During the night of 16 to 17 June, unknown persons smashed the historic stained glass window of the Protestant church in Neuenrade. The time can probably be narrowed down. At around 2.40 a.m. a "considerable impact noise" was heard. The police confirmed at the time that stones, possibly beer bottles, had been thrown at the window. The damage is estimated at 7000 euros.
"It has also not yet been possible to determine whether it was blind vandalism or even targeted religious motives," says Pastor Kuhlo-Schöneberg. He remembers the reactions: At the time, there was "consternation among some in the congregation" that "something like this could happen at all" and especially "with such violence". The windows were two and a half metres high, and the damaged stained glass could only be reached with great difficulty. Kuhlo-Schöneberg is still stunned. "What did the church do to someone?" he asks.
Police investigations were unsuccessful.
Update: The windows were restored and then vandalised again after 3 weeks. The motives are still unknown.
"We have already restored windows in a church and after three weeks they were vandalised again," laments glazier Günter Pohl.