[Episcopal News Service]
The Russian government has returned 111 medieval stained-glass windows to a German church almost six decades after the Soviet Red Army seized them. The Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) hailed the action as 'a good sign for peace and reconciliation' in Europe and a 'remarkable sign of the Christian fellowship' between the German church and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The windows, depicting biblical scenes from Creation to Judgement Day, were handed over in St. Petersburg to German culture minister Julian Nida-Ruemelin on June 24. They will be reinstalled in their original location in the Marienkirche in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder on the German-Polish border.
'The Marienkirche stands at the centre of Frankfurt and these incomparable artworks are its outstanding feature,' said Bishop Wolfgang Hueber of Berlin-Brandenburg. 'In this sense, the very heart has been given back to this city.'
The 14th century windows were seized by Soviet troops who occupied the city in 1946, three years after they were dismantled and stored to prevent damage from Allied bombing. German church leaders have been negotiating their return since the early 1990s.
Hueber said that he had discussed the issue privately with Patriarch Alexy II of the Russian Orthodox Church. 'This helped the Russian authorities accept that they weren't state property but the possessions of a Christian church,' he said. It will take four years to reinstall the windows but Hueber said that he hoped several would be back in place for the Marienkirche's 750th anniversary in 2003 when the city would host the nation's first ecumenical Kirchentag or church festival.
Several million German artworks, manuscripts and archive collections removed by the Soviet Army at the end of the Second World War as compensation for war damage were declared Russian property in 1999.
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