Unknown individuals have vandalized two memorial sites in Mainz. Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) were defaced with an unidentified substance, and a monument in Gonsenheim was spray-painted with political graffiti.
On the morning of Wednesday, December 17, Mainz police received two reports of damage to commemorative sites, according to the Mainz Police Headquarters.
At around 9:20 a.m., officers were alerted that several Stolpersteine on Taunusstraße, near house number 23, had been smeared with a thick white liquid. The substance was removed with water, and according to current assessments, the brass plaques did not sustain permanent damage. In addition to a charge of property damage, police are also considering whether the offense constitutes “defamation of the memory of the deceased.”
Later that same morning, another case of vandalism was reported at a memorial on Juxplatz in Mainz-Gonsenheim. Unknown individuals had extensively defaced the large, multi-part monument with pink spray paint.
Police documented several politically charged graffiti messages, including two instances of the slogan “No mourning for Nazis,” the acronym “ACAB,” and an anarchist symbol (a circled “A”) sprayed onto the memorial. Investigations for property damage are underway, and police have secured photographic evidence. So far, there are no leads on the perpetrators.
The Gonsenheim monument commemorates local residents who died in past wars. It had already been vandalized five years ago with similar pink paint and the slogan “No tribute for murderers.”
