For decades, the official war memorial of the University of Tuebingen was used for ceremonial purposes by the various student fraternities on the National Day of Mourning (Volkstrauertag), the second sunday in November. These ceremonies began to be disrupted by "leftist" students in the 1960s. Only since2006 have these ceremonies been revived. I attended the ceremony this year.

The photo shows student members of the Germania and Arminia fraternities. They formed a small honor guard in their traditional uniforms with sabers and flags to honor the fallen. You can see all the photos from the ceremony at http://sites-of-memory.de/main/eberhardtshoehe.html#vtt.

The ceremony was very poorly attended. There are over two dozen student fraternities in Tübingen. Even when one considers that only a few of them belong to the conservative "duelling" variety (so-called "schlagende Verbindungen" or "Burschenschaften"), I found it astonishing how few of them were involved and how few of the members of the two directly participating fraternities showed up. Not even the musicians who were to play the national anthem showed up. Even if several dozen people had showed in full traditional regalia one would have been able to make the case that this ceremony, at least in this form, was a bit of an anachronism. As it was, with so few people present, it seemed rather awkward, almost like a caricature. Considering that the event wasn't even announced on the hosting fraternity Germania's home page, it is not surprising.

The honor guard showed up about 30 minutes early to rehearse their march, drawing their sabers in unison, marching, etc.

The ceremony consisted of the honor guard carrying the flags to the front, a brief speech by a representative of the Germania fraternity, a wreath-laying, a moment of silence, the singing of the third verse of the national anthem, and the return of the honor guard.

The speech was interesting. Anyone expecting the "Burschenschaften" to present an arch-conservative, pseudo-fascist interpretation would have been disappointed. Much of what was said was very mainstream and could have been said at the city's ceremony taking place at the same time at the Bergfriedhof on the other side of town:

- a resume of the history of the Volkstrauertag
- the dead warn us of the imperative of peace and a peaceful future for Europe
- the Volkstrauertag is struggling for relevance, few people are interested

There were also a few ideas and interpretations which would raise some eyebrows in some circles, but which could certainly find space in mainstream newspapers such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, such as:

- those who fell in the Second World War fought for glory, honor and loyalty, but were sacrificed for a criminal government
- honoring the fallen is (wrongly) viewed with suspicion, we must see not only the crimes of the regime, but also see the individual fates of those who died, people who were not just criminals, but people from all classes and parties

The individualization of memory - the focus on the soldiers as individuals and not on the war or the reasons behind it - is a common turn made to avoid the stigma of defeat and still forge some kind of unity within the society through the commemoration. In the words of James Mayo: "...defeat...cannot be forgotten and a nation's people must find ways to redeem those who died for their country to make defeat honorable. This can be done by honoring the individuals who fought rather than the country's lost cause." (Quoted in Wagner-Pacifici, Robin; Schwartz, Barry: The Vietnam Veterans's Memorial. Commemorating a Difficult Past. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 97, No. 2, Sept. 1991, p. 380).

The speech closed with remarks which surprised me for their critical interpretation of current German military involvement around the world. The speaker pointed out that the German soldiers who are stationed on various war fronts around the world are defending certain economic interests and not the real interests of those in the war-torn areas, the people they purportedly defend.

There were no protests or disturbances. The days of sharp, ideological conflict within the student body are clearly over.