Munich, the one-time „capitol of the movement“ (the Nazi movement, that is) finds itself in a bit of a stir over how to commemorate its sordid past. The city is sponsoring a competition entitled “Victims of National Socialism – New Forms of Remembering and Memorializing.” Initiated in 2007, the competition’s purpose is to find a new and (ostensibly) better means of publicly expressing Munich’s relationship to the persecutions carried out under the Nazi regime. The current memorial to the victims of National Socialism, a dark stone stele topped with an eternal flame, was erected in 1985. It stands in the shadows on the edge of Munich’s downtown, hemmed in by hotels and office buildings on one side and by noisy, bustling boulevards on the other. Unless you’re deliberately looking for it, you’re likely to pass by without ever noticing it (which may have been the original intent).

The jury charged with judging competition entries, made up of art experts and city councilmen, first narrowed the proposals down to twelve, and then chose from those three finalists. The problem is, all three of these met with resounding groans of disapproval from city fathers and general head-shaking on the part of the general public. And, indeed, the proposals are a tad odd. One, entitled “The Last Memorial Kindergarten,” envisioned surrounding one of the city’s kindergardens with walls that could be lowered during the day and raised at night, enclosing the structure entirely. This disappearing kindergarden would evoke the stillness and absence of those murdered by the Nazis. But, as an abstract installation, it would offer no explicit reference to the Holocaust and passers-by would not necessarily be aware of its meaning.

Another of the three final selections proposed erecting a large, lighted signboard above Munich’s newest art museum, the Pinakothek der Moderne, which would read, “Auschwitz is Human” (as in: “to err is….”). Obviously, what the proposal’s creator sought to express was man’s inhumanity to man – as well as what the artist, Volker März, explained would be the installation’s “emancipational stance that dissolves any sense of superiority.” But many found the message too vague and easily misinterpreted.

But the entry that captured the jury’s heart was one entitled “Memory Loops.” Rather than a conventional obelisk, marker, statue or other objet d’art, however, this memorial would be entirely virtual in nature. Using their cell-phones, persons could dial toll-free 800 numbers to hear text-collages and passages from interviews with victims and other eye-witnesses, read by local acting students, in what the artist, Michaela Melián, described as “sonic walks about the town.”

Contrary to what one might expect – especially given the comparative inexpensiveness of the project, the lack of any need to find a site for it or debate its design – all of Munich’s party leaders were quick to express their dislike for the proposal. As Munich’s mayor, Christian Ude, said, modern art is fine, but there is something about this that fails to satisfy the city council’s requirement that a memorial be “generally understandable and accessible to all.”

It may be that Germany needs to find new forms of memory and that Munich’s political leaders are just stuffy fuddy-duddies. The old monuments sometimes do seem to have been worn somewhat threadbare from both constant use and inattention. On the other hand, when the message takes a back seat to the means and forms meant to transmit it, then perhaps it’s better to err on the side of inaction.

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/815/311736/text/
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/647/311568/text
http://www.ns-dokumentationszentrum-muenchen.de/veranstaltungen/weitere-veranstaltungen-erinnerungsarbeit-in-munchen/dateien/offenes_kunstgespraech06.pdf