Baerbock's State Department lets Kreuz hang out at G-7 meetings

At the request of the Federal Foreign Office by Annalena Baerbock (Greens), the 482-year-old Council cross was removed from the Peace Hall of the city's historic town hall at the G-7 foreign ministers' meeting. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the city administration of Münster when asked by WELT.

The Hall of Peace in Münster is a place of extraordinary historical importance for Christian Europe and the churches. The Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years' War, was negotiated there more than 370 years ago. This devastated large parts of Central Europe and was fought as a religious war.

The foreign ministers of France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the United States and Great Britain met there this Friday and Thursday to discuss the consequences of the Russian attack in Ukraine for Europe, transatlantic cooperation and the international order. Germany holds the presidency until the end of the year, so the host is Baerbock.

Foreign Minister Baerbock wants to prevent the next humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine. Due to the Russian attacks, there is a lack of electricity and heating there. A joint winter aid program is therefore to be organized at the G-7 summit in Münster.

Source: WELT/ Sebastian Plantholt

Before the meeting of the top diplomats, the venerable cross, in front of which the new council members in Münster are still sworn in, was removed from its position and taken out of the hall after a corresponding request from the Foreign Office. First, the "Westfälische Nachrichten" reported about it.

The CDU and CSU were appalled at the removal of the cross and blamed the foreign minister herself. “This federal government has forgotten tradition and history. Anyone who, like the foreign minister with the centuries-old council cross in Münster's town hall, has symbols of the Christian faith removed from a meeting room is not cosmopolitan, but obstinate," said Thorsten Frei (CDU), first parliamentary director of the Union faction in the Bundestag, WELT.

"Only those who stand by their own tradition and social character can also approach others openly, confidently and with self-confidence," says Frei. "The Christian image of man is the common basis of the liberal and constitutional democracies of the G-7 countries."

Editor's note: In a previous version, the headline suggested that Baerbock himself had caused the cross to be removed. According to the State Department, the hanging out is not due to a wish from Baerbock; there had been no decision on this at the political level. The hanging apparently took place at the request of the protocol department of the Foreign Ministry after consultation with the city of Münster. That's why we changed the headline and removed a passage in the text.

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