History of Jehovah's Witnesses

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian , chiliastic and non-Trinitarian religious community that originated in the USA around 1870.

Origin and development

Historical representation of the Bible Students' Movement

The origin of Jehovah's Witnesses was the Bible Students' Group that Charles Taze Russell formed in 1870 with his closest friend William Henry Conley , his wife Sarah, his father Joseph and his sister Margaret Russell.

Charles Taze Russell

Charles Taze Russell

Russell was irritated by the popular teaching that a God of love would send many people to hell . He turned to Bible study . He had no theological training.

By 1875, based on the Bible, he formed the opinion that:

  1. there is no immortal soul , but immortality is granted as a gift in the heavenly kingdom,
  2. Jesus' death is a ransom sacrifice for all people,
  3. the second coming of Christ will initially take place invisibly in order to gather his own,
  4. that the second coming of Christ was not primarily intended to be annihilated, but to be a blessing for humanity.

He joined an Adventist group. Their expectation of a visible return of Christ in 1874 led to disappointment. In 1876 Russell received a copy of the Herald of the Morning magazine published in Rochester by the Adventist Nelson Homer Barbour . Barbour convinced Russell that the "invisible return of Christ" had taken place as early as 1874. Russell supported the magazine financially and as an editor-in-chief. They also jointly published the book Three Worlds, and the Harvest of This World , in which they explained the assumed return of Christ in 1874 and their announcement that after a 40-year "harvest time", in 1914, the millennium God's Kingdom of Peace begin.

The collaboration between Barbour and Russell ended due to a difference of opinion about the value of the " ransom sacrifice ". Russell founded his own magazine, Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence , which was published in July 1879 with an initial circulation of 6,000 copies and still appears today as The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom . The total circulation is now over 42 million.

In 1881 he founded the Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society . It was incorporated as a corporation under the laws of the state of Pennsylvania in 1884 . Russell took over the management himself.

His extensive work includes a seven-part book series called the Millennium Dawn . It was renamed Scripture Studies in 1904 . Six volumes appeared in Russell's lifetime. The final seventh volume, based in part on what Russell had written, was published shortly after his death. By 1916, a circulation of just under 9.4 million copies had been reached.

When Russell taught at the Watchtower that the New Covenant belonged only to the coming age, the Free Bible Students split off from Russell's organization in 1909 because they saw it as a departure from biblical teaching.

Joseph Franklin Rutherford

Joseph Franklin Rutherford (1869-1942)

After Russell died on a train driving home from a lecture tour, he was succeeded on January 6, 1917 by Joseph Franklin Rutherford as President of the Watch Tower Society. Rutherford organized the movement in a centralized way and de-democratized the decision-making processes. This led to another split that gave rise to the Solemn Bible Students , the Lay Home Mission Movement, and the Church of the Kingdom of God .

The adoption of the name Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931 served to distinguish it from the other Bible Students and satisfied the Watchtower followers' desire to find a biblical basis for naming their community. Justified and discussed in the published literature (among others in Rutherford's book Jehovah ) this was exegetical with the reference to Isa 43,10-12  ELB : “You are my witnesses, is the saying of Jehovah” (according to NWT ). Today only the title International Bible Students Association (short form "IBSA") of the British corporation reminds of the old name .

Nathan H. Knorr (1905–1977)

After Rutherford's death in 1942, Nathan Homer Knorr took over the office of president of the parent companies.

Further development after Rutherford's death

A number of educational institutions for worldwide mission were established under Knorr . In 1946 he initiated work on the New World Translation , which has been used by Jehovah's Witnesses since its publication in 1961. During his tenure, the first steps were taken to separate the spiritual direction of Jehovah's Witnesses from the administrative direction of the various organizations, which was completed in 2000 when the last members of the "Governing Body" of Jehovah's Witnesses took up their offices in the Watchtower Society tasks. After Knorr succumbed to a brain tumor on June 8, 1977, Frederick Franz (1977-1992), then Milton Henschel (1992-2000) and from 2000 to 2014 Don A. Adams took over the office of President. In contrast to his predecessors, Adams is not a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses and therefore has no religious leadership but a purely administrative function.

History in individual countries

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Germany

The central organ The Watchtower first appeared in German in 1897. In Germany there has been a first organizational institution of the religious community since 1903 with the opening of an office in Elberfeld (today Wuppertal ). In 1908 Russell opened a branch of the Watchtower Society there as its headquarters. In 1921 the community was given the official legal capacity and in 1922 it was officially granted non-profit status. In 1923 the branch office was relocated to Magdeburg . In 1926 the community was registered as the International Biblical Research Association, German Branch in the register of associations of the Magdeburg District Court.

