Deserters Monument (Erfurt)

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Coordinates: 50 ° 58 '41.8 "  N , 11 ° 1' 14.3"  E

Monument deserter Erfurt-above.jpg

The memorial for the unknown armed forces deserter and for the victims of Nazi military justice in front of the Philipp Bastion of the Petersberg Citadel was inaugurated on September 1, 1995.

description

Monument deserter Erfurt-front.jpg

The memorial comes from the Erfurt artist Thomas Nicolai and consists of eight metal steles, seven of which are stylized in a “rigid, disciplined posture”. One is "individually shaped", turns away from the row and symbolizes the deserter . A bronze plaque on the ground bears the inscription , TO THE UNKNOWN Wehrmacht deserter - Victims of Nazi Military Justice - Allen who denied the Nazi regime as well as a quote from the factory dreams of Günter Eich : silk sand, not oil in the machinery of the world.

Nicolai processed scrap (boilers) as this is a material with traces. Steel as a medium of war is reminiscent of the material battles of World War II . The arrangement of the steles in the form of a narrow alley is reminiscent of running the gauntlet and conveys a feeling of oppression, uniformity and hopelessness, which is reinforced by the tips of the base resulting from the material. Nicolai sees the problem of obedience, the integration into an order, as a general tension between the individual and the social system. If a pain threshold (indicated by the deserter's head tilted at an angle) is exceeded, the right to self-determination becomes the right to refusal.

Historical reference of the place

The monument is facing the old town ( Andreasviertel ) in the fortress moat of the Petersberg Citadel in a quiet place, but can be reached after 200 meters on the footpath that branches off to the right in front of the main gate. In the military detention building (next to the former main guard house) there had been a police detention center since 1918, which became a pre- trial detention center for political prisoners during the National Socialist era . In the commandant's house of the fortress (above the main entrance) the military court 409 ID of the Wehrmacht had been housed since 1935, which sentenced around 50 deserters to death during the Second World War . Corresponding detention cells were located in the basement of the large defense barracks . The convicted deserters were shot at the spot where the memorial stands today.

Origin and controversy

Detail of the deserter's stele

In November 1994 an initiative was formed that wanted to erect a memorial for the unknown armed forces deserter on May 8, 1995, the 50th anniversary of the liberation . It included trade unions, peace groups, deserters, victims of National Socialism, church representatives and artists. In January 1995 she decided on a Nicolai concept and developed the project with him and young skilled workers from Deutsche Bahn AG / Erfurt plant and the railway workers' union . Prominent supporters were Ralph Giordano and Gerhard Zwerenz , who himself deserted as a Wehrmacht soldier. As the first signatory to an appeal, you wrote:

“ Our liberators were foreigners. However, there were also people among the German people who did not come to terms with the crime. There was resistance in various forms and qualities. Many have withdrawn from the machinery. Some are known, others remained anonymous or have been forgotten ... It is high time, therefore, to expect society to deal with unresolved problems of the past. This includes accepting the legacy of political victims of Nazi military justice and remembering German conscientious objectors and armed forces deserters who made a contribution to liberation with their decision. "

Therefore, these should be legally rehabilitated, the memorial sharpen the conscience against any human rights violations and encourage them to oppose the violence. But Nicolai also emphasized: "I don't want to turn the deserter into a hero and the soldiers who have stayed with me to lose."

Among many others joined Joschka Fischer , Vera Lengsfeld , the Protestant Bishop Christoph Demke , Probst Heino Falcke , the Thuringian Social Affairs Irene Ellenberger , Christa Wolf , the former Wehrmacht deserter Ludwig Baumann and Dorothee Solle in the call. Since the Mayor of Erfurt Manfred Ruge remained negative until the unveiling, the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen / Neues Forum parliamentary group submitted a motion to the city council on March 7, 1995, which, with the votes of the PDS and the majority of the SPD, took over the administration on March 22 , 1995 March 1995 committed to provide a public location preferably on Petersberg.

Then the city's art commission was called in, which criticized the lack of a regular tender due to the advanced initiative. After assessing the concept and a first completed stele, she criticized the design as “too overloaded” on the one hand, and “too abstract” on the other. The planned May 8th deadline could no longer be met.

