War Memorials

Kriege und moderne militärische Konflikte bergen das wirkmächtige Potential den Verlauf der Geschichte in einer derart gestauchten chronologischen Abfolge der Geschehnisse zu verändern, die es für Gesellschaften schwer macht, sie in ihrer Gesamtheit und ihren überaus komplexen Konsequenzen zu fassen. Mindestens ebenso schwierig ist es für kleinere sozialen Entitäten, die blutigen, schockierenden, traumatischen und tieftraurigen persönlichen Erfahrungen, die ein Krieg mit sich bringt, zu begreifen. Dennoch sind die Assoziationen, die mit dem historischen Ereignis und der Erfahrung Krieg einhergehen, vielfältiger und facettenreicher, als man zunächst annehmen könnte. Wie das Kriegsgeschehen und sein mittelbares sowie unmittelbares Nachspiel erlebt werden, ist abhängig davon, aus welcher Perspektive man einen Krieg und seinen Ausgang erlebt. Welche Motive ein Staat, eine Nation oder eine Gesellschaft gehabt hat, die Krieg führte, mit welchem Ergebnis dieser Krieg zu einem Ende kam und welche kollektiven oder auch persönlichen Erfahrungen mit ebendiesem Kriegsende verbunden waren, spielt daher die maßgebliche Rolle, wenn man über die Rezeptionsgeschichte und die Erinnerungskultur einer Nation an einen Krieg spricht und sich dieser Problematik mithilfe eines kunsthistorischen, archäologischen, architektonischen oder auch soziologischen Zugangs nähert.

This article examines the reshaping of Belgrade's memorial landscape after the Second World War and after the 1999 NATO bombings, with a focus on the role of architects. As such, the paper shifts the scale of memory debates in two ways: first, from the national to the urban; second, from 'classical' memory entrepreneurs of the political realm to city makers, usually perceived as 'technical' actors, but, as the paper argues, in fact relevant memory actors both through the way they influence sites of memory and through memory debates. The article places the engagement of architects with narratives of heroism and victimhood in Serbia in a historical perspective, examining the shift in memorialisation after the Second World War. It then discusses the hesitant approaches on engaging with ruins of the 1999 NATO bombing, highlighting frictions between various actors in the Generalštab debate. Finally, it analyses the distinctive memorial engagement with the ruins of the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) building by examining the bottom-up process of the competition for the RTS memorial. The article highlights that, even if not intentionally or by embracing memory-work, architecture and architects play a role in memory processes, while deeply enmeshed in constellations of political and economic power.

The author presents a genesis and analyzes the symbolism  of  the  Memorial  to  the  Victims  of  Communism in Tallinn. It focuses on conceptual assumptions adopted by its authors, but also takes into account later interpretations of the monument’s  message.  It  recalls  historical  events  the  memorial site relates to. It describes the period of the Soviet occupation of Estonia and presents the balance of repressions made at that time – mass arrests, secret executions, deportations of people, and  brutal  collectivization  of  agriculture.  The  historical  context  outlined  in  such  way  allows  for  a  better  understanding  of  significance  of the monument in question and its place on the memory  map  of  contemporary  Estonia.  The  author also notes that Tallinn’s monument is an important element of not only Estonian, but also – more broadly – of the European memory of the victims of Stalinism and Communism.

On the occasion of the opening in 2020 of the Main Cathedral of the Russian Armed Forces, stylistic trends of modern Orthodox architecture and ecclesiastical art are analyzed. It’s considered the phenomenon of the reconstruction of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, its influence on the development of monumental religious painting in Russia, as well as the building the Cathedral of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church on Lubyanka. The problematic of the style of new Orthodox architecture and ecclesiastical art is formulated in terms of eclecticism (historicism) that has a programmatic symbolic meaning in the context of the “statization” of Russian art culture of the past few decades.

A short overview of the Oberlin Memorial Windows, a series of five stained glass windows installed in Hamden Memorial Town Hall in 1939 by the the Town of Hamden with assistance from the New Haven Chapter of the Yankee Division Veterans Association. The windows tell the story of A. Frederick Oberlin and the Battle of Seicheprey (northeastern France), on April 20, 1918.  The windows demonstrate how closely men of the 102nd Regiment, 26th "Yankee" Division remained in their post-war lives, coming together throughout the 1920s and 1930s to continue the remembering process of their WWI experiences.

