“Modern culture of remembrance” in the District of Düren: Laying of wreaths by the District Administrator at the Military Cemeteries in Hürtgen and Vossenack on Remembrance Day 2022 – or: Quod licet iovi, non licet bovi? (Published on 21/04/2023)
I. The administration of the District of Düren under District Administrator Wolfgang Spelthahn
Since the beginning of my research on Julius Erasmus, I have regularly dealt with the administration of the District of Düren, which is responsible for the Military Cemeteries in Hürtgen and Vossenack. After District Administrator Spelthahn (CDU), head of the district administration, early on refused to support the research and corresponding inquiries were answered rather ponderously, the correspondence now takes place largely on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (“IFG NRW”), which obliges the District of Düren to grant access to official information. With regard to the content and scope of this law, the District of Düren has repeatedly put forward very surprising views, which are often beyond anything previously known, in particular beyond the relevant case law, but which are still persistently held until they prove to be untenable. This gives the impression of an authority that believes it is free to decide when applicable law applies to it and in what form.
II. The flower ban on Remembrance Day 2022: District Administrator Spelthahn lays wreaths, grave decorations laid by cemetery visitors are disposed of
The ban on the laying of “wreaths or flowers, vases or other signs of mourning” which has been declared in sec. 4 cipher 4. a) of the revised cemetery rules for the Military Cemeteries in Hürtgen and Vossenack, which is also referred to here as the “flower ban”, also falls into this category. Violations of this ban have been declared an administrative offense by the District of Düren (cf. sec. 7 of the revised cemetery rules).
As reported, the District of Düren had already started to remove and destroy grave decorations placed on these cemeteries without notice in the summer of 2022 under the old cemetery rules from 2008, which did not include such a ban. A legal review of this procedure was considered unnecessary, as was the prior information of the relatives concerned. The written information provided by the District of Düren on the basis of the IFG NRW is worth reading.
According to reports, the District of Düren also had grave decorations, flowers and candles placed on the two Military Cemeteries removed and destroyed on and around Remembrance Day (“Volkstrauertag”) 2022.
For the District of Düren and District Administrator Spelthahn, however, the cemetery rules, especially said ban, do not seem to apply. Thus, the District published a press release [link to archive] on 13/11/2022 titled “Volkstrauertag: Landrat Spelthahn gedenkt der Opfer von Krieg und Gewalt” (“Remembrance Day: District Administrator Spelthahn commemorates the victims of war and violence”) in which it says, among other things (translation from German language):
“As a sign against forgetting and in memory of the victims of war, violence and expulsion, District Administrator Spelthahn laid wreaths at the memorials in Hürtgen and Vossenack on the occasion of Remembrance Day.”
Besides the fact that the “devotional event at the war cemetery” had not taken place on Remembrance Day, which was Sunday, 13/11/2022, but already before this, namely on Friday, 11/11/2022, the wreath-laying was particularly astonishing. Not because this would not be appropriate in every respect to commemorate the victims of war and tyranny and had been traditional for decades, but because the District of Düren expressly forbids it to all other visitors to the said Military Cemeteries and considers it an administrative offense.
III. The District of Düren and District Administrator Spelthahn: Quod licet iovi, non licet bovi?
After the matter had been raised in the court proceedings against the flower ban, the District of Düren stated in this regard that the wreath-laying had taken place “within the scope of a permissible exception” and that a “special permit” had been issued – thus, the District of Düren claims to have granted a special permit for the laying of said wreaths by District Administrator Spelthahn.
Since the idea of the District Administrator, as the highest official of the district administration, applying to the district administration for an exemption for the laying of wreaths at the Military Cemeteries in Hürtgen and Vossenack and then granting it to himself seemed to me both amusing and absurd, I asked the District of Düren, on the basis of the IFG NRW, for information about when and by whom the alleged “special permit” was applied for and when and by whom it was granted.
The District of Düren answered as follows (translation from German language):
“The event for the Remembrance Day is organized by Mrs Annegret Greven, Staff Office for District Council Affairs and Culture, as part of her work as Managing Director of the District Association of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V. (German War Graves Commission). District Administrator Spelthahn lays the wreath as chairman of the district association of Volksbund. Mrs Greven has verbally applied for permission at the cemetery administration, Mr Mainz, and this was also granted verbally by Mr Mainz. The application and granting took place in advance of the 11/11/22 event; the exact date is no longer known.”
The permit is thus said to have been applied for orally and granted orally, in each case the exact date is – of course! – unknown.
Anyone who is somewhat more familiar with the administrative activities of the District of Düren will understand immediately. At least after my past experiences with this district administration, where e.g. meaningful files are hardly kept – at least in the matters known here – and, generally, on almost all own activities information is allegedly not (any longer) available, I cannot imagine that a “special permit” for the wreath laying was requested at any time at all.
This would not be problematic in itself, as it would only prove the complete nonsense and unworldliness of the flower ban issued by the District of Düren.
The problem begins where the District of Düren forbids exactly this behavior, which it presumably takes for granted for itself and its representatives, to any other visitor of the said Military Cemeteries, removes and destroys their grave decorations and threatens them with means of the law of administrative offenses. Do they proceed here according to the motto of Roman late decadence “Quod licet iovi, non licet bovi” (“What is allowed to Jupiter, is not allowed to the ox”), according to which the “high masters” arrogate to themselves an authority beyond the – in the case of the cemetery rules – self-imposed municipal law, which is, of course, binding for the citizens? The procedure is at least arrogant and insensitive, whereby one may assume that the contradiction was not noticed at all in the administration of the District of Düren, since the people there are apparently used to proceed as they please anyway.
It will be interesting to see how long this will continue.
Further articles on the topic:
- District of Düren prohibits the laying of flowers and candles at the Military Cemeteries in Hürtgen and Vossenack (12/02/2023)
- Administrative Court Aachen denies grant of a preliminary order against the District of Düren “flower ban”, appeal to the Higher Administrative Court (23/03/2023)
- District of Düren denies “flower ban” on Military Cemeteries in Hürtgen Forest to press and media (13/05/2023)
- “Flower ban” of the District of Düren on the Military Cemeteries in Hürtgen Forest: Higher Administrative Court of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia rejects the appeal against the denial of urgent legal protection (03/07/2023)
- Administration out of control: District of Düren now also bans photos of the fallen in uniform at Military Cemeteries in Hürtgen Forest (18/08/2023)
(Head picture: Collage of contents from the
press release of the District of Düren from 13/11/2022)
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