Germans upset for removing cross at G7 meeting

The foreign ministers of G7, the group of the seven leading industrial nations and democracies, discussed the ‘restoration and defence’ of Ukraine’s power and water supply in a slightly edited Hall of Peace in the German city of Münster. A 482-year-old cross was missing in the conference room.

It is not entirely clear who decided to remove the cross for the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting on November 3rd and 4th in Münster’s historic town hall. First reports said that Foreign Minister Baerbock herself made the decision. However, other sources state that it was a call from her ministry.

Nevertheless, Christians condemned the action. The Council President of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Annette Kurschus, described the step taken by the Foreign Ministry as “completely incomprehensible, even verging on the grotesque”. The diocese of Münster called the removal of the cross “incomprehensible”. It announced that it intended to complain to the federal government.

Culture war

While a commentary from the Christian press agency Idea writes about a “Green culture war against the cross and Christianity”, the Catholic daily Die Tagespost thinks it is specifically not a culture war, but a bureaucratic error. And that is, according to the newspaper, even more problematic.

If clear enemies of Christianity had acted here, the daily writes, “one could at least say a lot of enemies, a lot of honour.” Because whoever attacks his opponent with such determination also has something like respect for this opponent because he assumes effectiveness and power.

However, since the cross was put away “like a piece of furniture”, the whole incident is more like “an expression of religious illiteracy”, the newspaper writes. And that is even more problematic. It shows that people can no longer assess this cross's importance.

Peace

Baerbock, meanwhile, has apologised for the removal of the cross. “It was not a conscious decision, certainly not a political decision, but obviously an organisational decision”, the minister said according to Christian magazine PRO.

The Hall of Peace in Münster’s town hall is of great historical importance. There, the Peace of Westphalia was negotiated, which ended the Thirty Years’ War in Europe.