Based on the analysis of files from the Department of Defence, and drawing on interviews with veterans and on their associations' press, the article focuses on the Algerian War National Memorial in Paris, its long gestation and particularly its double, paradoxical status: that it is at the same time new and old, post-ideological and hyper-ideological. Thanks to its palimpsest configuration, this 'third millennium memorial' — as it was described by its creator (the artist Gérard Collin-Thiébaut) — has demonstrated itself to be perfectly tuned to that peculiar mode of relationship to the past that we can define as 'postmodern', a mode that is characteristic of what historian François Hartog called the presentist 'regime of historicity'.

This essay proposes a new method for engaging with one of America's most popular and poignant monuments: the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial or The Wall. The essay recognizes that for every generation following the one that lived through it, the Vietnam War is an always-already mediated experience. The essay argues that in taking a rubbing of a name from the Wall -- a common way one interacts with the monument -- the visitor and the Wall work together to marshall these mediated experiences of the Vietnam War, thus "inventing" memories of both the war and the soldiers memorialized.

During the global BlackLivesMatter protests of 2020, many called upon the United States to finally face its painful past. Tim Gruenewald's new book is an in-depth investigation of how that past is currently remembered at the national museums in Washington, DC. Curating America's Painful Past reveals how the tragic past is either minimized or framed in a way that does not threaten dominant national ideologies. Gruenewald analyzes the National Museum of American History (NMAH), the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), and the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).

The NMAH, the nation's most popular history museum, serves as the benchmark for the imagination of US history and identity. The USHMM opened in 1993 as the United States' official Holocaust memorial and stands adjacent to the National Mall. Gruenewald makes a persuasive case that the USHMM established a successful blueprint for narrating horrific and traumatic histories. Curating America's Painful Past contrasts these two museums to ask why America's painful memories were largely absent from the memorial landscape of the National Mall and argues that social injustices in the present cannot be addressed until the nation's painful past is fully acknowledged and remembered.

It was only with the opening of the NMAAHC in 2016 that a detailed account of atrocities committed against African Americans appeared on the National Mall. Gruenewald focuses on the museum's narrative structure in the context of national discourse to provide a critical reading of the museum. When the NMAI opened in 2004, it presented for the first time a detailed history from a Native American perspective that sought to undo conventional museum narratives. However, criticism led to more traditional exhibitions and national focus. Nevertheless, the museum still marginalizes memories of the vast numbers of Indigenous victims to European colonization and to US expansion. In a final chapter, Gruenewald offers a thought experiment, imagining a memory site like the recently opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice (Montgomery, Alabama) situated on the National Mall so the reader can assess how profound an effect projects of national memory can have on facing the past as a matter of present justice.

Please find the preface and chapter 1 attached.
Please see here for ordering the book:
https://tinyurl.com/bdcc45w2

Each monument somehow represents a bit of interpretation of the historical reality - it is a testimony to the past. The submitted book will describe four groups of memorials representing four different battlefields in Bohemia and Moravia.As if the stories that had stood at the beginning of the memorial's needs were loosing their authenticity becoming vacant. However, it is not absolute. New stories and traditions are emerging. annual gathering at uniformed events with fighting demonstrations, refreshment and social presentations co-create new stories, new memory of the battles and the war events. Though peculiar, it is a way of reception and "usage" of the memorial, which modifies its second life just like the political re-establishments of changes. This is because the second life is not ending; as long as the memorial is standing, the people look at it, think and try to "read" it correctly. If they are trying to understand it.

The purpose of present research is memorial garden design of war. In this design we used concepts, elements, symbols and signs which are related to art after the war between Iran and Iraq. The war between Iran and Iraq is aimed to many culture results. It had many influences on literature, paining, photography and movie making arts that these were created for representing and preserving Islamic and idealistic values relevant to the war in Iran. In the proposed design plan, aside from the implication of symbols, the composition, texture, color and form of the elements and plants in particular, have been used to imply the abstract concept in the creation of spaces. The results of this research introduce a process for using mental and sensorial perceptions of elements. This process can be applied for implying of special concepts in the environmental.

È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale, con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata, compresa la fotocopia, anche ad uso interno o didattico. Per la legge italiana la fotocopia è lecita solo per uso personale purché non danneggi l'autore. Quindi ogni fotocopia che eviti l'acquisto di un libro è illecita e minaccia la sopravvivenza di un modo di trasmettere la conoscenza. Chi fotocopia un libro, chi mette a disposizione i mezzi per fotocopiare, chi comunque favorisce questa pratica commette un furto e opera ai danni della cultura. Proprietà letteraria riservata Studio Editoriale Cafagna s.a.s., Barletta Finito di stampare nell'ottobre 2016 da Arti Grafiche Editoriali, Urbino per conto dello Studio Editoriale Cafagna s.a.s., Barletta

Placed below grade, granite surface polished to resemble the earth cut open, forcing visitors to descend and ascend, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial connects with the earth in a way that was new to memorial architecture. For critics of the VVM the design, specifically the below ground placement of the memorial, was seen as minimizing, if not negating, the contributions of veterans. My paper moves beyond a discussion of Lin’s intentions for this design and examines the effect of the memorial’s architectural and metaphorical engagement with the earth on the viewing public in both positive and negative ways.  I further consider the way that the reception of the VVM is in some ways echoed by that of the National 9/11 Memorial in New York and how that memorial’s relationship to the earth also plays a critical part in its reception.

