Politics and Contemporary History in Germany – Panorama

The agency Kulturprojeckte Berlin, responsible for the theme year “20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Wall”, counted approximately two million people who were lured to the capital by the anniversary celebrations in 2009. One million alone went to see the exhibition “Peaceful Revolution 1989” at the Alexanderplatz, 250,000 experienced in pouring rain on November 9th the “Festival for Freedom”, and 15,000 took part in the Domino Action, including 240 Berlin schools and 100 businesses. The successful balance of a commemorative year? Goethe.de spoke with cultural studies scholar Thomas Macho of the Humboldt University of Berlin about the dramaturgy of the anniversary.

Professor Macho, you study rituals, celebrations and festivals: Has Germany developed a special form of commemoration?

No, there’s no absolute consensus and unquestionable public rituals such as in the U.S. or in France. This may simply be due to the fact that national holidays in Germany are of very recent origin and that their dates have been changed several times: it was once the 23rd of May, the Day of the Basic Law, then the 17th of June, then the 3rd of October, while Founding Day in the German Democratic Republic was celebrated on October 7th.

Why do we need a National Holiday?

Commemoration days found dynasties, testify to the rule of a royal house, mark the beginning of era, a revolution. In the age of the founding of national states, they were supposed to lead to a collective identity such as do the 14th of July in France, which commemorates the storming of the Bastille, or the Fourth of July in the United States. Days of the revolution, founding anniversaries, declarations of independence – these are all occasions. They are often and only too gladly totally forgotten. Not more than one in two Austrians still knows the reason for the National Holiday on October 26th – namely the declaration of permanent neutrality. And it’s unique in the history of National Holidays that a German Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, abolished the commemoration on October 3rd for purely economic reasons and merged it with the next Sunday in the calendar.

The 9th of November is pretty “burnt”

Why is the 9th of November so difficult – after all, it’s the day that the Wall fell and that, in 1918, the first republic was proclaimed?

But November 9, 1938 was also the night that the pogrom took place which began the unprecedented persecution of the Jews. Hitler’s march on the Feldherrnhalle took place on November 9, 1923. No, the 9th of November is pretty ‘burnt into” Germany history. That the Nazis chose just this date is obviously connected not only with the November Revolution of 1918, but also with the fact that democrats had long celebrated Schiller’s birthday and commemorated the execution in 1848 of the Paulskirche deputy Robert Blum on this date.

So it’s a date that is at least doubly occupied ...

You experience the ambiguity of history at every turn in Berlin. The Neue Wache in Unter den Linden is now the central memorial site – for whom? For the “Victims of War and Tyranny” is the official description. Does this include the victims of the Stalinist system of justice in the GDR? And those persecuted and expelled after the war? Or take the years of debate over the Holocaust memorial near the Brandenburg Gate. It was asked whether this was now a tombstone for all commemoration, a final point. Or quite topically, take the competition for a monument to the activists of the peaceful revolution in East Germany in 1989. It went so badly that it will have to be repeated in 2010. None of the 535 proposals could be accepted.

Was it different when Bonn was the capital?

It was more pragmatic, at any rate. In the North Cemetery in Bonn there was a gravestone for the victims of war where foreign guests used to be led – and that was that. Journalists disrespectfully called the place “the wreath-throwing station”. Nobody wanted grand gestures or rituals; after the experience of the “Thousand Year Reich”, politicians emphasized sobriety and simple gestures. After the move to Berlin, all that changed – there every inch is historical ground.

A bit silly

What did you think of the celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall?

Frankly, a little silly. The dominoes, knocking them over, the musical background – it was all rather too playful. The Wall wasn’t some rickety affair; it was quite solid, and many people died trying to cross it. I found the celebration too smooth, too little provocative, too much made for television.

That’s probably why the television joker Thomas Gottschalk performed there.

Yes, it’s something that emerged in the 1990s with the Berlin Republic: events, fun, amusement, entertainment – the influence of a media culture dominated by private television. When something is celebrated in Berlin, there are always hot dog stands, kiddie trampolines, climbing walls, beer counters and junk vendors. This culminated in the famous football summer during the 2006 World Cup.

So you think the Germans like to celebrate in Berlin, no matter what?

Hardly a city is better suited: the wide boulevards, generous spaces, parks, beer gardens – Berlin has plenty of room. And even when there are a hundred thousand or half a million people, they can still celebrate without too much crowding.