Concentration camp marking "Bible Students"

During the time of National Socialism , Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted, among other things, because of their consistent refusal to do military service, to deliver the Hitler salute or to participate in the Führer cult in any other way . They were imprisoned in concentration camps and some perished there. Numerous members of the religious community who continued to be active in missionary and anti-military activities were executed. For example, the Herne nurse Helene Gotthold was beheaded in Berlin-Plötzensee at the end of 1944, among other things for “ decomposing military strength ” .

In 1946 an additional office was opened in the American zone in Wiesbaden -Dotzheim. In the 1980s, the relocation to Selters took place with the establishment of a new administration and printing center with significance for the European area.

The membership only took on a relevant size after the First World War . In 1918 the number of members was approx. 5,500 and grew to approx. 25,000 in the following 1920s and 30s. With the exception of the United States, no other country had so many members at the time. The number of members decreased due to the Second World War , the Nazi persecution and the division of Germany . In the meantime it has risen to approx. 210,000 members (see “ Membership Numbers ”).

The Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany in the religious community of the "Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany", based in today Berlin-Koepenick public law korporiert . It is legally a branch of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania , based in Brooklyn, New York City. The Watchtower Society in Selters im Taunus has the function of an administrative and organizational facility for the religious community.

German Democratic Republic

After the Second World War, the Jehovah's Witnesses were initially given permission to do “worship” in Magdeburg . In August 1950 they were banned in the GDR and the Magdeburg office was closed. They were accused of having carried out " boycotts " against democratic institutions and that their members were "spies" of an imperialist power. In a show trial on October 3 and 4, 1950, the public prosecutor's office showed evidence of activities that were harmful to the state, including "area maps" made by Jehovah's Witnesses, which allegedly documented the political and military structures of the GDR. The data collected in this way, together with the addresses of GDR functionaries and institutions as well as lists of difficulties the members had with the authorities, were transmitted via the Magdeburg line to the headquarters in Brooklyn , New York. In this way the "sect" played into the hands of "American imperialism". The result was high penal sentences : twice life sentences (for the head of the legal department of the Watchtower Society Willi H. from Magdeburg and for the full-time "district servant" in West Mecklenburg, Lothar W.), three times 15 years, once 12, twice 10 and once 8 Years in prison. The reasoning for the judgment states:

“According to the indictment, the Watch Tower and Tract Society , also known as the“ Watchtower Society ”, with headquarters in Brooklyn (USA) and German branch offices is one of the organizations that the foreign reactionaries use for the purpose of espionage and rooting out work against the German Democratic Republic in Wiesbaden, West Berlin and Magdeburg. [...] Even if no explicit instructions were given to stand against the popular elections, such recommendations and hints - that one was personally against the election - were given in such a clear and definite way that every "Jehovah's Witness" understood very well, that he had to agitate against the election, and that is what all the defendants did. "

From 1950 to 1955 alone, 1,850 Jehovah's Witnesses were imprisoned in the GDR. A total of 60 imprisoned Jehovah's Witnesses died as a result of abuse, malnutrition, illness or old age. Twelve life sentences were pronounced (later reduced to 15 years).

GDR authorities tried in vain to kidnap the then head of the East Berlin office from West Berlin. According to Gerhard Besier's research, the number of East German Jehovah's Witnesses until the mid-1950s was roughly comparable to that before the ban. The Ministry for State Security (MfS) later changed its approach, among other things because of the official departure of GDR policy from Stalinism . Attempts have now been made to infiltrate the community with infiltrated people in order to " decompose " them from within (Stasi jargon).

The MfS intended to shake trust in the leadership of Jehovah's Witnesses through letters and, from 1965, through the specially published magazine " Christian Responsibility ". This sheet, which was not included in the official postal newspaper list of the GDR, was available to interested parties in East and West on request. In addition, several Jehovah's Witnesses in the GDR and in the Federal Republic of Germany received it as an unsolicited mail. This targeted spread of disinformation was also deliberately aimed at West Germany, as it was known that this was where the greatest support for Jehovah's Witnesses in the GDR came. From 1967, no member of the religious community was convicted by criminal courts for his missionary work. The illegal preaching service and the distribution of magazines have since been punished as an administrative offense. However, from 1962 to 1985, Jehovah's Witnesses were sentenced to prison terms for their continued refusal to do military service . Until 1987 this affected 2,750 people. Shortly before the collapse of the GDR, the authorities imposed fines of up to 1,000 marks for illegal preaching.

