Religious fanatics may have been at work: in September, unknown persons demolished a Stations of the Cross by the artist Gabriela von Habsburg at the Catholic Ludwigskirche in Maxvorstadt and stole two of the 30-kilogram sculptures. Where previously the stainless steel works of art created by the emperor’s granddaughter with the titles “Jesus takes the cross” and “Jesus dies on the cross” recalled the suffering and death of Christ, stickers with the motto “Jesus lives” were emblazoned after the outrage.
Pure vandalism or metal theft can apparently be ruled out as a motive: then the works of art or parts of them would probably have turned up somewhere, believes lead investigator Ulrich Brandhuber from Commissariat 52 for burglary offenses (telephone 089/2 91 00). According to the police, the stickers could well be related to the crime.
In fact, there are two acts. The Stations of the Cross set up in front of, next to and in the church in July were damaged for the first time on the night of Friday, September 16th. Affected were those of the 50 centimeters high sculptures anchored on wooden trunks, which were set up in the arcades in front of the Ludwigskirche towards Ludwigstrasse. During the night of Wednesday, September 28, the perpetrators returned and used force to tear two of the Stations of the Cross from their anchorage, taking a cross and a precious metal bow with them.
What happened to them is completely unclear. There are no letters of confession or anything like that. The criminal police put the damage to property at “several thousand euros”. According to the artist, each of the sculptures has this value. In view of the devastation, the artist rules out the possibility that art lovers could be behind the crime.
Gabriela von Habsburg is a granddaughter of the last Austrian Emperor Karl.
(Photo: Munich police)
Gabriela von Habsburg was born in Luxembourg in 1956 and lives on Lake Starnberg. She is a daughter of the former CSU MEP Otto von Habsburg and granddaughter of the last Austrian Emperor Karl. From 2010 to 2013 she was the Georgian Ambassador to Germany. Gabriela von Habsburg has been working mainly with steel and stainless steel since the 1980s. She shows small and medium-sized works in numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries. In Munich are among other things the big Cross in front of the Catholic Church of St. Luke in the Westkreuz district and the “Betasith” monument in Terminal 2 of the airport, creations by the 66-year-old artist.
The 14 Stations of the Cross, now partially destroyed, were originally created for a private client, but were then first shown in Munich during Lent and Easter from March to April in front of seven Catholic churches in the Neuhausen district before moving to St. Ludwig. In abstract form, they show the human body and the cross in ever new variations. The sculptress formulates her artistic credo as follows: “Just like the breathing space in music reinforces expression, so does the sculpture work through the deliberately created empty spaces. A sculpture is a confrontation with spaces.”