In Leipzig’s St. Thomas Church and in the neighbouring St. Thomas House, 25 panes were destroyed on New Year’s Eve. Among them were windows with historic stained glass.
Nobody was injured but the police are investigating damage to property. The motives for the crime are still unclear, as is the amount of damage.
According to the priest Britta Taddiken, stones thrown through the church windows from the outside broke through two glass fronts, one behind the other. According to Taddiken, the damaged stained glass windows above the west portal date from the 19th century, the Art Nouveau windows of the Thomashaus from the beginning of the 20th century.
The composer Johann Sebastian Bach is buried in the famous Thomaskirche. The church is also home to the world-famous St. Thomas Boys’ Choir.
German police unions have said that the violence in Leipzig has “a new quality”. And Leipzig Mayor Burkhard Jung (SPD) is facing mounting criticism from conservatives for failing to crack down on the city’s left-wing extremists.
Rainer Wendt, head of the German police union DPolG, explained that leftists were terrorizing the population by instilling fear.
“The basic definition of terrorism is spreading fear among the population through violence, and exactly that is happening here,” he told DW. “But this is a new quality: a targeted life-threatening attack on officers, and we have to assume, unfortunately, that at some point someone might be killed.”
Wendt believes left-wing “centers”, usually squats, should be closed down since most acts of violence were “planned” there. “We can only praise Saxony that it has put this phenomenon onto this level,” Wendt added.
Jörg Radek, deputy leader of the GdP police union highlighted police crime data from April last year, showing a 40 percent increase in attacks and resistance against police officers. “We have an average of 32 attacks on police officers per day,” Radek told DW. “We’re talking about someone being asked for their ID, and instead punching the officer.”