Church, and Blüm was presented with the Award at a ceremony in Leipzig at a site near the Leipzig Trade Fair on June 10, 2001. In an interview with the junge Welt on June 11, 2001, Blüm was asked why it takes courage to be a politician critical of the Scientology, and he cited actions the Church of Scientology had taken against him: "Scientology acts on people's fears. For instance they threatened me by saying they would distribute their dossier on me to television. They've called me all kinds of names in their newspaper: the "Rasputin" of politics, for example." Blüm also stated in the interview that he did not support a ban on Scientology in Germany, but rather sought to foster the distribution of information about the organization. He also compared what he saw as totalitarian similarities between the ideologies of L. Ron Hubbard and Adolf Hitler, noting that he was not comparing the individuals themselves but rather their "totalitarian systems." At the awards presentation, Thomas Gandow stated that Blüm was the only federal minister to date to criticize Scientology's "new totalitarianism." Gandow noted that Blüm had been criticized by Scientologists in the press, and was sued in court for his actions critical of the organization. The Scientology Church Germany, Inc. characterized the Award as a "cynical mockery of the most elementary basic rights and of the East German civil rights movement," and referred to the Awards Committee as "a dubious clan of fanatical religious discriminators." The European-American Citizens Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the USA recognized former Secretary of State of France, Alain Vivien, with the third Leipzig Human Rights Award, on May 11, 2002. The Award was again presented in Leipzig at St. Nicholas Church, and a congratulatory speech was given by Bavaria's Interior Minister, Guenther Beckstein. The Award was an image of the St. Nicholas Church, encased in glass. At the time, Vivien was the President of the Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combatting Cultic Deviances, a French government agency. The Committee gave Vivien recognition for his work against "new totalitarian organizations", and spoke positively of his motivations which included his "aim to protect society"; Vivien was singled out for his "demonstration of public courage" while undergoing what the Committee referred to as "pressure from a new form of totalitarianism exercised by Scientology". In his speech honoring Vivien, Minister Guenther Beckstein called Vivien