They successfully applied for political asylum in the US.
Germany is hardly a bastion of freedom some may think.
Regarding the case of home schooling, the German position is that the state is required legally to ensure equal opportunity education for everyone. Parents therefore are legally required to send their kids to (public/approved/registered) schools.
While debatable, I‘d vote that‘s a good thing, as it ensures a minimum level of education for every kids.
There aren't many definitions of freedom that include state control of your children.
> I‘d vote that‘s a good thing, as it ensures a minimum level of education for every kids.
Whether that's good or bad depends on what that "minimum level of education" is. I know nothing of German schools, but in the US, public schools can (at least in some places) provide a "minimum level of education" that is much more "minimum" than it is "education". It also can be very unsafe.
It also depends on what the "education" is. Imagine that it's 1940 in Germany, or 1970 in East Germany. You have to send your children to public school so that they can receive their education. But the education in question is going to include a fair amount of indoctrination. When you can't opt your children out of being indoctrinated, it's pretty clear that you're not free.
Note well: I'm not claiming that current German education is indoctrination. What I am claiming is that totalitarian regimes make the same argument, and in their case, it is clear that mandatory public education is part of the totalitarian control. So the argument that this gives "opportunity to everyone" is at least suspect, because it may be the "opportunity" to be controlled and indoctrinated.
There are some: freedom from violence in the family, freedom from mistreatment, child labor, indoctrination, ...
Essentially this is about balancing the freedoms of the parents to raise their children according to their rules against the freedoms of the children to receive a certain kind of education. I am quite happy this is something I do not have to do, as I fear it’s a very delicate decision to make. And I doubt anyone involved takes such a decision lightly.
> When you can't opt your children out of being indoctrinated, it's pretty clear that you're not free.
True, but then indoctrination of your children might be the least of your problems.
> True, but then indoctrination of your children might be the least of your problems.
I have never been in such a position. However, I suspect that I would not regard that as the least of my problems. It would be closer to the worst of them.
I think the recent totalitarian regimes and their education clearly defines how this is not possible. Many of Nobel Prize-winners, army of scientists who raged against the regime or fled are from totalitarian countries.
But even if they didn't rebel, still they could have been a remarkable scientist or just a decent human being.
> While a court order in June 2018 required the Department of Health and Human Services to reunite more than 2,700 children in its custody with their parents, that number is only a "subset" of the overall separations, said Ann Maxwell, an inspector at the HHS inspector general’s office.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-07/number-of...