On August 29, in what has been called a ‘brutal and vicious act’, a team of 20 social workers, police officers and special agents stormed a homeschooling family’s residence near Darmstadt, forcibly removing all four of the family’s children, ages 7 to 14.
The sole grounds for removal were that the parents, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich, continued to homeschool their children in defiance of a German ban on home education. A Darmstadt family court judge signed the order authorising the immediate seizure of the Wunderlichs’ children on August 28. Citing the parents’ failure to co-operate ‘with the authorities to send the children to school’, the judge also authorised the use of force ‘against the children’ if necessary, reasoning that such force might be required because the children had ‘adopted the parents’ opinions’ regarding homeschooling and that ‘no co-operation could be expected’ from either the parents or the children.
Petra Wunderlich said her heart was shattered. ‘We are empty’, she said. ‘We need help. We are fighting but we need help.’
