{"id":6873,"date":"2014-01-18T20:59:28","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T20:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=6873"},"modified":"2014-01-18T21:14:09","modified_gmt":"2014-01-18T21:14:09","slug":"german-homeschool-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/german-homeschool-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Denies Christian Parents Custody of their Own Children"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(d, s, id) {   var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];   if (d.getElementById(id)) return;   js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;   js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";   fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<p>By <a href=\" https:\/\/plus.google.com\/103911280480982124182?rel=author\">Robin Phillips<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(d, s, id) {   var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];   if (d.getElementById(id)) return;   js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;   js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";   fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/german-homeschool-family\/\" data-layout=\"standard\" data-action=\"like\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-share=\"true\"><\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6399\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6399\" style=\"width: 326px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Wunderlich-family1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6399 \" alt=\"The Wunderlich family with members of Home School Legal Defense\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Wunderlich-family1.jpg\" width=\"326\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Wunderlich-family1.jpg 362w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Wunderlich-family1-300x182.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 326px) 100vw, 326px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6399\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Wunderlich family with members of Home School Legal Defense<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A German family court judge has refused to give the Wunderlich parents custody of their own children following the family\u2019s decision to homeschool.<\/p>\n<p>The Wunderlich are Christians and chose to homeschool for religious and educational reasons.<\/p>\n<p>In <a title=\"[opens in a new window]\" href=\"http:\/\/www.hslda.org\/hs\/international\/Germany\/Family_Court_53_F_1216-13_SO-Decision.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>the verdict<\/strong><\/a> last month, judge Marcus Malkmus defended his decision on the grounds that homeschooling is allegedly a \u201cconcrete endangerment to the well-being of the child.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>In September <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/germany-police-snatch-homeschool-children-in-morning-raid\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>we reported<\/strong><\/a> 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. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/german-homeschool-family-reunited\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>In October<\/strong><\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>In his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hslda.org\/hs\/international\/Germany\/Family_Court_53_F_1216-13_SO-Decision.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>ruling<\/strong><\/a>, Judge Marcus Malkmus compared homeschooling to a \u201cstraitjacket\u201d which allegedly condemns children to \u201cyears of isolation.\u201d He continued: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s ruling further <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hslda.org\/hs\/international\/Germany\/Family_Court_53_F_1216-13_SO-Decision.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>declares<\/strong><\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>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\u2019s attendance of a regular school.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6879\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6879\" style=\"width: 266px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Nazi-flag.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6879     \" alt=\"Dirk Wunderlich compared the ruling to policies of the Nazis\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Nazi-flag.jpg\" width=\"266\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Nazi-flag.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Nazi-flag-600x375.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Nazi-flag-300x187.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Nazi-flag-1024x640.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 266px) 100vw, 266px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6879\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dirk Wunderlich compared the ruling to policies of the Nazis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This totalitarian ruling starkly reveals the totalitarian drift of German secularism, which finds it increasingly<\/p>\n<p>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<\/p>\n<p>allegedly prevents children from \u201chaving learned to be integrated or to have a dialogue with those who think differently and facing them in the sense of practicing tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dirk Wunderlich said the ruling is comparable to what happened under the Nazi regime.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cJudge 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"fb-comments\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/german-homeschool-family\/\" data-numposts=\"5\" data-colorscheme=\"light\"><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/P1OVTZ-gb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3940\" style=\"border: 0px;\" title=\"Join Today!\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Join_donate_Logo2.jpg\" width=\"185\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Robin Phillips A German family court judge has refused to give the Wunderlich parents custody of their own children following the family\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[272,971],"class_list":["post-6873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-services-child-abduction","tag-germany","tag-wunderlich-family"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Robin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/robin\/"},"rttpg_comment":1,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/education-children\/social-services-child-abduction\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Social Services &amp; Child Abduction<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Robin Phillips A German family court judge has refused to give the Wunderlich parents custody of their own children following the family\u2019s 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&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}