Content:
Jarosław Centek – "Bitwa pod Gorlicami, małe Verdun czy operacja tarnowsko-gorlicka. Regionalna polityka historyczna"
Piotr Szlanta – "Pierwszowojenny lans. Kajzer Wilhelm II na froncie galicyjskim w maju 1915 roku"
Kamil Ruszała – "Komitet Ratunkowy miasta Gorlic. Zarys działalności w świetle protokołów w 1915 roku"
Martin Drobňák – "Cmentarze wojenne z pierwszej wojny światowej w powiecie Bardejov"
Kamil Ruszała – "Organizacja ogólnego dnia grobów bohaterów w Austrii w 1917 i 1918 roku"
„Polegli na polu chwały” - wybrane materiały z wystawy (ze zbiorów Roberta Kozłowskiego)."

Monumenti, memoriali e musei, quali forme commemorative da sempre istituite con la precisa finalità di tramandare il ricordo di avvenimenti significativi, sembrano oggi subire un processo di ridefinizione del proprio ruolo. In un momento caratterizzato
da una ossessione commemorativa, il presente lavoro vuole dimostrare che esiste un processo evolutivo delle forme di memorializzazione dal secondo dopoguerra a oggi, dove monumenti e memoriali hanno lasciato il passo a nuove forme
maggiormente connesse al territorio, alla partecipazione delle comunità locali e in grado di promuovere memorie attive e produttive invece che passive e luttuose.

War memory and commemoration have had increasingly high profiles in public and academic debates in recent years. This volume examines some of the social changes which have led to this development, among them the passing of the two World Wars from survivor into cultural memory. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, the book illuminates the struggle to install particular memories at the centre of a cultural world, and offers an extensive argument about how the politics of commemoration practices should be understood.

Retracing Aldo van Eyck's reflections on the in-between space concept and relating them to the design research about reconstruction in the monuments connected to the war events, common and recurrent aesthetic practices and architectural composition strategies emerge. The unexpected emptiness is similarly transfigured in some emblematic war and holocaust memorials, and through contributions about the “counter-monument” and “wararchitecture”, the reflection on the reenactment of memory reaches the recent National September 11 Memorial in New York.

The Chattri Memorial is a first of its kind, a truly unique place dedicated to the members of the Indian Army who fought in World War 1. To my knowledge it is the first place in the UK where Gurkha soldiers were commemorated. My aim with this article is to raise awareness about the two memorials, the Gurkhas and Indian Army soldiers cremated here in WW1. To let this be part of their story and memory, not to be forgotten in the annals of history. Jai Gurkha!

Considered selected examples of contemporary art (Russian and foreign) addressed to the topic of monumentalization / memorialization. Emphasized the problem of “spiritual emptiness” in the public consciousness, as well as the possibility of its solution by artistic means. In the field of attention - the degree of correspondence of selected works to the declared topic, the possibility of terminological definition of current trends of the latest monumental art.
Анализируются примеры современного искусства (российского и зарубежного), обращенного к теме монументализации / мемориализации. Акцентирована проблема «духовной пустоты» в общественном сознании, а также проблема возможности ее решения художественными средствами. В сфере исследовательского внимания - степень соответствия избранных произведений заявленной теме, возможности терминологического определения актуальных тенденций новейшего монументального искусства.

Im Juni 2013 wurde am Stadtrand von Moskau Russlands erster National-friedhof eröffnet. Die Entwürfe aus dem Jahr 2003 sahen einen parkähnlichen Landschaftsfriedhof vor, der Elemente des amerikanischen Nationalfriedhofs Arlington aufgriff. Doch die Ergebnisse des Wettbewerbs wurden unter der Hand revidiert. Anstelle eines von Architekten entworfenen Ortes rangunabhängiger Bestattungen und stiller Trauer entstand ein von Bildhauern gestalteter Friedhof der Helden und Generäle im sowjetischen Monumentalstil. Ein Bruch mit der Tradition war nicht im Interesse des Verteidigungsministeriums, das das Verfahren dominierte. Der neue Friedhof huldigt einem panhistorischen Militarismus, in dem die Geschichte Russlands als eine Abfolge heroischer Siege erscheint.

