October 29, 2013
German hopes for centenary may be dashed
Germany sees the World War I centenary as a chance to promote European integration and arrive at a shared remembrance of the disaster. But that may be too ambitious. For many countries, remembering the war is likely to remain a national affair.
(David Crossland)
The world is getting ready to commemorate the start of the war that shaped the last century, killed 16 million people and has become synonymous with the futile loss of life and the onset of industrial warfare, where the individual counted for nothing in the face of artillery, machine guns, poison gas, flamethrowers, tanks and mud.
But hopes that the centenary will result in a truly common remembrance of the war may be dashed. Each nation is preoccupied with planning its own ceremonies, and Germany currently has no firm plans at all.
Britain has announced a £50 million (€58 million/$80 million) program of remembrance.
MUTED PREPARATIONS IN GERMANY
In Germany, preparations are far more low-key. The government has yet to even outline its plans. "We are in close contact with our partners to coordinate commemoration activities," a German government official told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
"Given the global and complex nature of the event a century ago, there is in each country a diversity of experiences and feelings," the official added. "Every nation has the right to its own approach. However, we see great will and engagement to strengthen the bridges between our peoples on the occasion of the centenary."
Berlin's Free University and the Bavarian State Library have launched the largest-ever international research project into the war, and the German Historical Museum in Berlin is planning a major exhibition next year. But the country isn't gearing up for big public ceremonies of national remembrance.
"For us, everything is secondary to World War II and Nazi rule, which dominates people's memories," said Fritz Kirchmeier, spokesman for the German war graves commission.
A MESSAGE OF EUROPEAN UNITY?
Sending a message that Europe, bound by the memory of the wars that devastated it, shares a common destiny and must keep on uniting? Bad timing. The euro crisis has put solidarity among European countries under severe strain. Besides, the new generation of leaders who have no experience of war no longer embody a link between the bloody past and today's need for unity.
Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl and French President François Mitterrand made a powerful gesture of reconciliation and unity in 1984, when they held hands during a ceremony at a war cemetery in Verdun, the site of one of the bloodiest battles of World War I.
The German government would like to see ceremonies next year convey a similar message.
"We must not forget the incredible suffering this cataclysm meant for a whole generation," the government official said. "We wish to stress the great achievement of reconciliation in Europe. Closer cooperation and integration in Europe proved to be the right way out of the dark shadows of the first half of the 20th century."
But many Europeans take peace for granted these days. And the ceremonies are unlikely to sway critics of further integration.
"As for Germany, I'm pretty doubtful whether it's possible to arrive at a shared view," British historian Max Hastings said. "While most Germans accept German responsibility for the Second World War, most Germans today are inclined to feel that the First World War wasn't their fault. Some of us historians believe that while no one nation bears all responsibility, Germany was the one nation that in July 1914 had the power to prevent a war, and chose not to exercise it."
HISTORIANS ARRIVING AT SHARED VIEW
Among historians, at least, the view that Germany bears considerable but not sole responsibility has long been established and is unlikely to be seriously challenged in the run-up to the centenary.
"The German and Austrian leaderships didn't want the war but they risked it; they played a dangerous game," says Professor Oliver Janz, a German historian at Berlin's Free University.
There is no sign so far that the centenary will have any shades of a victory celebrations in the nations that won the war. And no one is likely to dispute that the centenary offers an opportunity to explain how the war happened and its enormous impact on the last century.
From today's point of view, it's a challenge to understand how countries allowed themselves to be maneuvered into a position in which whole generations of their men were sent to be slaughtered for a few miles, sometimes just meters, of ground - for four endless years.
Fonte:
http://www.spiegel.de/europe-prepares-for-100th-anniversary-of-world-war-i-a-930655.html
Mais:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrWPsj6fVbeXYg6Pz4AguIUiwMbXAjGAf
http://www.spiegel.de/international/topic/world_war_one
Ypres 2014
