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German courts refuse to remove anti-Semitic sculpture from Wittenberg church

2020-02-06T14:22:10.304Z


The Saxony-Anhalt Regional Court of Appeal in Naumburg considered that the sculpture was not offensive if it was placed in its historical context.


" In the context in which it [the sculpture] was placed by the church, it lost its insulting character ," said spokesman for the Naumburg court Henning Haberland on Tuesday, February 4, referring to the low relief at St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg, Germany, depicting a pig surrounded by Jews.

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The debate rages around the anti-Semitic sculpture of the 13th century in Saxony-Anhalt. For some inhabitants, it is a key symbol of the city of Martin Luther, the starting point of the Protestant reform in the 16th century; for others, it is " a shame ". In order to mitigate the passions, the city had installed in 1988 a bronze plaque under the bas-relief, on the ground, in memory of the 6 million Jews who died during the Second World War.

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When the British theologian Richard Harvey asked for the removal of the bas-relief and launched, in 2016, an online petition which collected more than 7,500 signatures, the controversy broke out. In 2017, when Michael Düllmann, a member of the German Jewish community, officially requested the removal of the sculpture, the Wittenberg City Council took a stand in favor of maintaining the "Judensau", arguing for the defense of German history. After the Dessau-Roßlau court's decision of 24 May 2019 not to remove the bas-relief from the Protestant church, Michel Dïllmann appealed. On Tuesday 4 February, the Saxony-Anhalt regional court of appeal in Naumburg ruled: the sculpture will not be removed, and the court proposed to Düllmann to bring the case before the highest German court in Karlsruhe.

"Sow of the Jews"

This medieval representation, called "Judensau" (literally in German: "Sow of the Jews"), exhibits Jewish characters suckling a sow alongside a rabbi lifting the tail of the animal, examining its behind. In 1570, after the Protestant Reformation, the inscription " Shem ha-meforash " (in Jewish tradition, the Schem-hamephorash corresponds to the secret and unpronounceable name of God) is added. This sentence refers to Luther's anti-Jewish treaty "Martin Luther and Kabbalah, From Shem ha-meforash and the genealogy of Christ", where he states that the rabbi was trying to read the Talmud in the back of the sow: “Here in Wittenberg, writes in 1543 the reformer of the Protestant church , one can see, on our church, a sow carved in stone. Below are piglets and Jews suckling it. Behind, stands a rabbi who raises the right leg of the sow, pulls his tail with his left hand, bends over and gazes zealously at the Talmud under the rump of the animal, as if he were reading something extraordinary . This certainly signals the location of their Shem Hamphoras [the name of God]. "

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Judensau is the term used to designate metaphorical animal motifs that appeared in the Middle Ages in anti-Jewish Christian art and in anti-Semitic caricatures almost exclusively in German-speaking countries. The use of the theme of the pig aims to humiliate, the pig being considered as an unclean animal and prohibited for consumption, according to the laws of the kashrut. Since the 19th century, this term has also been used as verbal abuse against the Jews. The Nazis will re-use this term by modifying it into Saujude (which literally corresponds to "Jewish pig"), which has the value of "dirty Jew" by comparing them to pigs.

Accepting the proposal of the pastor of the Johannes Block church, the German courts have decreed wanting to install an information panel under the bas-relief to explain its meaning and to place it in the historical context, referring to the anti-Semitism of Luther.

The "Judensau" of Wittenberg John MACDOUGALL / AFP

Heritage of German history

While Michael Düllmann submitted the idea of ​​placing the sculpture in the museum of Luther's house, the Protestant pastor of Leipzig, Thomas Piehler, known for having already denounced the collusion between the Protestant Church and the Nazi regime as well as for his commitment in favor of Judeo-Christian dialogue, declared in Le Monde to propose a displacement of the representation in a memorial museum of the Holocaust. In Berlin, the Federal Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany told journalists that he was in favor of installing the relief in a museum. Irmgard Schwaetzer, president of the synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany, for his part, suggested integrating the "Judensau" of Wittenberg into a new commemorative monument, opposite the church of Wittenberg.

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While German justice has relied on the importance of preserving the heritage of German history to justify their refusal, Thomas Piehler ironically pointed out that " there were no longer swastikas on Nazi buildings . ” For their part, the leaders of the Lutheran Church refuse to remove the bas-relief. We have to live with our history , explains Ouest-France Stefan Rhein, the president of the foundation in charge of the building. Keeping the sow away from the Jews would make our guilt invisible. A decision approved by the local leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Dirk Hoffmann, who claimed in Le Monde that this sculpture "describes a part of German history".

What does this Church want to be? "Displays the sign of this protester against the sculpture" Judensau "John MACDOUGALL / AFP

30 anti-Semitic sculptures in Europe

This anti-Semitic sculpture is not the only one to survive. Thirty others still adorn the churches of Germany and Europe. If in total 10 are in Germany, three are listed in France, in regions having been under Germanic influence during the Middle Ages. One is perched in the Notre-Dame du Carmel chapel, within the cathedral of Metz and two others are found in Colmar (one on the facade of the cathedral, the other in the form of a gargoyle at the collegiate church of Saint- Martin).

Today, Wittenberg's sculpture is protected as part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Read also: New anti-Semitism tests German memory

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-02-06

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