The compulsory subject “ military instruction ” introduced in 1978 brought young Jehovah's Witnesses into distress. Many were denied professional and educational training because of anti-subversive statements.

By the end of the GDR era, over 5,000 Jehovah's Witnesses were held in prisons and labor camps. Some of those affected were "double persecuted": around 325 active members had already been locked up in concentration camps or prisons during the Nazi regime.

A few months after the fall of the Berlin Wall , Jehovah's Witnesses were officially recognized in the GDR on March 14, 1990.

The procedure for recognizing a corporation under public law

After a 15-year legal dispute, the Berlin Higher Administrative Court decided in 2005 that the right to be granted the status of a corporation under public law  (KdöR) existed in Berlin .

This recognition as a corporation under public law was rejected by the State of Berlin until February 10, 2006 on the grounds that Jehovah's Witnesses lacked the legal and state loyalty required for recognition (the Basic Law does not explicitly require this).

Prior to this, on March 24, 2005, the Berlin Higher Administrative Court ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany meet the requirements for granting the rights of a public corporation with all associated rights and must therefore be recognized by the State of Berlin. The court found the allegation of lack of legal compliance as unfounded. A non-admission complaint filed by the Berlin Senate with the Federal Administrative Court was rejected on February 1, 2006.

The representatives of Jehovah's Witnesses were ready to make a settlement with the state of Berlin proposed by the competent court. The subject of the settlement was the granting of the desired status while at the same time the religious community waived most of the rights associated with this status, such as the right to be able to conduct religious instruction in state schools, to set up their own kindergartens or to have church tax collected by the state . This settlement was rejected by the State of Berlin, so that from the point of view of the representatives of Jehovah's Witnesses, a continuation of the court process was inevitable. On June 13, 2006, the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses, with its headquarters in Berlin, was granted the rights of a KdöR by the Berlin Senate. This was followed by eleven federal states, while Baden-Württemberg by cabinet decision, Rhineland-Palatinate and Bremen between December 2010 and May 2011 refused to be recognized as a public corporation. The question of recognition in North Rhine-Westphalia and Bremen is particularly difficult because it is not the administration, as in the other federal states, but the state parliament or the citizenry that is responsible for the recognition of religious corporations under public law. The rejection notice from Rhineland-Palatinate was rejected by the Mainz Administrative Court. The community has filed an action against the decision of Baden-Württemberg at the administrative court, which is suspended by mutual consent until a decision has been made by the Federal Constitutional Court on Bremen. The Federal Constitutional Court could be called directly in relation to the rejection in Bremen, since the administration was not responsible for the award. On June 30, 2015, the Jehovah's Witnesses achieved a partial success: the court ruled that granting corporation status to religious communities by a state law violated the principle of separation of powers. The court did not decide whether the Jehovah's Witnesses are entitled to recognition. For Bremen, the judgment of the judge has the consequence that the constitution has to be changed and an administrative procedure introduced. On November 16, 2015, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Culture announced in a press release that the Jehovah's Witnesses had been granted recognition as a “public corporation” for the territory of the state of Baden-Württemberg.

Based on their status, they are also increasingly demanding equal access to programs on public broadcasting. During the Bayerische Rundfunk regular airtime on the early morning program the radio program Bayern 2 provides, which German wave in autumn 2010 a request from the Jehovah's Witnesses on transmission time according to § 17 German wave-law rejected because of the lack of recognition in some states.

Austria

The Jehovah's Witnesses mark the beginning of their presence in Austria in 1911, when Russell visited Vienna for a lecture. At an event on October 27, 1921, around 2000 people appeared, from then on lectures were held continuously, from February 1922 also in other cities in Germany. The first permanent office of Jehovah's Witnesses was opened in 1923, and at the end of 1930 it was officially registered as an “Association for the Dissemination of the Bible and Biblical Explanatory Literature”. This association was officially dissolved again in 1935, and public meetings were banned. In 1938 there were about 550 active members. In the years 1938–1945, as in Germany, Jehovah's Witnesses were subjected to persecution; around a quarter died in custody or were executed.

After the war, in 1947, the “Watchtower Society” was registered as an association and in September 1978 it applied for recognition as a religious community in Austria.

