Another fanatical opponent of Professor Bender and parapsychology was and is the former Senior Criminal Director of Bremen, Dr. Herbert Schäfer. He coined the phrase “occult culprit” and amongst other things, wrote a book: “Der kriminelle Aberglauben in der Gegenwart”. I am mentioned twice in this book, however not by name. Besides, Schäfer was also the publisher of a series of paperback for criminalists titled: “Grundlagen der Kriminalistik”. He had decided to give Professor Bender the final blow. He called him a “psytiot” (=psychopath and idiot). He said to colleagues (according to a newspaper report): “I use every available means to topple him.” And the following opportunity arose: A sensational case of haunting took place in 1965 in a delicatessen and porcelain shop owned by the couple Surowitz in the Schwyzer-Scholl-Strasse. A 14 years old apprentice by the name of Heiner Scholz was working there at that time. Destructive processes took place in the shop from a specific point in time. Without obvious reason, jars of preserves fell from shelves, a valuable coffee pot jumped over other items of porcelain and crockery flew through the air. The delivery driver Manfred Janssen experienced for instance how crockery fell from shelves in the basement and how stacked boxes filled with full bottles tipped towards him whilst he was making a delivery. He was lucky that he wasn’t hurt. All of these incidents, stretching over weeks, only happened when the apprentice Heiner Scholz was in the shop or stood nearby. But one could definitely observe that his hands did not play a part. The police and the fire brigade were engaged to investigate these happenings. Such action also took place whilst they were present, but they could not find the cause for this. These happenings only stopped after the apprentice left his job, he underwent psychiatric treatment for a while and was then examined more closely by Professor Bender in his institute in Freiburg. Crockery didn’t fly through the air there, because there was none there, but some very impressive paranormal processes ensued. Dr. Schäfer tried to give Professor Bender the coup de grass 13 years later. During the spring of 1978, he first demanded a written waiver from the shop owner Surowitz for the damage that happened during the haunting. Surowitz said that he made no demands on Heiner Scholz. But Schäfer insisted on a written waiver. He then dropped a bomb. Heiner Scholz suddenly declared that he had produced all these happening himself and he gave detailed accounts of them. But particularly how he had duped the simple-minded Professor Bender. All of this was published in all German newspapers and depicted in detail on television. But it was immediately obvious to every halfway reasonable person that this “confession” was fictitious because these events could not have taken place they way Heiner Scholz had described them. Mrs. Herta Hansen, the wife of a doctor in Bremen, made an effort to thoroughly question all the witnesses at that time: The couple Surowitz, the driver of the delivery van, the officials from the police and the fire brigade and the mother of Heiner Scholz, Mrs. Ilse Kislath and all of them said that Heiner Scholz’s assertions were fictitious. Professor Bender then published the necessary counter claims in newspapers and journals. I cannot decide whether this could neutralise the reports given by Dr. Schäfer. Dr. Schäfer also tried this in another case in 1974 about a television broadcast by Uri Geller that
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