Is there actually a word for the fact that huge crosses can hang in German courtrooms, but a judge or public prosecutor is not allowed to wear a headscarf? The question always goes through my mind when I see people in black robes negotiating laws and penalties with one another, under a meter-high, carved wooden Jesus at the Saarbrücken district court, for example. He then looks down, suffers, and whoever is bothered by it is unlucky.
Thousands of such crosses hang in Germany. In large dishes as in small ones. In the small ones, after all, it’s probably more relaxed. A friendly, experienced judge at a Baden-Württemberg district court once told me what he thought of the Christian symbolism at the place of jurisdiction: nothing. So when he comes into a hall in the morning, the first thing he always does is take off the cross and put it in the drawer. Nobody has ever complained about that.
Symbols on the walls represent the judiciary as a whole
The German legal situation is strangely divided when it comes to religious symbols. On the one hand, legislators are extremely concerned and alarmed when it comes to the Islamic headscarf. The highest constitutional goods are then thrown into the balance; the Bavarian law for judges and public prosecutors categorically forbids this piece of clothing, because otherwise citizens would doubt the “independence, neutrality or exclusive commitment to law and order” in court.
On the other hand, lawmakers are completely unconcerned when it comes to courthouses. This is based on the argument: the individual judge must appear neutral. The building, on the other hand, is not so dramatic. That is “only” the architectural framework. This subtle distinction accommodates the Christian custom of not wearing religious symbols on the head but hanging them on the wall. But that’s probably just a coincidence.
I sometimes wonder, when a defendant looks at the bench in front of him and sees the symbol of the cross behind the judges, whether it wouldn’t actually be much more logical the other way around. A judge with a headscarf: That would be a sight that would probably still make him realize that this is just one judge among many, not “the” judiciary. Symbols on the walls, on the other hand, represent more of the judiciary as a whole.
And then I’m happy about stories like this, which a young legal trainee from North Rhine-Westphalia recently told me. She wears a headscarf, and in the small provincial court to which she was sent for her training, the judge who trains her said to her: “No problem, you can still try in the courtroom. Here we do it like this we think that’s the right thing to do, and if anyone complains, we’ll look into it.” Nobody complained.
At this point, Verena Mayer and Ronen Steinke write in weekly alternation about their experiences at German courts.
(Photo: Bernd Schifferdecker (Illustration))