"Radical Destroy" - State Bishop demands removal of "Judensau" relief

The Hanoverian regional bishop Ralf Meister spoke out in favor of the removal and destruction of the "Judensau" on the façade of the evangelical town church in Wittenberg. "You shouldn't just remove them, you should radically destroy, destroy and destroy them," said Meister on Sunday evening in the Marktkirche in Hanover. This is the right way to deal with a misguided, devastating aesthetic.

In doing so, Meister was reacting to the suggestion made by the federal government's anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, to place such sculptures in the museum. On the eve of Reformation Day, both discussed at the event “What needs to be said. Judaism and Reformation”.

After years of dispute, the Wittenberg parish church council decided last week that the anti-Jewish abusive sculpture from the Middle Ages on Martin Luther's sermon church should not be removed, but should remain as a memorial and place of learning.

"As if we didn't have enough places to learn," Meister commented on this decision.

The leading theologian said that he considered the efforts to contextualize the Wittenberg “Judensau” including an explanatory, distancing text panel to be “very plausible”.

In the meantime, however, he has changed his mind: "I have spoken to many Jews who still find the relief unbearable."