Breaking: JS Bach church is vandalised, 25 windows smashed

Breaking: JS Bach church is vandalised, 25 windows smashed

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norman lebrecht

January 01, 2020

Police in Leipzig have announced that 25 stained-glass windows were destroyed in a New Year’s Eve act of vandalism in St Thomas’s Church and neighboring Thomashaus.

Pastor Britta Taddiken said stones were thrown at the windows from outside the church, where Johann Sebastian Bach presented some of his greatest works, and where his remains are buried.

There have been no arrests. Suspicion has fallen on a mentally ill person who recently spoke to the pastor.

Comments

  • klavierBWV988 says:

    Illiterate cretins at large

  • Paul Dawson says:

    Very sad, but, apparently, not a hate crime.

    At the Catholic monastery school I attended, a JSB hate crime was (imho) committed. His music was banned in the abbey, because he was – horror of horrors – a Protestant.

    My protest that anyone believing in God would have to believe that genius of that level must have been God-given was overuled.

    However, Mammon did triumph over God in that Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire was permitted, because the monks worried that they would otherwise lose lucrative wedding business.

  • Tamino says:

    „Leipzig: the new face of Anti-Christianity…“

  • Tamino says:

    „Leipzig: the new face of Anti-Christianity…“

    …is not a headline.

  • Jenny says:

    I want to see pictures of the windows before their destruction and how they look now.

  • Alexander T says:

    Very sad!!

  • Mea Maxima says:

    Suspicion has fallen on someone who talked with the pastor. How’s the confidality of pastoral talks in Germany? Of course the suspect may have spoken with the pastor in another setting.

    • Barbara Eichner says:

      If they just had a chat or a casual conversation outside a strictly pastoral context, the fact that such a n encounter took place is hardly confidential.

  • Johann Brenzler says:

    I wonder which nationality the vandals were In hundreds of years there has never been such a thing, and coincidentally with the coming of the “refugees” – voilá!

    • John Borstlap says:

      One does not have to be a refugee, escaping from death and destruction, to be a vandal, given the local European proclivity towards aggression, where purely individual frustration and hatred is mobilized by cynical politicians.

      • EricB says:

        One “does not have to”, but it helps greatly….
        🙁

        • Sue Sonata Form says:

          The naivete is staggering beyond belief. Like Pollyanna, some people want to be ‘glad’ about everything. Just like my 7 year old grand-daughter.

          • Larry D says:

            Luckily for your 7 year old granddaughter, she has a grandma ready and willing to fill her with anti-immigrant hate, and tell her how Merkel is worse than Satan.

          • Mr. Knowitall says:

            An impressionable child is exposed to this bile!?! Call Child Protective Services!

    • Dennis says:

      Indeed. Church vandalism has been rising throughout Europe for a number of years, but the Lügenpresse of PC-SJW Europe is not allowed to mention certain things about the typical perpetrators.

    • Alviano says:

      There was radical left violence on New Years Eve elsewhere in Leipzig. We, who know nothing, can imagine a lot. Let’s leave it to the police to find the criminal.

      • Sue Sonata Form says:

        Yes, they’ll be as swift and effective as they were in Cologne just a few short years ago.

        • Mr. Knowitall says:

          Again with this nonsense, Sue? Our local police made multiple arrests and prosecutions followed. Considering the unprecedented nature of the flashmob sexual assaults, the police handled the situation as well as could be expected.

    • willymh says:

      How reassuring to read that there has been no vandalism in Europe for hundreds of years. I guess those history books were just fiction?

    • HugoPreuss says:

      May I suggest, instead of pure hatred, a little study of history? Ever heard of the reformation an the ensuing wars (literally and metaphorically) on the proper way to decorate churches? The French revolution and what it did to churches? The Russian revolution and what it did to churches? The strife in Northern Ireland? To assume that vandalism is (a) new and (b) connected to refugees demonstrates (among other things) a deplorable lack of historical understanding.

      • John Borstlap says:

        But that is not surprising, given the lack of interest in history in the West, where such thing is often considered a mere hindrence to progress.

    • Mr. Knowitall says:

      Based on no evidence whatsoever, I’d keep an eye out for Brenzlers. They are a sneaky bunch.

  • Leipzig is just like any other city and prone to acts of vandalism such as these. It is heart-breaking to see the damaged windows as they are now, each one an historic memoir. I am equally certain that these will be repaired, but nothing can replace the originals can it? Equally I am sure the church authorities will try to find out WHY these acts of vandalism took place, who did it and why. We send our best wishes to our Leipzig friends.

  • Jack says:

    Rather ugly undertones in the responses here. This article points suspicion at some man who described himself as the ‘son of God’ who had contact with the pastor or the church prior to Christmas. Please folks, chill out and let the police do their job.

    The article describes the windows in question as dating from the 19th and early 20th century.

    https://www.dw.com/en/windows-smashed-at-renowned-bach-church-in-leipzig/a-51853584

  • Peter says:

    Really saddening to see such wanton vandalism.

    But, ironically, isn’t Leipzig near where the Vandals originally came from ?

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