The local government in Berlin’s Mitte district, controlled by the left-liberal Green party, has removed a cross that had been situated a top of a play structure in a playground located in Monbijoupark, replacing the Christian symbol—which some people found unacceptable and offensive—with an orange cat.
The change to the children’s playground, which took two years to plan and build, came shortly before it had opened to the public. The playground’s wooden castle with two towers had a cross and a star sitting atop the spires, which, following alleged complaints, were promptly removed and replaced by a cat and a miniature TV tower, the Berlin-based newspaper Junge Freiheit reports.
“Since the applications used up to now have been interpreted religiously by some citizens, we decided without further ado to have the elements replaced,” a spokeswoman for the district said.
It should be noted that the leftist-controlled district government’s decision to remove the cross goes against the wishes of the children who were directly involved in the two-year planning process. In a report on the participation process, under the children’s ideas and wishes, it says: “Castle with sparkling crosses/star on the two towers.” The district office, however, contends that the orange cat and the miniature, stylized Berlin TV tower now adorning the top of the castle’s towers are more ‘child friendly.’
Paul Fresdorf, who sits in the Berlin House of Representatives for the liberal, free-market Free Democratic Party (FDP), expressed dismay at the district’s move, saying: “It’s completely outrageous. In the culture committee we just agreed that religion should be much more visible.”
City councilor Almut Neumann (Greens), when asked by BZ-Berlin what she thought about the Christian symbol, which also is a symbol of Western culture, being removed, said that she “can understand that symbols that can be interpreted as religious symbols on a fairy tale playground are not felt to be thematically appropriate.”
