I like the idea of transferring "contentious" public monuments (Bristol's Colston statue, for example) into more controlled spaces like museums, where it is possible to add context to their removal, rather than arbitrarily destroying them because they're of "bad" people.
This enables continuing discussions of and/or learning from the point in history they represent, instead of simply forgetting the past.
Do you have thoughts on the Soviet war memorial in Treptower Park, Berlin? I was in the area recently and a friend said he'd never actually seen it, so we went to take a look. It's ridiculous in scale and grandeur, represents a complicated and difficult time in Germany's past, is maintained at considerable expense out of a (perhaps) misguided sense of loyalty, and on the whole I really can't decide how I should feel about it.
I have actually still never been to Berlin. I'm not sure how that's happened. Anyway I know of the monument, and I think in that case it's the associations with antifascism that mean that Germans just don't dare touch it. It might be part loyalty, as you suggest, but I'd imagine there's at least as much a sense of wariness around the idea of contemporary Germany dismantling a monument perceived by many to represent antifascist action.
It's a parallel to what's happened in many places in Ukraine, where they take down Soviet monuments to the "antifascist Red Army" because many Ukrainians no longer want those Soviet associations, but every time they do the Kremlin's propaganda team has an absolute field day and frames it as a rejection of antifascism, and therefore...
The antifascism thing makes sense, it's just hard to see modern day Russia in that light. I am genetically half German and I've lived here 10 years but I still don't fully grasp the subtleties of Germany's relationship to its own past. Maybe in another 10 years...
If you do ever make it to Berlin, hit me up - I'd jump at the chance to take you out for a beverage of your choice and maybe a section of what I like to informally call "Kay's half-arsed tour of Berlin".
I like the idea of transferring "contentious" public monuments (Bristol's Colston statue, for example) into more controlled spaces like museums, where it is possible to add context to their removal, rather than arbitrarily destroying them because they're of "bad" people.
This enables continuing discussions of and/or learning from the point in history they represent, instead of simply forgetting the past.
Exactly. It's a case of controlling and contextualising the message, rather than just silencing it.
Do you have thoughts on the Soviet war memorial in Treptower Park, Berlin? I was in the area recently and a friend said he'd never actually seen it, so we went to take a look. It's ridiculous in scale and grandeur, represents a complicated and difficult time in Germany's past, is maintained at considerable expense out of a (perhaps) misguided sense of loyalty, and on the whole I really can't decide how I should feel about it.
I have actually still never been to Berlin. I'm not sure how that's happened. Anyway I know of the monument, and I think in that case it's the associations with antifascism that mean that Germans just don't dare touch it. It might be part loyalty, as you suggest, but I'd imagine there's at least as much a sense of wariness around the idea of contemporary Germany dismantling a monument perceived by many to represent antifascist action.
It's a parallel to what's happened in many places in Ukraine, where they take down Soviet monuments to the "antifascist Red Army" because many Ukrainians no longer want those Soviet associations, but every time they do the Kremlin's propaganda team has an absolute field day and frames it as a rejection of antifascism, and therefore...
The antifascism thing makes sense, it's just hard to see modern day Russia in that light. I am genetically half German and I've lived here 10 years but I still don't fully grasp the subtleties of Germany's relationship to its own past. Maybe in another 10 years...
If you do ever make it to Berlin, hit me up - I'd jump at the chance to take you out for a beverage of your choice and maybe a section of what I like to informally call "Kay's half-arsed tour of Berlin".