The war dead

[Kralle18]

Throughout the UK, every town has some sort of memorial commemorating the inhabitants of that town who were killed in the war.

Does anything like this exist in Germany?

There is the Mindelunden in Copenhagen... burial place of resistance figthers as I recall..

and I know that there are many british, canadian, australian and new zealand pilots buried around in danish graveyards in danish towns and villages...

[Matt]

I have been to Germany a no. of times. During down time I would find local war memorials, which most towns seemed to have. They generally had names from both wars.

[ManfredV]

Each German town and village has it´s memorials. You´ll find them in churches, on grave yards and in parks, public places etc.
There are two types of memorials: those which remember the "heroes" of both WW - and those which remember them as victims and remind us that war is bad. Most memorials only mention dead soldiers, but others mention all victims of WW and Nazi cruelty. There are also memorials for victims of bombing. In bigger towns like Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Nuremberg they buried a lot of bomb victims in mass graves and later built big memorials. F.e. Nuremberg South cemetry.
There have been great discussions since the 1980th about they way we shall remember. Esp. in small villages you´ll find still these "old fashion" ones that remembers the "heroes", but today most people agree: memorials must remind us of victims of war, they should be a sign of mourning and should tell us: never again!

[sammonja6]

i do not know of germany, but most villages in austria have a monument to the dead of both wars. it is usually listed by year. modt times , very few until 42-43

[RG]

In Poland such monuments also exist, especially in Slask (Slesien), where live people whose fathers and grandfathers served in German army. There is an example.

[Bjørn from Norway]

Hello!
There are monuments for both Wiking, Nordland, the Norwegian legion and the Skijegerbatallion. All of these are however not in Norway, but on their own battlefields or cemetarys, and all were erected by the veterans themselves.
There is also a monument for the Norwegian frontfighters in Norway - which equally is placed the by the veterans themselves.

B.

[Andreas]

The oldest ones I have seen date from the war of 1870/71, one of those in a small village in the Palatinate. Those ones seem to be more of the Dulce et decorum est style serving as propaganda at the same time. They then become more sombre over time, with WW I usually more oriented towards mourning, and WW2 just simple plaques with names. In many cases, they added WW2 to the WW1 memorial, if there was space, or they integrate them into a group of memorials.

But there is one in pretty much every village. Sometimes they give ranks, sometimes units, most of the time date of death/missing, sometimes everything. They are not always right, either.

What we do not have as much (at all) in Germany are the service chapels that exist in British churches, which often have regimental flags, rolls of honour, etc.

All the best

Andreas

[Qvist]

Even in the Czech republic, you often see monuments to World War I dead with inscriptions along the lines of "they gave their lives for our freedom" etc. Which is quite ironic, given that that the Habsburg army is universally regarded as the principal obstacle to the freedom of the Czech people, and the official heroes are those who fought in the Czechoslovak legions organised by the Western allies. They get their fair share of monuments too, BTW.

cheers

[Jiri]

Well, it depends, on some WWI monuments in Czech republic one can read inscription as "They gave their lives, obedient to the law," which simply depicts that their lost their lives in army service, and generally, there are no separate memorials of Habsburg army soldiers and Czechoslovak Legionaries, and in each town or village are usually, remembered on the single monument - if they were both in this village.

[Qvist]

Hello Jiri,

In Pribram at least there is a separate monument to Legion soldiers, unless we completely misunderstood the text of the monument. And in Pardubice, the memorial placque (which still sports a depiction of a soldier in a German-style helmet) in the center of the town spoke of having fallen for freedom if I recall correctly. At least I am fairly sure I have seen such wording somewhere with regard to fallen from the Habsburg army. But of course, the reason I remember that is exactly because it was surprising. But your point would be that the wording is more usually more careful? That would certainly make sense.

cheers

[Jiri]

Well, sometimes there are separate monuments to the Legions in towns, but these are more monuments of the Legions than memorials to the deads, and, if I recall correctly, on the cemetery memorials are more usual common inscriptions for Austro-Hungarian army soldiers and Legionaries, in alphabetical order. In Pardubice (if you meant this one memorial at the St. Bartholomew's church - http://www.vets.estranky.cz/fotoalbum/V ... iginal/984) - is written "Town of Pardubice - to citizens fallen for the country in the World War" - with no distinctions on which side they fought.

[Qvist]

Hello again Jiri,

The Pribram monument was a large memorial with the names of the fallen inscribed. Quite a lot of names too, I wondered at the time if it could be a more general memorial than just to the local Legion dead. With Pardubice, yes that is the one (what a mervellous church that is, btw). And I stand corrected about the wording, though "for the country" boils down to much the same paradox. Not that it is very inexplicable, there is after all no easy answer to how to deal with it, the ambiguity is so to speak inherent in the historical situation.

cheers, and thanks

[Geoff Walden]

I have seen many military monuments and memorials in Germany - most of these were in Bavaria, but maybe that's because I lived in Bavaria. Most of these were WW1 monuments, many with WW2 names added post-1945. The earliest I have seen were for the 1866 war in which the Bavarians were on the losing side. Also some 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War monuments (when the Bavarians fought on the winning side).

You can see pics of some of these at http://www.thirdreichruins.com/memorials.htm .

Geoff Walden

[soldat_m56]

The Online Gefallendendenkmäler has an exhaustive list of the WWI and WWII memorials thorughout Germany (and outside Germany) and the names inscribed on them. Some monuments have photos and some don't. Lists both dead and "Vermißt". I found the names of a number of relatives from my family's hometown in Niedersachsen on there.

http://www.denkmalprojekt.org/

Klaus

[Knösel]

Hi All.
In the small Vilages in the near of my Hometown we have in every Village an Memorial for the Fallen of WW I and WW II.
In Siehten, stadt Ludwigsfelde
in Wietstock , in Zossen,in Nächst Neuendorf and so on.

Viribus Unitis!

Knösel