At a regular press table on April 20, 1995, the initiative and the cultural representative Joachim Kaiser agreed to finally erect the monument on September 1. On July 6th, however, the initiative received the written, negative opinion of the art commission. Mayor Manfred Ruge submitted a motion for the council meeting on August 30th not to erect the memorial as agreed, which the culture committee supported by a majority on August 15th without hearing the initiative or the artist. The mayor issued a construction freeze at the instigation of the cultural representative. After a special city council meeting called for August 28 at the request of the Greens / Forum group, the earlier decision was restored, the monument was finally opened to the public on September 1.

Since the planning, the memorial has been provoking heated public discussions. This highlights a controversy in the magazine Stadt und Geschichte . The head of the Erfurt City Archives described Fahnenflucht as not “particularly honorable”; he "rather thinks of those who [...] have persevered with their comrades." Another pointed out that "the Wehrmacht [was] an instrument of the Nazis' war of extermination". Deserters “were tired of prolonging senseless dying. And they were afraid too. Should they have been heroes for Hitler? "

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the opening of the monument, the exhibition “What was law then ... soldiers and civilians before the courts of the Wehrmacht” was shown on the Petersberg in Erfurt. The exhibition was opened by the founder and chairman of the Federal Association of Victims of Nazi Military Justice eV, Ludwig Baumann . In this context, on June 9, 2010, he signed the Golden Book of the city of Erfurt and spoke about the long and difficult history of the recognition of deserters as victims of National Socialism.

literature

  • DGB-Bildungswerk Thüringen eV, cultural association wall breaking (ed.): Memorial for the unknown armed forces deserter. Documentation of an Erfurt initiative; Erfurt 1995
  • Steffen Raßloff : 100 monuments in Erfurt. History and stories . With photographs by Sascha Fromm. Essen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8375-0987-8 . P. 196 f.
  • Steffen Raßloff: The Petersberg Citadel as a memorial to the Nazi dictatorship and World War II . In: Heimat Thüringen, 2–3 / 2005, pp. 42–44.
  • Steffen Raßloff: Monuments in Erfurt: Refused to the Nazi regime. In: Thüringer Allgemeine from August 6, 2011. ( online )
  • Eckart Schörle : The Erfurt Deserters Monument - A Review. In: City and History. ISSN  1618-1964 (2011), 48, pp. 32-34.

Web links

Commons : Memorial for the unknown Wehrmacht deserter (Erfurt)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steffen Raßloff: The Petersberg Citadel as a place of remembrance of the Nazi dictatorship and the Second World War . In: Heimat Thüringen, 2–3 / 2005, p. 42.
  2. ↑ R. Petz: A commitment to human nature. In conversation with the Erfurt artist Thomas Nicolai ; in: UNZ, 11, 2009, p. 11
  3. ↑ Birgit Kummer: How Erfurt came to a monument for deserters. In: Thuringian General. September 1, 2015, accessed December 5, 2018 .
  4. ↑ The trauma of war still in my mind. Controversial monument for Wehrmacht deserters unveiled ; Thuringian regional newspaper , September 2, 1995
  5. ↑ DGB-Bildungswerk Thüringen eV, cultural association wall breaking (ed.): Monument for the unknown armed forces deserter. Documentation of an Erfurt initiative; Erfurt 1995, p. 2
  6. ↑ a b Frankfurter Rundschau, August 16, 1995
  7. ^ Bernhard Honnigfort: Wild growth and injured vanity. Thuringia's politicians argue over a deserter memorial; Frankfurter Rundschau , August 16, 1995
  8. ^ DGB-Bildungswerk Thüringen eV, Kulturverein Mauernrechen (ed.): Memorial for the unknown armed forces deserter. Documentation of an Erfurt initiative; Erfurt 1995, p. 5
  9. ^ Letter to the editor from Dr. Rudolf Benl. In: City and History. Journal for Erfurt 6, 2000, p. 23
  10. ^ Letter to the editor from Prof. Dr. Siegfried Wolf. In: City and History. Journal for Erfurt 7, 2000, p. 27