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»Judensau« relief on the Wittenberg town church
Photo: Hendrik Schmidt / dpa
According to a decision by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), a sandstone relief known as »Judensau« does not have to be removed from the facade of the town church in Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt.
The relief from the 13th century is insulting, but by attaching a base plate and a stand with an explanatory text, the parish had converted the »shame« into a »memorial«, according to the judgment of the highest civil judges in Germany in Karlsruhe (
Ref.: VI ZR 172/20
).
The defendant parish had thus distanced itself sufficiently.
Until the base plate and stand were added in the 1980s, the illustration from the 13th century had "a massively defamatory statement about the Jewish people and their religion" and expressed anti-Semitism and hatred, it was said.
"Anti-Semitism Set in Stone"
The relief shows a sow whose teats are being suckled by two people who are supposed to be identified as Jews by their pointed hats.
According to the BGH, a figure considered a rabbi lifts the animal's tail and looks into the anus.
In the Jewish faith, pigs are considered unclean.
A Jewish plaintiff wanted the anti-Jewish depiction removed.
He also failed in the lower courts.
The case is explosive because the Wittenberg town church is considered the mother church of the Reformation.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) once preached here.
The town parish describes the »Wittenberger Sau« as »a difficult legacy, but also a document of contemporary history«.
The presiding judge of the sixth civil senate at the Federal Court of Justice, Stephan Seiters, said at the hearing two weeks ago that the relief in itself was "anti-Semitism set in stone".
However, this insulting and "infringing state of affairs" could not only be remedied by removing the relief, but also by "distancing and contextualizing", the court now explained in its verdict.
Such a conversion could "enable clarification and a substantive discussion in order to counter exclusion, hatred and defamation".
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Plaintiff Düllmann: Defeat before the BGH
Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
Plaintiff Dietrich Düllmann, who according to his own statements converted to Judaism in 1978 and has called himself Michael ever since, sees the "Judensau" as just one example of many misconduct by the Church in dealing with Jews.
Martin Luther in particular describes Düllmann as an »arch anti-Semite«.
The lawyer for the Protestant city church community had emphasized that they had made the relief part of a memorial in consultation with the Jewish community.
The form in which reference is made to the historical context is neither a matter for the plaintiff nor for the court.
Düllmann's lawyer, on the other hand, was not satisfied with the statements on the explanation board.
The church takes no responsibility.
The plaque on the church says that abusive sculptures of this kind were particularly widespread in the Middle Ages.
"There are about fifty such sculptures left."
Central Council President Josef Schuster had told the dpa news agency that the church had to clearly differentiate itself from the relief and condemn it.
That has not been apparent so far.
"The anti-Judaist history of the church cannot be undone," said Schuster.
An explanation board is better than removing abusive plastic and thus denying it.
According to the Central Council, there are successful examples at the Regensburg Cathedral and at the Knights' Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Bad Wimpfen near Heilbronn.
For plaintiff Düllmann, the matter may not yet be settled with the BGH judgment: it had already failed before the Dessau-Roßlau district court and the Naumburg higher regional court.
In the event of another defeat, however, he would go to the Federal Constitutional Court, the 79-year-old had said.
There it is not about civil law questions about insult and omission, but about the Basic Law and human dignity.
And if that doesn't help either, he still has to go to the European Court of Human Rights.
wit/dpa/AFP