The Confessional Communities Act of 1998 pursued the goal of separating religious denominations from political groups with a potential risk. On July 11, 1998, Jehovah's Witnesses were recognized in Austria as a “state-registered religious denomination”, and after a long dispute and a discrimination complaint at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) they have been recognized as a religious society since May 7, 2009. In 2008, 20,723 people declared themselves to be members, there were 296 assemblies (congregations) with 50 to 120 members each.

The procedure for recognizing a public corporation

According to the Recognition Act (AnerkG), in September 1978 Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria applied to the Federal Ministry for Education and the Arts for recognition as a religious community. After the ministry remained inactive and did not send either an approval or a rejection letter, the application was re-submitted on June 22, 1987. The Jehovah's Witnesses were informed that “according to the Recognition Act, there is no subjective right to a settlement in the form of a notice”. After several complaints before the Austrian Supreme Court were unsuccessful, the Austrian Constitutional Court (VfGH) ruled on October 4, 1995 that according to the Recognition Act, a religious community “has a subjective right to recognition as a religious society if the legal requirements are met”. This also means that a negative decision must be received in the form of a notification. The Austrian Administrative Court (VwGH) agreed on April 28, 1997. The Federal Ministry for Education, Sports and the Arts then rejected the application for recognition on July 21, 1997 on the grounds that Jehovah's Witnesses cannot be recognized because of their unclear internal organizational structure and their negative attitude towards the state and its institutions. This decision was overturned by the Austrian Constitutional Court on March 11, 1998 because of “serious procedural errors and arbitrary behavior” by the Federal Ministry and the matter was returned to the Federal Ministry for a new decision. In the meantime, on February 27, 1998, the Jehovah's Witnesses submitted their first complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) because of the decades-long delay in recognition as a religious community, which was approved on July 5, 2005.

Since the federal law on the legal personality of religious denominational communities (BekGG) came into force in Austria on January 10, 1998, the Federal Ministry believes that the application for recognition in accordance with Section 11 (2) of the BeKGG had to be examined, which was added on July 20, 1998 led that the Jehovah's Witnesses have acquired the status of legal personality according to § 2 Abs. 1 BekGG and were registered as a denominational community. From then on, Jehovah's Witnesses were entitled to designate themselves as a state-registered religious denomination. Since this recognition does not meet the requirement for a clear legal status, which mediates the position of a public corporation within the meaning of the Recognition Act, the Jehovah's Witnesses again submitted an application for recognition as a legal religious society within the meaning of the Recognition Act on July 22, 1998. This application was repeatedly rejected by the Federal Ministry on December 1, 1998. The justification for the rejection was that a religious denominational community according to Section 11 (1) of the BekGG could only be legally recognized if it had existed as a religious denominational community with legal personality for at least ten years and this requirement had not been met at the time of the application. The Jehovah's Witnesses appealed against this decision to the Austrian Constitutional Court; she was turned down on March 14, 2001. At the request of the religious community, the complaint was submitted to the Austrian Administrative Court, which also rejected the complaint on September 14, 2004. Since all domestic legal remedies had been exhausted, the Jehovah's Witnesses filed a further complaint with the European Court of Human Rights on May 22, 2005 because of the decades-long delay in recognition as a religious community.

In order to avoid a delay in recognition as a religious community until the judgment of the ECHR and the expiry of the 10-year waiting period on July 11, 2008, the Jehovah's Witnesses renewed the application to the Federal Ministry on March 15, 2007, which was submitted by the Federal Ministry on July 11 2007 was also rejected. Due to the renewed application of the Jehovah's Witnesses on February 15, 2007, the Federal Ministry would have to make a decision by January 11, 2009 regarding recognition in accordance with Section 73 (1) of the General Administrative Procedure Act 1991 (AVG) within the statutory period of 6 months (from the end of the 10th -year waiting period to July 11, 2008). As this decision did not materialize, a complaint was filed on February 3, 2009 with the Austrian Administrative Court.

In the meantime, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on the first complaint of the Jehovah's Witnesses and found that the Republic of Austria has the right to a fair trial according to Article 6 , freedom of religion according to Article 9 and the prohibition of discrimination according to Article 14 of the Convention for Protection who violated human rights and fundamental freedoms (ECHR) in the course of the recognition process. The reason for the judgment was, among other things, that the behavior of the Austrian government, e.g. For example, by delaying the proceedings, it meant an encroachment on the basic right to freedom of belief, conscience and religion and thus an unjustified disadvantage of Jehovah's Witnesses. As a first consequence, Austria had to pay 10,000 euros in damages to the Jehovah's Witnesses and to bear the procedural costs of 42,000 euros.

