Various Cases of Theft of Christmas Crib Figures Across Germany

Case information
Incident date
Country
Germany
Place
Göppingen
Categories
  • Social Hostility / Intolerance
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Private
Hate Crime & Violent Incidents
  • Theft
  • Vandalism of Church
Religious Freedom / Discrimination
  • Other (text field)
Place of Incident
  • Church
Bias Indicators
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
Reported to Police
  • Yes
Response of Local Authorities
  • Unknown
Symbolic image; not a photograph of the reported incident.

After Christmas various churches in Germany were victims of theft, specifically the figures of Christmas cribs. On January 4th unknown perpetrators stole the valuable wooden figure of King Melchior from the Christmas crib of the Catholic church St.Maria in Göppingen. Another two thefts occurred , also on January 4th, in the church of Parnhofen and the church of Ganacker, in both cases the perpetrators stole the little Jesus figure out of the Christmas crib. On the same date the Jesus figure of the Christmas crib of the city church of Friedberg was stolen from the altar. Lastly, on March 21st unknown perpetrators smashed a window to gain access to the protestant church of Aldekerk, ransacked two closets and stole two figures of the Christmas crib.

Sources