail, Violating our Privacy

The Jugendamt directed – on the basis of both written evidence and testimony – that all the letters of the children to their parents be opened and read, and that all the letters of the parents to the children be opened and read. This arrangement involved children of all ages, including young people between 12 and almost 18 years of age.

The children’s homes and foster families proceeded according to this instruction in which the children were housed apart from their natural families. Also all the letters of the parents to their children were opened, even copied by an employee in particular and stored to a file. Thus, the facts of the case are, so to speak, put on record. This measure was discontinued only after seven weeks. In the case of one employee letters of the parents were not passed on to the children, and neither did she return the letters back to the parents.

These actions constitute offenses, such as § 202 of the Criminal Code, § 206 Section 4 of the Criminal Code, and also violate the right to privacy under Article 10 of the Basic Law, optionally at retention of letters, also the crime of unfaithfulness. Justifications are not apparent. In particular, no court had ordered the inspection of letters and phone calls.

Physical Violence against our Children; Deprivation of Liberty

Multiple times children ran away from foster care and children’s homes and were returned under use of physical force by members of the Jugendamt there.

The use of physical violence against children requires a court order. Such an order did not exist. There have been several confirmations of this unique legal situation in proceedings at the Higher Regional Court of Munich, amongst others, with reference to a decision of the BayObLG of 4/27/1979 (Rb 3 Z 28/79, FamRZ 80, 81).

Multiple times children were locked up in children’s homes. In one case, the children were being locked in at night. In another case, a 17-year-old girl was denied for more than a week, under the threat of physical and psychological violence, to leave the home for maladjusted children at all. Custodial measures had not been ordered by the family court. This constitutes the fact of deprivation of liberty that qualifies as a crime under § 239 paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code.

Inviolability of our Homes Routinely Ignored

The Jugendamt conducted multiple searches in Klosterzimmern and in the process invaded the homes of several people.

Given the fundamental right to inviolability of the home there is a need for a legal basis for these searches. There were no judicial search warrants. Other legal bases did not exist.

Our Children the Objects of Bullying and Prejudice

In the facilities in which the Jugendamt had assigned them, affected children were bullied in many ways, slandered, abused, and insulted as Jews inter alia.

It will be necessary to consider whether these facts are a neglect of the duties of supervision by the Jugendamt and so constitute criminal offenses.

Responsible and contact:

Stefan Pfeiffer, Klosterzimmern 2b, 86738 Deiningen,

Phone 09081-8055725,

E-mail: kontakt2014@zwoelf-staemme.de