Crosses mounted in the entrances of the state’s administrative buildings in Bavaria can stay up, Germany’s highest court for most administrative law disputes ruled on Tuesday.
In 2018, Bavarian state premier Markus Söder of the Christian Social Union (CSU) ordered that all public buildings prominently hang a cross “as an expression of Bavaria’s historical and cultural character.”
A Bavarian lobby group advocating “the meaningful separation of church and state as well as the eradication of church privileges,” whose German name might roughly translate to the Association for Free Thinking for Bavaria (bfg Bayern), challenged the decree in court.
During WW II in Bavaria attempts were made to remove crosses from public buildings by local Nazis.
Soldiers returning from the front on leave were recruited by local Catholics to re-install the crosses in very public displays.
One instance saw a pitchfork wielding mob threaten a local Nazi Bigwig unless he returned the crosses he had hidden. His wife spilled the beans fearing her Nazi hubby would meet a horrible end.