In the course of the further procedure, the Federal Ministry carried out the assessment procedure for the recognition of Jehovah's Witnesses as a religious community. The Jehovah's Witnesses were then recognized as a religious community by the ordinance of May 7, 2009.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Detlef Garbe : Between resistance and martyrdom. The ZJ in the “Third Reich” . Munich 1994, p. 41.
  2. ^ Charles T. Russell: The Mediator of the New Covenant . In: Zion's Watch Tower . January 1, 1907, p. 9 f .
  3. ↑ Detlef Garbe : Between resistance and martyrdom . R. Oldenbourg Verlag , 1999, ISBN 978-3-486-56404-4 , pp. 36 . ; see. Jonathan A. Wright : Shapers of the great debate on the freedom of religion . Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005, ISBN 0-313-31889-1 , pp. 184 (English).
  4. ^ Matthias Schreiber:  Jehovah's Witnesses . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Volume 36, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2004, ISBN 3-11-017842-7 , pp. 660-663.
  5. ↑ James Beckford: The Trumpet of Prophecy: A Sociological Study of Jehovah's Witnesses. Wiley, New York 1975, ISBN 0-470-06138-3 , pp. 47-52.
  6. ↑ A special announcement . In: Watchtower Biblical and Tract Society of Jehovah's Witnesses V (Ed.): The Watchtower The Watchtower . January 15, 2001, p. 31 .
  7. ↑ Peter Noss et al. Erich Geldbach: Jehovah's Witnesses . In: Diversity and Change: Lexicon of Religious Communities in the Ruhr Area . Klartext-Verlagsges, 2009, ISBN 978-3-89861-817-5 , p. 400 .
  8. ↑ Germany (Democratic Republic). Supreme Court: Annotations on Jehovah's Witnesses - From the grounds for the judgment in the Jehovah's Witnesses trial (1950) . In: Decisions of the Supreme Court of the German Democratic Republic in criminal matters . tape 1 . deutsche Zentralverlag , Berlin 1951, DNB  456443967 (judgment of the Supreme Court of the GDR of October 4, 1950, file number 1 Zst. (I) 3/50)).
  9. ↑ Rudi Beckert: The first and last instance. Show and secret trials before the Supreme Court of the GDR . Keip Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-8051-0243-7 , pp. 223 ff .
  10. ^ Johannes S. Wrobel: Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany. Prisoners during the Communist Era . In: Religion, State & Society . tape 34 , no. 2 , August 19, 2006, p. 170 f ., doi : 10.1080 / 09637490600624824 .
  11. ↑ On this, see Gerhard Besier : Repression and Self-Assertion. The Jehovah's Witnesses under the Nazi and SED dictatorship . In: Clemens Vollnhals (Hrsg.): Zeitgeschichtliche Forschungen . tape 21 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-10605-9 , pp. 69-326 . Hans Hermann Dirksen: “No mercy on the enemies of our republic”. The persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945–1990 . In: Contemporary history research . tape
     10 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-11075-7 . Waldemar Hirch: The religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses during the SED dictatorship. With special attention to their surveillance and repression by the Ministry of State Security . In: European University Writings . tape
     980 . Peter Lang, Frankfurt / Main 2003, ISBN 3-631-51620-7 . and Gabriele Yonan (Ed.): In the sights of the Stasi. Jehovah's Witnesses in the GDR. Edition Corona . Niedersteinbach 2000. Gerald Hacke: Jehovah's Witnesses in the GDR. Persecution and behavior of a religious minority . In: Hannah Arendt Institute: Reports and Studies . No.

