Controversies
As head of the NDR in the 1990s Rosh banned the lyrics of the Niedersachsenlied, the anthem of Lower Saxony composed in the 1920s, from NDR radio broadcast, as she perceived them as fascistoid.
When at the Holocaust monument's dedication on 10 May 2005, Rosh held up a molar which she had retrieved from Belzec concentration camp in 1988, promising to place the tooth in a column at the memorial, the act outraged several prominent German Jewish leaders, notably Paul Spiegel, the then chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, who described the idea as "irreverent". Rosh withdrew her plan and returned the molar to Belzec concentration camp shortly after.
In 2003, Rosh was elected "most embarrassing Berliner of the year" (peinlichste Berlinerin) by the readers of Berlin city magazine Tip.
Claus Leggewie criticized her very strongly for "running over" ("... überrollt hat") any resistance against "her" monument and for leaving all those who put forward "professionally, pedagogically and aesthetically sound arguments" against her monumental project bereft of nerves, voice, reputation and good faith.
Read more about this topic: Lea Rosh