Germans' uneasy relationship with their history is once again being tested, this time over controversial plans for a memorial to the country's reunification. This week, the project may come one step closer to completion.
The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, and the resulting reunification of Germany, counts as one of the country's most important and revered events. In 2007, Germany's Parliament, the Bundestag, gave the green light to a project commemorating that historic moment.
"The peaceful revolution in fall 1989 and restoration of German unity" should be remembered, according to the parliamentary resolution. The courage of then-East German citizens is to be noted in particular, the resolution goes on, for making a free reunification possible in the first place.
Playing with political interests
For many countries, such as the United States and France, national history isn't up for debate to the extent it is in Germany. The project to commemorate German unity has been bitterly contested for 10 years — everything from the planned location in central Berlin to the memorial's design. Even animal welfare activists have caused consternation. All the toing and froing has turned the issue of remembrance into a game of politics. Given the limits of public interest, progress on the memorial has suffered.
That may change on Wednesday, when the state of Berlin sells the property for the planned memorial to the federal government, which has commissioned the project. That removes one of the memorial's major hurdles, but the ongoing arguments over how to commemorate East Germany's peaceful revolution and the ensuing reunification have clouded the joy surrounding that historic event.
The planned memorial has been plagued by rising construction costs and citizen oppositionImage: picture-alliance/dpa/Foto: Milla&Partner
Memorial design mocked
The National Monument to Freedom and Unity, as it is known, got off to a shaky start. The memorial's design, drawn up by the architecture firm Milla und Partner and choreographer Sascha Waltz, is set to be a 50-meter-wide crescent that can be walked on and moved by visitors, and engraved with the defining chant of the East German freedom protests: "We are the people. We are one people."
Milla and Partner calls the monument an eye opener: "It comes to life when people gather, communicate and move together. It's an invitation to participation and an image of genuine democracy."
What's intended to be a parallel of what really happened in 1989, however, has been mocked as a seesaw, a banana peel and a golden bowl. The location in the center of Berlin has been maligned as well. The monument is to be erected on the pedestal of an equestrian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I, in front of the rebuilt Berlin Palace.
"There is what happened in 1989: The fall of the Berlin Wall. Then there is German unity. That was 1990. That's something else," said Annette Ahme, an organizer of memorial opponents. "This is about unity," she added, which is why Ahme has pushed for another location for the memorial: In front of the Reichstag, where reunification was legally agreed on.
Ahme and her fellow memorial opponents believe it should be built in front of the ReichstagImage: picture-alliance/dpa/B.v.Jutrczenka
Soaring costs
The memorial was due to be built in 2013, but those plans were put on hold when surveyors discovered a bat colony under the equestrian pedestal, and the animals had to be safely relocated. Then the pedestal's tiles had to undergo maintenance. The project's budget ballooned from €10 million ($11.6 million) to €17 million, and it faced termination on several occasions, including by the Bundestag, which only re-approved the go-ahead of the original plan in May of last year.
Germany and memorial culture
Culture Minister Monika Grütters, who is heading up the project, added to its uncertainty when she questioned if "Germans are capable of memorial of a positive nature" during a panel discussion on memorial culture two years ago. The erection of national monuments, she said, does not come easily to Germany.
"National monuments have been unthinkable since 1945, given all the suffering Germany has inflicted on Europe and the world in the 20th century," she said.
Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe was also the topic of intense discussion before its constructionImage: AP
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe was one of her examples of Germany's difficulty in happily, even proudly embracing its own history of freedom and democracy. "It's highly symbolic that after 1990, after more than 10 years of debate and arguments, and competition involving hundreds of drafts and repeated revisions of the selected project, it became the most meaningful memorial in Berlin."
However, doubts remain that the National Monument to Freedom and Unity can achieve a similar level of symbolism. And time is running out for all the necessary building permissions and construction timetables to meet the desired deadline of November 9, 2019: The 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
World commemorates victims of communism
Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, around a third of the world’s population lived in communist countries. The collapse of the Eastern Bloc was followed by a worldwide rehabilitation, in which Germany had a special role.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
The Czech Republic: Memorial for the victims
Seven bronze sculptures stand on a white stairway at the foot of the Prague Petřin Hill. Inaugurated in 2002, the memorial was originated by sculptor and former political prisoner Olbram Zoulbek. In the inscription of the pedestal it is not only dedicated to those, "imprisoned or executed but also for all those whose life was ruined by totalitarian despotism."