La fine del Regno delle Due Sicilie è uno dei momenti cruciali della storia dell'Italia contemporanea. La sua rilettura è un efficace contributo al dibattito in corso sull'implosione delle monarchie borboniche e la creazione di nuovi Stati nel mondo atlantico e mediterraneo. Crisi di legittimità, guerre civili, costruzione di edifici nazionali sono fenomeni che consentono di ripensare anche l'unificazione italiana, verificando vecchie e nuove fonti, proponendo elementi di aggiornamento storiografico. In questa direzione, l'articolo utilizza quarantacinque volumi di memorie, scritti da nazionalisti unitari o da lealisti borbonici, tutti meridionali, tra il 1860 e il 1903 1 .

In his contribution to the roundtable in Museum Anthropology on the Confederate memorial debate, Mark Auslander critically reflects on proposals to move these memorial into museum spaces.    Museum Anthropology, Vol. 41, Iss. 2, pp. 137–39 © 2018

Denne artikkelen handler om minne og sted - om hvordan minne gestaltes som monumenter, og om hvordan monumenter impregnerer rommet med bestemte fortidsfortolkninger. Artikkelen handler nærmere bestemt om hvordan Akershus festning fremstår som krigsminnelandskap. Gjennom en analyse av i alt åtte monumenter på eller rett utenfor festningen diskuterer artikkelen hvordan ulike sider ved den offisielle minnekulturen om annen verdenskrig materialiserer seg i landskapet. Det eldste av monumentene ble innviet i 1949, det nyeste i 2000. Artikkelen spør hvordan krigserindringens historiske utvikling kommer til syne gjennom monumentene på Akershus festning.

Upamiętnianie 1 żołnierzy poległych podczas I wojny światowej już od 1914 roku stało się jednym z głównych elementów kreowania tożsamości wschodniopruskiej. Żołnierzy, którzy oddali życie w obronie ojczyzny uznawano za narodowych bohaterów, których pamięć czynów powinna trwać na wieki 2 . W dotychczasowej literaturze pomijano wymiar społeczny tego zjawiska. Należy podkreślić, że dla wielu rodzin, istniejące we wsi czy miasteczku miejsca pamięci, takie jak cmentarz wojenny lub pomnik były jedynym sposobem upamiętnienia bliskich, którzy spoczęli daleko od rodzinnych domów. Oficjalna retoryka państwowa zwracała uwagę na ludzki wymiar strat. Wznoszono także pomniki ku czci żon i matek -nie konkretnych osób, ale symbolu tych, których osierocili polegli.

Some 200 years ago my forefathers, the Gorkhalis, fought the British in India. A 100 years ago my great grandfather was commemorated in Delhi and 70 years ago my great uncle in the Gurkha Rifles, received his War medal in India. (New) Delhi, the capital of India has several places that relate to the Gorkhas, Gurkhas and Gorkhalis over the last 200 years. The former Mughal capital is rich in history and when explored more and more places that has a  Gurkha (Gorkha) heritage and history show up.
The India Gate, New Delhi, India is a War Memorial to the brave Gurkhas and soldiers of the Indian Army.

This paper examines why the history wars between South Korea and Japan are intensifying in the 21st century and the prospects for reconciliation. South Korea’s history museums promote anti-Japanese nationalism, making it difficult to unshackle the present from the past. In 2014 there was controversy over a Japanese manga exhibit that resonates with broader bilateral disputes over colonial history ranging from the comfort women to forced labor. These battles over the shared past have become internationalized, stoking mutual vilification and jingoistic sentiments.

This chapter provides an extensive overview of what has happened to Soviet war memorials since 1989/91. It discusses the whole range of ways in which memorials have been treated. In doing so, it shows that the idea of a general post-socialist iconoclasm is false, and centralized removal campaigns have been an exception rather than the norm.
The chapter covers the former Soviet Union as well as Central and Eastern Europe, but also other regions from Manchuria to Israel and the United States. Separate sections discuss historical background; the legal context, institutions, and inventorying efforts; new construction and reinterpretation; destruction, removal, and modification; and artistic interventions.
An English version is available upon request, on condition that you state how you are going to use this is in your academic research.

The Valley of the Fallen – the great monument that Francisco Franco devised, in those dead during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War’s honour – enjoys a leading position amongst the memorials erected along the warlike 20th century, not only because of its impressive size and technical display but also because of its unwonted conception. With a symbolic background of High Middle Ages echoes, it joins architectural approaches from ideas arisen at the end of 18th century with scenic aspects already romantic but full of symbolist and expressionist tendencies, from the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century.