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Skull of St. Hedwig stolen from Frankfurt Cathedral

A holy relic on display in Frankfurt Cathedral since October has been stolen, to the dismay of the city deacon.

Skull of St. Hedwig stolen from Frankfurt Cathedral
Frankfurt Cathedral. Photo: DPA

On Tuesday, city deacon Johannes zu Eltz showed the press the empty shrine, which is set into a wall in a side chapel next to the main altar.

The gold-plated monstrance (relic container) and the remains of Saint Hedwig, a baroness of Silesia in the early 13 Century, had been on display there on a permanent loan from the city of Görlitz since the autumn.

Hedwig is revered as a patron in Germany and Poland and is considered a comforter for those who have been driven from their homelands.

The centre piece of the shrine was a small capsule which contained shards of the holy woman’s skull.

Zu Eltz noticed the theft on Monday and described how it had unsettled him.

“The relics had a huge sentimental value for believers,” he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The shrine which contained the relic. Photo: DPA

The lock which secured the metal bars in front of the 25-centimetre compartment was missing when the theft was discovered.

The key was still in its original place in the vestry, leading to the suspicion that the thief cut through the lock with a bolt cutter.

“Maybe it was just some idiot who wanted to make a quick buck,” zu Eltz commented.

If that was the case, the thief is likely to be disappointed. Police estimate the value of the gold-plated monstrance at a few thousand euros.

“Melting it down wouldn’t be worth the hassle,” the deacon said, adding that the relic would be hard to sell.

The cathedral is offering a “generous finder’s fee” to anyone who can provide information which leads to its discovery.

This is the first theft from the cathedral during his time in office, zu Eltz said, but he added that it would not change the fact that the church remains open to everyone during the day.

“The cathedral in no high security area, it must remain a place of freedom,” he insisted.

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FRANKFURT

Emergency numbers fail in several German states

Callers to the emergency numbers 110 and 112 weren’t able to reach operators Thursday morning in several German states.

The 112 emergency number on an ambulance.
The 112 emergency number on an ambulance. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Boris Roessler

The emergency number 110 for police and 112 for fire crews failed around the country early Thursday morning, with callers unable to reach emergency operators for urgent assistance between about 4:30 am and 5:40 am local time.

The Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Aid is looking into these outages, which were reported in states including Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, and  Brandenburg, and in major cities like Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, and Frankfurt. Cologne was further affected by cuts to electricity, drinking water, and regular telephone services. Lower Saxony also saw disruptions to the internal phone networks of police and hospitals.

Emergency services are not reporting any more disturbances and people should be able to once again reach 110 and 112 around the country as normal.

Investigators are looking into the problem, but haven’t yet established a cause or any consequences that may have happened due to the outage. Provider Deutsche Telekom says they have ruled out the possibility of an attack by hackers.

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