Anti-Semitic sculptures allowed to remain in Bavaria’s churches

The offensive scuplture in Wittenberg

Credit: Jens Meyer/AP

Historic anti-Semitic sculptures are to be allowed to remain in Bavaria’s churches following an agreement between the regional government, church authorities and Jewish community groups.

There have been growing calls for the carvings, which date back to the Middle Ages, to be removed because they are grotesquely offensive to Jewish people. Known as Judensau, or “Jewish pig” carvings, the sculptures depict clearly recognisable Jewish people suckling from the teats of a sow.

But following talks with Jewish groups and church authorities, the Bavarian regional government announced it had been decided the sculptures were best left in place.

The round table talks agreed unanimously against removing the carvings, Ludwig Spaenle, the Bavarian anti-Semitism commissioner, said. Instead it was agreed that new information panels should be placed nearby which “clearly and visibly” explain the carvings’ history.

“Removing the sculptures from their context could make it harder to explain them. They might also lose their value as a warning against anti-Semitism,” Mr Spaenle said.

There are around half a dozen such sculptures in Bavaria, including one on the wall of Regensburg Cathedral, which dates back to the 13th century.

One of the offensive sculptures is in the historic city of Regensburg 

Discussion over the Bavarian carvings was prompted by a campaign to remove one from the church where Martin Luther preached. A German pensioner has taken his campaign to have a 13th-century Judensau relief removed from the town church of Wittenberg in the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt.

Michael Dietrich Düllmann, a 76-year-old former theology student who converted to Judaism, has been attempting to rid German churches of offensive art since he was 25, when he took an axe to plaques honouring German Second World War soldiers.

His campaign has won the support of Felix Klein, Germany’s national anti-Semitism commissioner, who argued removing the Wittenberg sculpture would be a “visible contribution to overcoming anti-Semitism”.

Klaus Holz, general secretary of the Protestant Academies in Germany, described the Wittenberg relief as “disgusting” and said: “I don’t want that, it has to go”.

But so far the courts have rejected Mr Düllmann’s attempts to have it removed. He has appealed, and says he will take the case to Germany’s highest court if necessary