Early days of ISKCON Germany and ISKCON Denmark !

[Paramananda das]

There is a website about ISKCON Germanys early days ,actually our ISKCON Denmark history was also affected by the German devotees

There first devotees that came to Denmark to preach where from Germany ,BhaktiBhusana Swami was then a grhastha and had a small daughter ,his wife had left ISKCON but he insisted to keep the daughter and her mother told the West German Police her daughter was kidnapped, because Bhakti Bhusana Swami had taken his daughter out of the temple and to Copenhagen Denmark where a new temple was open South of Copenhagen around 1974 .Once while distributing Srila Prabhupadas books in Copenhagen I met the former Chief of police of Copenhagen ,and he told me the whole story after donating for one of Srila Prabhupadas books .He told he the Interpole had been looking for a little girl abducted by a dangerous Hare Krishna cult ,that the German police had described as equal to Bader Mein Hoff a infamous group of terrorist and bankrobbers. So he was ordered to go to the Hare Krishna temple and shut it down confiscate the books and arrest the German Hare Krsna devotees and send them back to West Germany .And the daughter of BhaktiBhusana Maharaja was given back to her mother. He obviously should have been more mature and not try to keep his daughter from her mother also .One of the problems also was that the German sankirtana devotees ,at one point went into some hospitals and took the dresses of some doctors and started to distribute books to the patients so again a another nutcase behavior .( I am sorry I forgot BhaktiBhusana swamis former diksa name given by Srila Prabhupada ) Those who know Bhaktibhusaan Swami knows he is a nice devotee gentleman that is my experience with him but back then they where fanatic and immature.When Srila Prabhupada first came to Germany they had a sign , "Der Fuhrer kommt " the Leader is coming ,but actually Der Fuhrer is what Hitler used to be called so again another nutcase behavior. In Germany devotees had been selling records also and collecting for Food for life in West Bengal , but the German Authorities wanted to see every penny go for this,Because in Germany you can not collect for something you are not doing ,and yes the devotees where sending money to Mayapure and Srila Prabhupada had started Food for life there .Srila Prabhupada wrote letters that sell my books and stop records. Actually later Harikesa made his records and they where sold in many countries I warned him and Devamrta Swami that this was illegal in Denmark and we would be arrested ,but they where both stupid and pig headed and went away and had us sell Records, we got arrested sometimes in 1981 I had just sold 50 records in an hour and a half in one city ,police came and locked us up all day . After this Harikesa and Devamrta Swami had some resentment towards me but I had warned them. Actually all devotees got arrested and we got of with a warning .Many years later I read Srila Prabhuapdas letter to Ajit das in Sweden from 1975 that stop this records sale and just distribute my books this is our only business.
So many more things can be said , but I wanted to share this .
your servant
Paramananda das

PS There was also a many weapons hidden in Scholls Rettershof and later the German devotes's where very agressive on Sankirtana I know because I did sankirtana there,But some where very mild and gentle like one devotee Arjuna Prabhu ,I guess that is why he distributed the most books because he was so nice to people. I set my personal best while distributing Prabhupadas books in Germany in 1983 , 183 Maha big books ,December 31 .I have done 500 medium books once in Las Vegas ,Navada at a Grateful Dead concert 1994. I preached to the former Police chief of Copenhagen and told him I joined ISKCON in 1979 and had helped start ISKCON Denmark and little about the philosophy and teachings of Srila Prabhupada and he understood it was a bonafide religion and was very impressed, he said I wish I had known these things back then ,but I am so glad I have met you today and wish ISKCON all success in Denmark . I should mention my first book was a German, Bhagavad Gita Wie Sie ist , and I read it in German and became a devotee so all glories to the German devotee...