Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman promised Germany’s Jewish and Muslim communities on Friday they would be free to carry out circumcision on young boys despite a court ban which has provoked concerns about religious freedom. In a country that is especially sensitive to allegations of intolerance because of the Nazis’ slaughter of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, the government said it would find a way around the Cologne court ban in June as a matter of urgency. Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said:

For everyone in the government it is absolutely clear that we want to have Jewish and Muslim religious life in Germany. Circumcision carried out in a responsible manner must be possible in this country without punishment. It is well known that in the Jewish religion early circumcision carries great meaning, so it is a matter of urgency that this right be restored. The Chancellor’s office will be involved in efforts to resolve the problem. We know a quick decision is needed and that this cannot be put off. Freedom of religious practice is a very important legal right for us.