A wooden plaque on the Hinterer Hörnle near Bad Kohlgrub sparked a discussion about how to properly deal with war memories.
The district of Upper Bavaria recommends a sensitive approach.
District - They are almost omnipresent - in Upper Bavaria and thus also in communities in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district.
Smaller or larger monuments or memorial plaques like the one on the Hinterer Hörnle near Bad Kohlgrub, with which the wars of the past are remembered with sometimes not always contemporary words.
Especially the armed forces against France in 1870/71 - after which the German Reich was founded - and the First (1914 to 1918) and the Second World War (1939 to 1945).
Some of these monuments do not convey a warning against the war and mourning for the victims.
You seem to have fallen out of time.
There is therefore a risk that they can be used for undemocratic hero worship.
“Such memorials and plaques can be found in almost every community,” says Dr.
Norbert Goettler.
"That was the zeitgeist back then."
Warning against war
As a district homeschooler, he is also involved with these things.
The district, Göttler frankly admits, is itself involved in atrocities that took place in the homeland during the Nazi regime.
At that time, the district was responsible for the psychiatric hospitals in which the Nazis' euthanasia programs were mercilessly carried out.
"That is why we have a high level of sensitivity when it comes to memorials and clinics, and that is why we also view many memorial writings critically," explains Göttler.
"We have to ask ourselves how do we deal with it?"
The Bad Kohlgruber wooden plaque that hangs on the summit cross on the Hinterer Hörnle - Dr.
Klaus Weber, District Councilor of the party Die Linke, in motion, he describes the text as “glorifying war and inhuman” - according to Göttler, it is no exception.
"We are repeatedly pointed out to such things from different quarters."
According to Göttler, a letter is in preparation, he calls it "an awareness letter" to all mayors in Upper Bavaria.
The tenor: The town hall bosses should deal with it if there is a memorial in their community.
“Most of them are in municipal hands,” says Göttler.
Historical classification
However, this is not always the case.
The wooden plaque on the Hinterer Hörnle, for example, is owned by the Gebirgs-Trachten-Erhaltungsverein (GTEV) Edelweiß Bad Kohlgrub, the war memorial chapel on Kramerplateauweg, which commemorates the fallen and missing of the Second World War, was built by the Garmisch Folk Costume Association in 1952.
In Bad Kohlgrub, Mayor Franz Degele has therefore not declared himself responsible.
If he changes his mind to something else: Göttler has announced a brochure for autumn this year that contains “ten to twelve good examples” of how to properly deal with problematic memorial sites and plaques.
Göttler's opinion on this is clear.
He speaks out against removing or tearing them down.
“You should only do this in very extreme cases.” A solution that, according to Göttler, does justice to everyone and that should hardly inflict wounds: a stele can be placed next to the memorial, in which, for example, a historian with a classifying text can have a balanced view representing things.
Göttler says: "History continues."