     24 . Dresden 2000, ISBN 3-931648-26-5 .
  12. ^ State recognition in the GDR. (PDF) Retrieved July 6, 2008 .
  13. ↑ Procedure: VG Berlin (October 25, 1993, 27 A 214.93 ), OVG Berlin (December 14, 1995, 5 B 20.94 ), BVerwG (June 26, 1997, 7 C 11.96 ), BVerfG (December 19, 2000, 2 BvR 1500/97 ), BVerwG (May 16, 2001, 7 C 1.01 ), OVG Berlin (March 24, 2005, 5 B 12.01 ), BVerwG (February 1, 2006, 7 B 80.05 )
  14. ↑ OVG Berlin, judgment of March 24, 2005 ( 5 B 12.01 )
  15. ↑ BVerwG 7 B 80.05 Judgment of the BVerwG of February 1, 2006
  16. ↑ Granting the rights of a corporation under public law to the religious community "Jehovas Zeugen in Deutschland e. V. “ Senate Chancellery Berlin, June 13, 2006, accessed on June 20, 2008 .
  17. ^ A b c Anne-Christin Klare: Bremen does not want to recognize Jehovah's Witnesses. In: WESER-KURIER. Bremer Tageszeitungen AG, February 13, 2012, accessed on June 24, 2012 .
  18. ^ Thomas Traub: Baden-Württemberg refuses corporate status. Jehovah's Witnesses between being faithful to the Bible and being lawful. In: Legal Tribune Online. Wolters Kluwer Deutschland GmbH, January 24, 2011, accessed June 24, 2012 .
  19. ↑ Klaus Wolschner: Jehovah's Witnesses are right . In: taz , September 17, 2010, accessed on May 16, 2011.
  20. ↑ a b Rainer Wehaus: Jehovah's Witnesses let the complaint rest. In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten. Stuttgarter Nachrichten Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, January 21, 2012, accessed on June 25, 2012 .
  21. ↑ 2 BvR 1282/11
  22. ↑ taz.de
  23. ↑ Jehovah's Witnesses want radio and TV programs. Paragraph 17 should be addressed , taz.de, July 13, 2010 (also date of access).
  24. ↑ Jehovah's Witnesses do not go on air . In: Christian media magazine pro . October 22, 2010, accessed January 25, 2011.
  25. ^ Victory for Jehovah's Witnesses - Austria discriminates against religions. The Press, July 31, 2008, archived from the original on March 27, 2019 .;
  26. ↑ Republic has to pay Jehovah's Witnesses 12,834 euros. ORF, September 25, 2012, accessed on November 20, 2012 .
  27. ^ History of Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria. Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, accessed November 20, 2012 .
  28. ^ Religions in Austria. (No longer available online.) Federal Chancellery Austria, p. 59 , archived from the original on July 14, 2014 ; Retrieved November 20, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bka.gv.at
  29. ^ Application No. 1 for legal recognition as a religious community. (PDF; 934 kB) Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, September 25, 1978, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  30. ↑ Application No. 2 for legal recognition as a religious community. (PDF; 1.3 MB) Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, June 17, 1987, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  31. ↑ a b c d e Silmbroth: Religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses a. a. vs. Austria . Recognition of a religious community. In: Austrian Institute for Human Rights (Ed.): Newsletter Menschenrechte 2008/4 . S. 232-234 .
  32. ↑ decision of the Administrative Court Austria 96/10/0049. In: Legal Information System of the Federal Republic of Austria. Federal Chancellery of Austria, April 28, 1997, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  33. ↑ Federal Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs: Decision No. 1 on the application for legal recognition as a religious community. (PDF; 534 kB) Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, July 21, 1997, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  34. ↑ a b CASE OF RELIGIONSGEMEINSCHAFT OF THE Witnesses JEHOVAH AND OTHERS v. AUSTRIA. European Court of Human Rights, October 31, 2008, accessed July 19, 2012 .
  35. ^ Application No. 3 for legal recognition as a religious community. (PDF; 431 kB) Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, July 22, 1998, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  36. ↑ a b Federal Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs: Decision No. 2 on the application for legal recognition as a religious community. (PDF; 1.1 MB) Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, December 1, 1998, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  37. ^ Decision of the Constitutional Court of Austria B98 / 99. In: Legal Information System of the Federal Republic of Austria. Federal Chancellery of Austria, March 14, 2001, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  38. ↑ decision of the Administrative Court Austria 2001/10/0091. In: Legal Information System of the Federal Republic of Austria. Federal Chancellery of Austria, September 14, 2004, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  39. ↑ 2. Complaint for submission to the ECHR. (PDF; 468 kB) Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, May 22, 2005, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  40. ↑ Application No. 4 for legal recognition as a religious community. (PDF; 28 kB) Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, March 15, 2007, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  41. ↑ Decision No. 3 on the application for legal recognition as a religious community. (PDF; 773 kB) Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, March 15, 2007, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  42. ↑ Default complaint to the Administrative Court. (PDF; 120 kB) Jehovah's Witnesses in Austria, February 3, 2009, accessed on July 19, 2012 .
  43. ↑ Federal Law Gazette II No. 139/2009