This eagle sitting on a sphere (not a world sphere just a ball) is watching over a war memorial for the fallen of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870/71. He doesn’t look happy maybe because he was a visionary seeing more wars to come.
Monday Portrait
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The war memorial (in Germany usually referred to as warrior memorial (Kriegerdenkmal) because the names of the fallen soldiers are displayed) in our town was inaugurated in 1936 to honour the dead of world war I. The much longer list of fallen soldiers from world war II was added in the 1950s. Because of the bellicose demeanour of the sculpture it is now viewed critically. Instead of removing the sculpture the town has chosen to go a different route: in direct line passing the location of the former synagogue (destroyed in 1938) is a memorial for the victims of violence, war, and prosecution. I see it as a warning against a dystopian future which would resemble a not so distant past.
Ragtag Daily Prompt: Dystopian
That’s the war memorial in my home town. It was erected in 1936 and all the dead of world war I were registered. Except for four of them. It you look closely you see the four last ones on this list, not in alphabetical order and slightly different in colour. It’s because they were Jewish Germans who had fought and died alongside their Christian German comrades. During the Nazi era they were not acknowledged. Their names were added in 1946.
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I’ve always been skeptical about war memorials. They usually reek of pathos if not bathos and I question the motives behind them.
I came across this rather odd war memorial in Bad Dürkheim. It’s in memory of the participants of the Franco-Prussian war. The participants – not the fallen as is more common – are listed with their military regiment, and a curt “gefallen” if they didn’t return. Even worse, in my mind, is the use of the ditto mark ” – not just for the same regiment but also for the word “gefallen” as if in such a monumental glorification set in stone they had to economise with letters.
On one side the non-combatants are listed, I suppose these are the financiers of this war. But what is even more disconcerting to me is the fact that this memorial was erected 40 years after the war, which resulted in the formation of the German empire, only three years before the next one, the so-called “Great War”. Almost as if a new generation was being prepared for the ultimate sacrifice. Of course, I say this with hindsight but it gives the impression of a fractured relationship with history.
The Cosmic Photo Challenge: In Memory
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I am currently teaching a so-called “orientation course” to students of German. These courses are designed to teach newcomers to Germany about our political system, our history, and our society. At present we are looking at the 20th century, and I encourage the students to find traces of recent German history.
This is a monument which was erected in 1936 to honour the dead soldiers of our town who died during the first world war. While the normal people who were at the inauguration might have clung to the hope that the world war was a solitary occurrence, at least some of the politicians must have known that plans were already under way for the next one. In the 1950s, many more names remembering the dead soldiers from the second world war were added. Today the monument is controversial because of the artistic depiction of the soldiers in the style of NS regime.
In Speyer on the river Rhine is this hall dedicated to the dead of a specific batallion during World War I, later with an added plaque for the dead of World War II.
In the main cemetery of Mannheim this monument seems to be an appeal to reconciliation, it is situated near the soldier’s section of the cemetery. Personally, I find it cynical that men who were enemies in war, who killed each other, can be reconciled in death by having their graves next to each other.
My last trio for today is from the war grave near Brandau in the Odenwald where soldiers and forced labourers (men, women, and children) are buried as a memorial against war. The crosses are overgrown with moss, showing the passage of time.
This is the back of the war memorial in our town. Erected in 1936, it did both at the time: commemorate the men who had died in the first world war, and glorify the war itself, preparing the population for the next one. The names of the dead from that war where added in the fifties.
For Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: things from behind. For more rear views, click here.
The second week of Tourmaline’s colour challenge.
Other people’s colour photographs are linked here.
pictures imperfect blog 