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Girl statue removed from German university to be reinstalled on Women's Day

Published: 02 Mar. 2025, 14:14

Lee Yong-soo, center, a survivor of wartime sexual slavery, enters the Germany Embassy in Seoul on May 22, 2024, to deliver a letter opposing a planned removal of a symbolic statue of a so-called comfort women victim in Berlin. [YONHAP]

A girl statue symbolizing victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery will be installed at a church in Germany next week, two years after it was removed from the nearby University of Kassel, where it was first erected, a civic organization said Saturday.

The statue will be installed at the church of Neue Bruderkirche on International Women's Day, which falls on March 8 every year, according to Korea Verband.

An official at the organization thanked local women's rights groups for helping get approval from the church on the move, adding that the period of installation has yet to be decided.

The statue was initially installed at the University of Kassel in July 2022, on the occasion of the contemporary art exhibition Documenta, held in the namesake German city every five years.

The student council at the university passed a resolution on permanently installing the statue at the university compound, but school authorities removed the statue in March the next year.

The Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan had claimed that the then Japanese consul general based in Frankfurt had requested the head of the university to remove the statue, saying it could incite anti-Japanese sentiment and threaten peace in the local community.

On the occasion of International Women's Day, another girl statue will be installed in front of the NS-Documentation Center in Cologne through June 1, as part of an exhibition highlighting crimes committed against women during World War II.

City authorities initially opposed installing the statue but apparently approved the move after facing backlash from the local community and politicians.

Yonhap