Anti-Semitic sculpture to remain on German church

A 13th-Century anti-Semitic carving may remain on the wall of a church in Wittenberg, Germany, a court has ruled.

A Jewish man, Michael Düllmann, is seeking to have the sculpture removed.

The relief shows a rabbi lifting a sow's tail and peering at its behind while other Jewish figures suckle on her teats. Pigs are considered unclean under Jewish law.

The image is on the wall of the Stadtkirche, where Protestant reformer Martin Luther preached.

Portrayals of Jews in obscene association with female pigs were used as a way of mocking them and their religion in the Middle Ages.




Mr Düllmann told local broadcaster MDR ahead of the ruling, that as long as the "Judensau" remained on the wall, the Church would be guilty of promulgating anti-Semitism.

Luther himself produced a tirade of anti-Semitic writings, arguing that synagogues and Jewish homes should be burned and Jews be expelled. The theologian's texts, including one entitled On the Jews and Their Lies, were quoted by the Nazis four centuries later.