There were 849 incidents of theft and vandalism against churches and chapels in the German state of Baden-Württemberg last year, official figures reveal.
Incidents against chapels rose by 26% on the previous year. The cost of the damage to both churches and chapels runs into hundreds of thousands of euros, Evangelical Focus reports.
The stats were collated by the state’s interior ministry in response to a request from the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
Despite the numbers, the ministry said that the situation was “stable overall” and that “there are no indications of a general loss of social respect for religious symbols and cultural assets in the state”.
The FDP were less relaxed about the situation, however. The group’s spokesperson for churches, Tim Kern, said, “Churches are not only sacred to many people, they are places of protection, peace, comfort and community. Vandalism in churches is therefore a double sacrilege.”
The ministry figures revealed that most cases went unsolved, with just one in six cases involving chapels being solved. In cases involving churches, a suspect was only identified in about one in four cases.
The claim that there has been no loss of respect for church and religious symbols has been disputed by a spokesman for the Catholic German Bishops' Conference, who recently said there had been an “escalation” in hostility against Christian symbols across Germany.
Michael Hertl, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Freiburg, said that “churches are sacred places, and burglars are often unaware of the spiritual impact their actions have".
"Churches should be and remain open places, if they now decide to close during the day or to secure themselves, this creates barriers that can be harmful," he said.
In Britain there was a spike in thefts affecting churches after the end of the Covid lockdowns, driven mostly by the end of the restrictions but also by rising metal prices. British churches have for decades faced the scourge of lead thieves targeting church roofs.
Typically, the cost of repairing or replacing a lead roof can be in the tens of thousands of pounds.
