05/27/2022 | epd
Federal Court of Justice hears about Wittenberg "Judensau"
Karlsruhe/Wittenberg (epd). The Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe will deal with the so-called Wittenberg "Judensau" next Monday (May 30).
The court must decide whether the abusive sculpture from the 13th century must be removed from the town church in Lutherstadt and whether the sandstone relief constitutes an offense. The plaintiff is a member of a Jewish community, the defendant is the evangelical parish of the Wittenberg town church. (VI ZR 172/20)
The sculpture from 1290 shows a sow whose teats are feasting on people who are supposed to represent Jews. A rabbi looks under the animal's tail and into its anus.
The plaintiff had appealed against a previous judgment of the Naumburg Higher Regional Court (OLG). At that time, the Higher Regional Court had rejected a previous appeal by the man and confirmed a judgment by the Dessau-Roßlau Regional Court. Accordingly, the relief does not have to be removed because it is no longer offensive. It is not uncommented at the church. The relief is included in a memorial ensemble and thus no longer represents disregard for Jews.
Below the abusive sculpture there has been a memorial with an explanatory text since 1988, in which the Protestant parish distances itself from the persecution of Jews, the anti-Judaist writings of the reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) and the derisive aim of the medieval relief.
Before the Karlsruhe trial, the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) emphasized that the Wittenberg “Judensau” was undoubtedly an insult and could not stay that way. "But the long history of Christian anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism, which obscenely condenses in this relief, cannot be clarified by legal means," said the EKD's anti-Semitism officer, Christian Staffa, on Thursday in Berlin.
According to Staffa, simply removing the sculptures from the churches would not go far enough: "Anti-Jewish history cannot be undone by knocking off and smoothing out its evidence." This applies to the Wittenberg relief, but also to the Wittenberg Cranach altarpiece . The President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, also came up with this formula.
The church must face up to its anti-Jewish history and make this process visible. It is "a long way" that has now begun, but is far from over. "This legal dispute, which, regardless of its outcome, cannot complete the task ahead of us, is evidence of this," said Staffa, who is also the director of studies for democratic culture and church at the Berlin Evangelical Academy.
The Higher Regional Court had allowed the appeal in the legal dispute because of the fundamental importance and the question of how to deal with the degradation of groups of people in such civil law issues. In addition to the relief in Wittenberg, there are also such abusive sculptures in numerous other churches in Germany, according to the Federal Court of Justice around 50 copies.
Anti-Jewish abusive plastics
Berlin (epd). Abusive sculptures were an integral part of Christian art in the Middle Ages and an expression of the anti-Judaism of the churches. Jews were mocked, mocked and humiliated in the depictions on the churches. A prominent example is the abusive sculpture "Judensau" at the Wittenberg town church.
On the relief created around 1300 at a height of about four meters, a rabbi can be seen lifting the tail of a pig and looking into its anus. Two other Jews are suckling the animal's teats. The pig is considered unclean by the Jews.
About 50 such representations are known in Germany and Europe, including Wittenberg on the Cologne Cathedral, the Brandenburg Cathedral on the Havel, the Regensburg Cathedral and the Cathedral of Metz (France). How to deal with this is debatable.
One side demands that the abusive sculptures be preserved as art-historical heritage, but this is supplemented by information and commemorative plaques that explain the background. The other side wants to have the sculptures removed from the churches and sees them as a continuing insult to Jews and Judaism.