Is it right to remove the medieval sculpture offending Jews in the Wittenberg church? It is being debated in Germany

In Germany, a debate is raging around a medieval sculpture that decorates the facade of the Stadtkirche in Wittenberg: it is a so-called Judensau, the “sow of the Jews,” a depiction of a sow suckling some Jews with a rabbi inspecting her terga (a symbolic and insulting allusion to the reading of the Talmud). It is a work with strongly anti-Semitic overtones, and in medieval Germany, its iconography was far from uncommon: however, in the Germany of 2019, the work’s message still bothers and there are those who are calling for it to be removed from the sacred building and displayed in a museum.

A complaint has been filed for the removal of the bas-relief and an online petition has been launched: so now church authorities and art historians are debating whether or not to musealize the ancient sculpture, which dates back to 1305 and reprises an iconography that became widespread in the 13th century (about 30 such sculptures survive in Germany and Europe: the oldest is from about 1230). Opinions, however, are basically negative: art historian Insa-Christiane Hennen, speaking on broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, said that eliminating the relief would mean giving rise to a form of iconoclasm. “The problems of anti-Semitism today,” she went on to stress, “cannot be solved by removing objects from the Middle Ages.”

Even the court thinks it is not the case that the relief should be removed from the Cathedral: the request for removal filed with a complaint by a citizen, Michael Düllmann, was rejected, but the man’s lawyers (according to whom the work represents an insult to him and other Jews) announce that they will appeal. For the court, the mere presence of the work cannot be construed as disrespectful to Jews. “Anti-Semitism,” Düllmann told Ntv television, “took root in Wittenberg centuries ago, and the Judensau, which is still there, is proof of that.”

However, there are also proposals that attempt the path of compromise. One such comes from Irmgard Schwaetzer, the chairwoman of the synod of the Evangelical Church of Germany, who proposes that the sculpture be removed but integrated into a monument to be erected in front of the Cathedral to remember what Jews have gone through in history.

Meanwhile, the debate rages on, has become a media case in Germany, not least because it takes place in one of the symbolic cities of Protestantism. And it is only just beginning.

Pictured: the Judensau of Wittenberg Cathedral.

Is it right to remove the medieval sculpture offending Jews in the Wittenberg church? It is being debated in Germany

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