Family Continues Fight to Homeschool in Germany

Nearly four years after their children were taken from their custody for homeschooling, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich continue their homeschool fight in Germany.

Last week, the couple made their final appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to protect their right to homeschool their four children, a decision that could take until the end of the year.

"Children deserve the loving care and protection of their parents. It is a serious thing for a country to interfere with the parent-child bond, so it should only do so where there is a real risk of serious harm," Robert Clarke, the lead counsel for the family, said in a statement reported by WORLD News Service. "Petra and Dirk Wunderlich simply exercised their parental right to raise their children in line with their philosophical and religious convictions -- something they believe they can do better in the home environment."

Since the end of the First World War, home education has been illegal in Germany, but the country’s law drew worldwide attention when the German government broke into the Wunderlich home in August 2013 and seized the children. Alpha Omega Publications last reported on the Wunderlichs in September 2014, when the German family regained legal custody of their children in an appeals court decision.

"Children are born to parents, not governments, and Germany's homeschooling policy is completely out of step with other free democracies that allow home education as part of their free and civil societies," said Mike Donnelly, director of global outreach for the Home School Legal Defense Association. "Human rights experts at the UN and scholars worldwide have found that home education is a natural, fundamental and protected human right. The court must hold Germany accountable to respect this."

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