A German family court judge has refused to give the Wunderlich parents custody of their own children following the family’s decision to homeschool.
The Wunderlich are Christians and chose to homeschool for religious and educational reasons.
In the verdict last month, judge Marcus Malkmus defended his decision on the grounds that homeschooling is allegedly a “concrete endangerment to the well-being of the child.” He pointed out that if custody were returned to the parents then they would be able to obtain visas and travel to another European country where homeschooling is legal.
In September we reported on the armed raid in which German social services abducted the Wunderlich children on the sole grounds that the parents were exercising their right to home-school. In October we reported on how the German government promised to return the children on the condition that the Wunderlich family send their children to the state schools.
In order to keep their children, parents Dirk and Petra had no choice but to comply with German social services and put their children in the state schools where they face potential indoctrination in paganism, homosexuality and witchcraft.
Despite the fact that the parents have complied with these demands, and despite the fact that the children are once again living at home, and despite the fact that the eldest child (Machsejah Wunderlich, age 14) has made her own application to the court, the German social services have been obdurate in their refusal to return custody to the parents.
In his ruling, Judge Marcus Malkmus compared homeschooling to a “straitjacket” which allegedly condemns children to “years of isolation.” He continued: “The request of the parents to reinstate their right to determine the location of the children, the right to make educational decisions for the children, as well as the right to file legal applications for their children is being refused.”
Key documents in international law, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, grants parents the right of movement. However, in Germany this right does not extend to those wishing to homeschool. Last month’s ruling further declares,
It should be considered that emigration plans of the parents indicate that the parents will continue to prevent schooling of their children in a public school. Even though there are no suspicions of any parental care right abuses, besides the prevention of public school attendance, the further withdrawal of the part of parental care rights is considered necessary to help and support the education of the children, to ensure the children’s attendance of a regular school.
This totalitarian ruling starkly reveals the totalitarian drift of German secularism, which finds it increasingly
impossible to envision a society where differences can be tolerated. It is more than a little ironic that Judge Marcus defended these totalitarian measures on the grounds that homeschooling
allegedly prevents children from “having learned to be integrated or to have a dialogue with those who think differently and facing them in the sense of practicing tolerance.”
Dirk Wunderlich said the ruling is comparable to what happened under the Nazi regime.
“Judge Malkmus has erected another Berlin Wall apparently designed to prevent all parents who might leave to homeschool from leaving Germany. This is no different than what happened in the former East Germany under communism and before that under the Third Reich. We need help from others around the world to help our country see this terrible violation of human rights.”
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As homeschool parents of seven “blessings” of our own we saw how the previous Labour government tried to sneak in an anti-homeschool bill by means of the aptly named “Badman Report”. We were appalled that the government of the day should have sought to implement draconian controls within the UK that would have effectively undermined our constitutionally protected and God-given rights to bring up our children according to the Word of God. Did the media care? Not at all! But thanks to groups like Christian Voice and others we were able to unite in prayer and action that the Lord was gracious to honour with a continuing season of freedom. (For how long? we wonder…)
How did the politicians seek to implement this evil? By alleging (without a shred of evidence) that there was widespread abuse amongst homeschool families! I recall going to my MP at the time to raise our concerns. Mr Slaughter MP used the time-honoured argument that he was just going along with majority opinion and rejected our concerns which we based on the lack of freedom in the German constitution dating back to the rise of the Nazis. Sorry, Mr Slaughter, but we told you so!
Mr Slaughter and Mr Badman – John Bunyan would have enjoyed the irony of their names! – are the sort of men who continually push liberal agendas that lead to persecution and godlessness under the smoke screens of “progress” and “freedom”. Now we see Judge Malkmus (and by extension the German government) in the same light. May God have mercy on their souls for the suffering they are causing!
We pray for justice from the One True and Reliable Judge – Jesus Christ. May He grant justice and restitution to the Wunderlich family, and soon!
Please note: this sort of EU-spawned injustice is likely to come to the UK sometime soon. But we have hope, because our LORD is coming soon too!
“So truth fails, And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Then the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him That there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, And wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, And a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, And was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, Fury to His adversaries, Recompense to His enemies; The coastlands He will fully repay. So shall they fear The name of the LORD from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him.”
(Isaiah 59:15-19 NKJV)