In the Main-Tauber district of Baden-Württemberg, the arms of a statue of Christ were sawed off. The incident took place in the Löffelstelzen district of Bad Mergentheim towards the end of March, as reported by the Fränkische Nachrichten. Around 1,100 people live in the district. The perpetrators remain unknown. There were no witnesses either. An employee of the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments inspected the damage to the wooden statue, which stands at the side of a path.
In the Mainz-Bingen district in Rhineland-Palatinate, a statue of the Virgin Mary was decapitated at the end of March. As reported by the broadcaster SWR, the statue in the Marian grotto in Klein-Winternheim had its head knocked off with a stone. Unknown individuals also stole rosaries and small angel statues and caused widespread damage. Ute Kipping-Karbach from the Catholic parish of St. Andreas called the act ‘cowardly’ in an interview with the broadcaster. She estimates the damage to property at 5,000 euros.
In early March, a historic 13th-century stele featuring a holy water font was reportedly knocked over, presumably by force, in Altenberg Cathedral, as reported by the newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. The holy water font detached from the column, which then broke. The verger of the Catholic parish rules out accidental toppling because the column was solid. He suspects that “someone let off steam and knocked the stele over with force”.
It is unknown how much vandalism occurs in churches in Germany. This is because only when a clear political motive can be established does the act appear under “politically motivated crime” (PMK) with the church as the target. In 2024, the Federal Criminal Police Office stated that there were 111 such politically motivated acts against churches nationwide. That equates to around two attacks on a church per week.