The court in Gelsenkirchen has overruled the city government’s order to prevent the construction of a statue of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union and Communism’s main icon, there.
The statue is being put there by the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD), which owns the plot of land where it will stand. The plot is in front of the MLPD’s headquarters.
Gelsenkirchen, a city of approximately 260,000 citizens, is in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany.
The city’s government had sought to prevent the statue from being built, arguing that it would interfere with the former communal Sparkasse savings bank building, which is next to the plot and is an officially designated heritage site, according to a report by Deutsche Welle.
The court rejected this argument, however, saying that this is not the case since the statue will stand more than 10 metres from the heritage site.The court’s decision can still be appealed. Lenin’s 150th birthday was yesterday.