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Germany: Hohenschönhausen Memorial
More than 11,000 people were imprisoned between 1951 and 1989 in the remand center of the GDR secret police (Stasi). Previously the grounds, in the Berlin neighborhood of Hohenschönhausen, were used by the Soviet occupying power as a special camp for alleged regime opponents. From there, the prisoners were transported to the Nazi-built concentration camp Sachsenhausen.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/P. Zinken
Romania: Remembrance of the resistance
Since 2016, this 20-meter-high memorial made up of three wings by the sculptor Mihai Buculei has stood on the pedestal of a torn-down Lenin statue in Bucharest. It is situated in front of one of the most important buildings from the Stalin era, at Free Press Square. The initiative was the idea of the Association of Former Political Prisoners.
Image: Florian Kindermann
Albania: "House of Leaves"
In Tirana, the first memorial after the overthrow of the Stalinist regimes was opened in 2017. During the Nazi era, the German occupiers had used the building as a prison. After the Communists came to power in 1945, people were tortured and killed here. Later the secret police used the "House of Leaves," which got its name because of the climbing plants on the exterior of the building.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Georgia: Museum of Soviet Occupation
In Gori, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator still enjoys hero status in the museum named after him – 65 years after his death and 27 years after Georgia regained its independence. Currently there are plans to overhaul the exhibition. The crimes committed under Stalin have only been a central issue at the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi since 2006.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Kazakhstan: Victims of the famine
Around 1.5 million Kazakhs fell victim to the famine of 1932/33, caused by mismanagement and forced collectivism. The sculpture ensemble in Astana is dedicated to the dead. It was inaugurated on 31 May 2012, the national day of remembrance to the victims of political repression.
Image: Dr. Jens Schöne
Latvia: The Freedom Memorial
"Milda" is the nickname given to the 19-meter-high obelisk of a woman’s enthroned figure in Riga. It was erected in the 1930s, before the Soviet occupation in 1940. The statue is the central memorial for Latvians for their will to freedom and self-determination. In past decades it has repeatedly served as the starting point for protests and resistance.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Mongolia: Victims of political repression
Located between Russia and China, Mongolia suffered under foreign occupation and exploitation for nearly all of the 20th century. For a long time, it was both politically and economically dependent on the Soviet Union. The museum to the memory of the victims of political repression was opened in 1996 in Ulan Bator; a year later, the memorial was added.
Image: Torsten Baar
Korea: "Bridge of Freedom"
The bridge over the Imjin River, erected at the beginning of the 20th century, is the only bridge connecting North and South Korea. It was of great military importance during the 1950-1953 Korean War. On the southern side via a wooden pier you can reach the border. Many visitors leave flags and personal messages at this place.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
Cambodia: Victims of the Khmer Rouge
An estimated 2.2 million Cambodians were killed during the terror regime of the Khmer Rouge. That was approximately half of the population. After the invasion, also by communist troops from Vietnam, human remains and skulls were publicly exhibited, in order to document the crimes. Even today, many mass graves have yet to be discovered.
Image: Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur
USA: Goddess of Democracy
This statue in Washington DC, inaugurated in 2007, is a replica of the "Goddess of Democracy" erected by Chinese students in 1989 during their fatal protests on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Local politicians worked alongside eastern European freedom fighters such as Vaclav Havel and Lech Wałesa to erect this memorial in the US capital.
Image: Prof. Dr. Hope Harrison
USA: The victims of Katyn
In 1940, Soviets murdered around 4,400 Polish prisoners of war – mainly officers – in a forest near the Russian village of Katyn. In Poland, the massacre is synonymous for a series of mass killings. The initiative for the memorial in New Jersey, which is dedicated to all the victims of Soviet communism, started with Polish migrants in the US.
