Memory and Justice Site Updates Sites: 2010-07-27T15:53:39Z Copyright (c) 2009, Jon S. Connolly ExpressionEngine tag:memoryandjustice.org,2009:10:28 The Herbert Baum Gedenkstein tag:memoryandjustice.org,2009:site/3.231 2009-06-10T17:22:21Z 2009-07-11T20:31:22Z LB lynnparr@gmail.com Discussion of Herbert Baum Gedenkstein When memorials become ideologically problematic, is it better to get rid of them––or to add to them? The original Herbert Baum memorial reflected the ideology of communist East Germany. But rather than destroying the memorial or leaving it as an outdated relic of the GDR’s collective memory of WWII, the Plexiglas plaques, added after Germany reunified, allow the monument and its original inscriptions to stand and represent the moment in history in which they were created. Instead of replacing one version of the past with a current perception, the plaques and the visible inscriptions beneath remind the visitor that interpretations and perceptions of the past are in constant flux as societies themselves transition. Rather than erase the past as perceived by the GDR under communist rule and rhetoric, the Herbert Baum Group Memorial now creatively preserves a version of history that cannot simply be forgotten, while offering a more inclusive and democratic version of the past.

References

Bickford, Louis. “Monuments and memory.” International Herald Tribune, November 19, 2007.

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Design of Herbert Baum Gedenkstein

The Herbert Baum Gedenkstein, as it was designed by Jürgen Raue in its original form, consists of a small stone cube with inscriptions on each of its four sides. “Bound in friendship with the Soviet Union forever,” it reads in large block letters. “Unforgotten the courageous deeds and the steadfastness of the anti-fascist resistance group led by the young Communist Herbert Baum.”

The two Plexiglas plaques, installed in 2001, add a new layer of history. One plaque lists the thirty-four members of the Herbert Baum Group. The other gives more information about the Baum Group in German, English, French, and Russian, stating in part that the memorial “documents the brave act of resistance in 1942, the conception of history in 1981, and our continuous remembrance of resistance to the Nazis.”

References

Bickford, Louis. “Monuments and memory.” International Herald Tribune, November 19, 2007.

Jordan, Jennifer A. Structures of Memory. Stanford University Press, 2006: 73-75.

Schafft, Gretchen. “Civic Denial and the Memory of War.” Journal of American Academy of Psychoanalysis 26 (1998): 255-272.

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