Plan B Forum

German police have opened an investigation into the disappearance of a large wooden sculpture of a phallus from a mountainside where it appeared without explanation several years ago.



The two-metre-tall (7ft) sculpture appeared to have been chopped down over the weekend, local newspaper Allgaeuer Zeitung reported on Monday, leaving behind only a pile of sawdust on the 1,738m-high (5,702ft) Grünten mountain, in southern Bavaria, 140km south-west of Munich.

The homage to male genitalia had gained celebrity status in recent years as a destination for hikers, and even appeared on Google Maps, where it was classified as a “cultural monument”. Local lore has it that it was made as a prank birthday present for a young man whose family didn’t appreciate the gift, so the 200kg (440-pound) sculpture was hauled up the mountain and left there.

In recent weeks, the sculpture has enjoyed mixed fortunes, being knocked down and put up again, but also having a beer dedicated to it by the local brewery (“a tangy, natural red beer”).

The German news agency dpa reported that police in the Bavarian town of Kempten are investigating the disappearance, although it wasn’t clear whether a crime had been committed. The owner of the sculpture is unknown.

It has been a tough few days for unorthodox, mystery monuments. The 3.5-metre (11ft) stainless steel monolith in the Utah desert that garnered so much attention since its discovery a fortnight ago has also disappeared.

The San Juan county sheriff said the office did not have the resources to devote much time and energy to investigating who took the object away, which was illegal to begin with.

Hundreds travelled to find the monolith, which was spotted on 18 November by state helicopter crews helping wildlife biologists count bighorn sheep. Utah officials did not say specifically where the monolith was located, but people soon found it through satellite images dating back to 2016 and determined its GPS coordinates.

The two-metre-tall (7ft) sculpture appeared to have been chopped down over the weekend

In recent weeks, the sculpture has enjoyed mixed fortunes, being knocked down and put up again, but also having a beer dedicated to it by the local brewery (“a tangy, natural red beer”).

A group of young men claiming to be Christians have posted a video of themselves tearing down a mysterious monolith that had appeared atop a California mountain and replacing it with a cross.

The monolith had been built near the town of Atascadero and sparked huge interest after the appearance of a similar silvery metal-faced monolith that had been discovered in the deserts of Utah.

That original monolith – which attracted hundreds of curious sightseers and garnered headlines worldwide – was also destroyed by visitors who were captured taking it down and carrying it away by an observer’s mobile phone video.

Now the Atascadero monolith has met a similar kind of fate, according to a report in the San Luis Obispo Tribune newspaper.

In a video, which was livestreamed and posted online, the group of young men drive from southern California to tear down the structure. Under cover of darkness, they hike up to the structure and tear it down while chanting “Christ is king!”. They then erect a homemade wooden cross in its place and drag the remains of the monolith down the mountain to their car.

During the video, the men also make offensive comments and drink substantial quantities of energy drinks, while also referencing Donald Trump and the QAnon conspiracy theory and their mission is to demonstrate “how much we love Jesus Christ”.

The vandalism angered local officials.

“We are upset that these young men felt the need to drive five hours to come into our community and vandalize the monolith,” Atascadero’s mayor, Heather Moreno, said in a news release. “The monolith was something unique and fun in an otherwise stressful time.”