...in the struggle for equality of ideologies













The city of Templin has refused to accept passport pictures with Pastafari pirate headwear for the German national ID card. As a result, we are backing a lawsuit filed by Rüdiger Weida with the following justification from the claimant:

“ As chairman of the non-profit "Kirche des Fliegenden Spaghettimonsters Deutschland e.V." (German Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, registered association) I feel most obligated to follow the commandment of wearing Pastafari headwear as stated in our Gospel and I do so frequently in public. Our statute defines us as a worldview community and we therefore have the right to be treated equally with religious communities.

The city of Templin has failed to check if this results in a right for our members to wear headwear displaying the pirate fish on passport pictures of official documents. The allusion that a registered association is not (categorically) a religious community is false and is in practice rebutted by several Islamic associations.

Likewise, the assumption that there is a lack of obligation is incorrect. Firstly, the obligation can be deduced from ‘The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster’ and secondly, the religious and worldview right is the right of an individual. Based on this, it can’t depend on general obligations but solely on the obligation perceived by the individual. Here too, Islam acts as a practical example. The allegations made by the city, regarding the alleged motivation, are inadmissible and have to place in the explanatory statement.“

As it is rather rare that communes hire a lawyer for these types of cases, we did not expect the court costs to exceed 438,- Euros, while we obviously cover our own costs for transportation, postage, etc.

However, the city has now decided to hire a lawyer. And not a bad one either, he currently works as a judge on the Federal Administrative Court. This can get very expensive for us.

We therefore ask you for your help to fill our war chest for the trial court. We have opened a donation campaign on Helpedia. Just click on “Jetzt mithelfen!”, enter your name and possibly a comment and make a payment via Paypal or direct money transfer.

If you wish, you may also transfer money directly to our account:

Name of Recipient: Kirche des FSM

Account number: 120688979

Sort Code: 15091704

IBAN: DE06 1509 1704 0120 6889 79

BIC: GENODEF1PZ1

Credit Institute: VR-Bank Uckermark-Randow e.G.