Free Republic

On Tuesday, a German court restored the Wunderlich children to the custody of their parents, Dirk and Petra. The Wunderlichs have been fighting for the right to homeschool their children for more than a decade. After losing an appeal before a lower court in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), they are awaiting a response from the highest level of the court, the Grand Chamber. The Wunderlichs' battle traces back to 2006, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). That year, a German court twice fined the family hundreds of euros for homeschooling their children. In 2008,...

The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday rejected the appeal of a German couple who have been fighting for years to home school their kids, saying the government was within its rights to temporarily remove their children. Home schooling is illegal in Germany and the Strasbourg, France-based court noted it had already upheld that law in previous decisions. But Dirk and Petra Wunderlich, who are in their early 50s, had argued their rights to privacy of home and family life were violated by Hesse state authorities when their four children were taken from them in 2013. They were returned...

A German couple temporarily lost custody of their children because they were homeschooling them. Now the family is taking their case to the European Court of Human Rights to defend what they say is their parental right. The parents of four children are appearing before the Strasbourg European Court of Human Rights on Thursday to fight Germany’s near ban on homeschooling. In August 2013, the Wunderlich family had just begun their first homeschooling lesson of the year near Darmstadt, Hesse, when around two dozen police officers and social workers “stormed the home” using a battering ram, according to the parents...

The next time they appear in court for homeschooling, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich could face four years in prison—each. “I am sad today,” said Dirk Wunderlich, recounting how on April 28 he lost his most recent case in the German state of Hesse, and also heard dire warnings from the presiding judge. “We had hoped the judge, who seemed open-minded and friendly, might give us a chance,” Wunderlich added. “But no, he said he could not: The law is the law.” In their most recent court appearance, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich were fined 450 euros each (about $1,000) for not...

Homeschoolers whose children were recently seized by the German government are now not allowed to emigrate to a country that allows homeschooling. In August, the children of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich were seized at gunpoint by German officials because the Wunderlich's refused to send their children to the public school. In mid-September, the Wunderlichs were reunited with their children, but only after they promised to send their kids to public school. The Wunderlichs then requested that they be allowed to leave the country so that they could go to a country that will allow them to homeschool. A judge told...

One of the largest Jewish schools in Belgium is at risk of losing its state recognition and subsidies because it is "too conservative." Meanwhile, the Belgians have opened their own Islamic school, subsidized by the authorities, who evidently do not see Islamic education as "too conservative." A German SWAT team stormed a house in Darmstadt on the morning of August 29. Had the German police discovered a group of dangerous jihadists? No, they were storming the house because the family living in the house were homeschooling their four children. The children, between 7 and 14 years old, were forcibly removed...