## Facts

- Bavaria issued a regulation requiring that “in every classroom in the public elementary schools, a cross is to be affixed.”
- The regulation applied in compulsory, state-run elementary schools that were not denominational schools.
- Parents adhering to an anthroposophical worldview objected to prominent crucifixes in their children’s classrooms and viewed them as a Christian imposition.
- The family sought removal of the religious symbols; the school administration offered limited compromises (e.g., smaller cross without corpus placed off to the side) without assuring permanence across classroom changes.
- The parents pursued interim judicial relief to remove the crucifixes pending main proceedings.
- The administrative court denied interim relief; the higher administrative court affirmed, citing, in part, lack of urgency based on the family’s earlier tolerance of modifications and alleged delay.
- The parents and their three minor children filed a constitutional complaint challenging the interim-relief denials and the classroom-cross mandate.

## Issues

1. Whether a rule requiring a cross or crucifix in every classroom of a compulsory, non-denominational public school violates the negative aspect of freedom of belief.
2. Whether the mandate and denial of interim relief unlawfully interfere with parents’ rights to direct their children’s religious upbringing and with children’s independent freedom of belief.
3. Whether denying interim relief on timeliness/urgency grounds violated the right to effective judicial protection.

## Decision

- The constitutional complaint was upheld.
- The classroom-cross mandate was held incompatible with constitutional freedom of belief and declared void.
- The interim-relief denials were set aside as violating: (i) parents’ freedom of belief together with parental upbringing rights; (ii) children’s freedom of belief; and (iii) the right to effective judicial protection (as to the higher administrative court).
- The matter was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the constitutional ruling, and Bavaria was ordered to reimburse necessary expenses.

## Legal Principles

- Freedom of belief includes a negative right not to be confronted by state-imposed religious symbols in settings that cannot realistically be avoided in daily life.
- A cross/crucifix is a specific Christian religious symbol, not a religiously neutral cultural marker; mandatory display in classrooms constitutes state identification with that symbol.
- In compulsory public schools, permanent exposure to a mandated religious symbol burdens dissenting pupils’ negative religious freedom and parents’ religious-upbringing authority.
- Limits on freedom of belief require justification by competing constitutional interests and must be reconciled through proportional accommodation; the state’s educational mission can be fulfilled without mandating a specific religious emblem.
- Effective judicial protection requires timely, practical relief against alleged fundamental-rights violations; parties should not be penalized for attempting administrative resolution before seeking court intervention.

## Conclusion

The court invalidated a statewide requirement that crosses be displayed in every public elementary classroom, holding that compulsory, unavoidable exposure to a mandated Christian symbol violates students’ negative freedom of belief, infringes related parental rights, and requires effective interim judicial protection when challenged.


Classroom Crucifix Case II (Kruzifix-Beschluss), 93 BVerfGE 1 (F.C.C. Ger. 1995)