Many people don’t know that homeschooling is illegal in Germany. It seems absurd that a developed, democratic nation would ban homeschooling outright, yet it is true. The draconian Deutschland laws actually date back to the Nazi era when the government wanted complete control in how children were educated indoctrinated (thus making this a case in which Godwin’s Law ^[1] doesn’t apply).

A German couple who wanted to homeschool found out the hard way that Germany still intends to enforce this law. Persecuted by German authorities, they fled the country for America back in 2008. Now it looks like they might be granted political asylum ^[2]:

In what could be a major international embarrassment for Germany a federal immigration judge in Memphis Tennessee is expected to rule this Wednesday on the political asylum case of the Romeike family who fled persecution by German authorities over homeschooling in August 2008.

“The persecution of homeschoolers in Germany has dramatically intensified,” said HSLDA staff attorney Michael P. Donnelly. “They are regularly fined thousands of dollars, threatened with imprisonment, or have the custody of their children taken away simply because they choose to home educate.”

It’s for these reasons that the Romeikes fled Germany and with the help of HSLDA filed for political asylum in the United States.

Uwe Romeike, a music teacher, and his wife Hannelore, have five children. “The freedom we have to homeschool our children in Tennessee is wonderful. We don’t have to worry about looking over our shoulder anymore wondering when the youth welfare officials will come or how much money we have to pay in fines,” said Mrs. Romeike.

“We left family members, our home, and a wonderful community in Germany, but the well-being of our children made it necessary,” said Mr. Romeike.

“If the political asylum application is granted it will be the first time America has ever granted political asylum to Christian homeschoolers fleeing from German persecution,” said Donnelly.

Pray for the Romeike family that they might be able to be the primary educators of their children in the manner in which they choose.