Wolfram Kuhnigk: Documentary Analysis

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In 2013, a documentary filmed by Wolfram Kuhnigk (a journalist), showed adult members of the group hitting their children several times using “willow canes” (Paterson 2013). As a result of this documentary, several police raids were conducted at different Twelve Tribes communities in Germany to investigate the matter (Paterson 2013). According to an online article by Independent news, “…authorities in Germany took 40 children at the Twelve Tribes community in Bavaria [in Germany] away from their parents and placed them in foster homes after a journalist filmed six children being beaten with a total of 83 strokes of the cane” (Merrill 2013). This article also quotes some former members affirming the use of corporal punishment. According to the article one former member stated, “there wasn’t a day that went by while I was there that children weren’t beaten with the rod. …show more content…
This was not the first time that this religious community was raided. A massive raid, in 1984, was carried out at the Island pond site of the Twelve Tribes community in Vermont lead by the Citizen's Freedom Foundation (CFF), an anticult group along with several government officials such as police officers, social workers, and psychiatrists etc. (Swantko 2000, 343, Wright and Palmer 2015, 47). “The authorities searched the households and took 112 children into protective custody”, however the children were returned to their families as the court concluded that the raid was unlawful and that there was not sufficient evidence of any kind of abuse done to the children (Wright and Palmer 2015, 47, Palmer 2010, 64, Swantko 2000,

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