Prince Albert’s birthplace shuns the cross

A SMALL town in Germany with deep historic links to Britain’s Royal family is taking a stand against an order from the Bavarian regional government to display a cross in all public buildings.

The council in Coburg, birthplace of both Queen Victoria’s mother and her consort, Prince Albert, says there will be no cross on display in the town hall when the order comes into effect today.

The order, issued by Markus Söder, the premier of Bavaria, has caused huge public controversy across Germany.

Mr Söder says the cross is “a fundamental symbol of our Bavarian identity and way of life”. But his opponents say he is exploiting a religious symbol for political ends and have denounced the move as unconstitutional.

In Coburg, in the former Duchy of Saxe-coburg and Gotha, the local authorities are taking an independent stance. Norbert Tessmer, the mayor, told the local Neue Presse newspaper he had decided there was no obligation to hang a cross in the town hall as it belongs to the local municipality, and not the regional government.

But he conceded that crosses would have to be hung in other local public buildings such as the tax office and the law courts.

Elsewhere in Bavaria, institutions are taking a more confrontational stance. Nuremberg’s famous Neues Musuem, for example, is refusing to display a cross, even though it is a public institution.