In October, neo-Nazis were suspected of daubing swastikas on tombstones in the Berlin Jewish Cemetery. Less than a year later, in September, the far-right Deutsche Volksunion party captured 5.3 percent of the vote in regional elections in Brandenburg state, qualifying it for parliamentary representation. The country s internal security agency has registered a strong rise in racist and far-right radical tendencies. In the face of lawsuits filed by Holocaust survivors against German companies, Germany established a fund in February to compensate Nazi-era slave laborers who were forced to work for German manufacturing companies. Amnesty International reported isolated incidents of ill treatment of detainees, especially asylum seekers, some of whom alleged they had been beaten at the hands of police.
Freedom of religion is established under the Basic Law.
State governments subsidize church-affiliated schools and provide religious instruction in schools and universities for those of the Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish faiths. Scientologists, who claim 30,000 adherents in Germany, have been at the center of a heated debate over the group s legal status. Major political parties, which exclude Scientologists from membership, hold that the group does not constitute a religion, but is rather a for-profit organization based on antidemocratic principles. Officials have stated that the group financially exploits its followers and exerts extreme psychological pressure on those who attempt to leave the group. They have also stated that Germany s unique history necessitates their close scrutiny of extremist groups that could, like the Nazi Party, begin as a small organization and then undergo explosive growth.