Verdict
Court: Cross decree in Bavarian authorities is legal
In April 2018, the Bavarian cabinet passed the cruise decree on the initiative of Markus Söder. photo
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
A cross in every state building in Bavaria – there has been debate for years about whether this is legal. The Federal Administrative Court has now decided.
The crosses in Bavaria’s authorities can remain hanging. The Federal Administrative Court dismissed lawsuits against the controversial Cross decree from the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU). The regulation, which has been in force since 2018, states that a cross must hang in every state building in Bavaria.
On Tuesday, the highest German administrative court in Leipzig rejected appeals against a previous decision by the Administrative Court (VGH) in Munich. The crosses did not violate the right to religious freedom of other ideological communities. The Federal Administrative Court decided that they were also not a violation of the fundamental right ban on discrimination based on faith.
The association for freedom of thought, which is critical of religion, had sued. He demanded that the decree be repealed and the crosses removed. However, the federal government had already suffered a defeat before the VGH in the summer of last year. Although the Administrative Court saw a violation of the state’s duty of neutrality, it classified the crosses essentially as passive symbols “without proselytizing and indoctrinating effects.”
Criticism even came from churches
In April 2018, the Bavarian cabinet passed the cruise decree on the initiative of Söder, who had recently become Prime Minister at the time. Despite strong criticism – even from the churches, which accused Söder of misusing the Christian symbol for election campaign purposes – the decree came into force in June 2018.
Since then, paragraph 28 of the rules of procedure for the authorities of the Free State states: “A cross must be clearly visible in the entrance area of every office building as an expression of Bavaria’s historical and cultural character.”
The Association for Freedom of Thought had already announced the next step before the verdict was announced: in the event of a defeat, they would turn to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.