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15.06.2022

Judgement of the Federal Court on the depiction of the so-called Jews’ sow in Wittenberg

 
 
Anti-Semitic relief, a so-called Jews’ sow sculpture on the Evangelische Stadtkirche in Wittenberg, where Martin Luther once preached. The information on a panel at the church says: There is a relief scorning and deriding the Jewish religion on the south-east corner of the Stadtkirche which has been there since around 1290. Defamatory sculptures of this kind that depict Jews in connection with pigs – animals which are deemed unclean in Judaism – were particularly widespread in the Middle Ages. Image: IMAGO / Winfried Rothermel

Anti-Semitic relief, a so-called Jews’ sow sculpture on the Evangelische Stadtkirche in Wittenberg, where Martin Luther once preached. The information on a panel at the church says: There is a relief scorning and deriding the Jewish religion on the south-east corner of the Stadtkirche which has been there since around 1290. Defamatory sculptures of this kind that depict Jews in connection with pigs – animals which are deemed unclean in Judaism – were particularly widespread in the Middle Ages. Image: IMAGO / Winfried Rothermel

 

 

 

During a stay at the Auschwitz Memorial, Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, commented on today’s Federal Court judgement concerning the anti-Jewish relief known as the "Wittenberger Judensau":

"Today’s judgement by the Federal Court is very disappointing, not only for survivors of the Holocaust. This centuries-old abusive image in one of the most important places of Protestantism, conveys a message that was constantly repeated leading up to Auschwitz, and burdens the relationship between Jews and Christians to this day.

It pains and angers Jewish people. Words and signs of warning surrounding the anti-Jewish relief in an effort to clarify the content, do not alter this at all. It would definitely show a great depth of insight and symbolic distancing if the relief were to be removed from the church and exhibited in a museum context along with an explanation. A similar explanation would also be needed on the resulting empty space on the church wall."