Crosses at the entrances of Bavaria’s administrative buildings can stay up, a German court has ruled.

In 2018, Bavarian state premier Markus Söder ordered that all public buildings prominently hang a cross “as an expression of Bavaria’s historical and cultural character.”

A Bavarian lobby group advocating “the meaningful separation of church and state as well as the eradication of church privileges,”, challenged the decree in court.

It argued the move infringed on people’s freedom of religion and violated the state’s obligation to be neutral on such matters.

The court, however, found that the regulation was a “mere administrative regulation with no external legal effect and therefore did not violate any rights of the plaintiffs.”

The court said that while “the crosses brought in do display a central symbol of the Christian faith to an objective observer,” they nevertheless had no legal impact on visitors’ religious freedom.

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-bavaria-can-hang-crosses-in-state-buildings/a-67769430