Do Not Mention The War

Too late! In addition to jay walking, riding my bike on the wrong side of the road and not taking life to seriously I am breaking another Taboo!

Do Not Mention The War

Seems to be a popular phrase in NZ when one mentions that they are going to be seeing Germans. But just like taxes, the Treaty of Waitangi and trips to the dentist, that particularly dark and powerful part of the 20th Century is not going to go away. So better out in the open and tackle it more or less head on. Hell it was over 60 years ago, and no one that is not a dependent participated that is alive now. An older and successful member of contemporary Germany society told me that there entire life they have lived with this, there must be some point where we can say enough and then move on. So I am doing my part.

Do I feel sorry/bad/remorseful/guilty for the actions of the Dutch East India Company in the slave trade? Or the British Empire during the New Zealand Land wars? Or New Zealand soldiers causing an influenza epidemic in while annexing German Samoa in WW1? No, no and no. They are all poor actions of my  ancestors which I do not condone. The lessons from these moments have been noted, recorded and taught. But after all, I did not do them. They occurred in historical circumstance that are radically different from our own comfortable lives. Feeling guilty for things you have not done is by definition insanity.

Anyway time to step down from the soap box and show you some legacies of the wars on The Hanseatic Free City of Hamburg. You can make your own mind up about the following.

The first one I found, at the end of Planten un Blomen, probably the biggest park in Hamburg.

NB* This photo and all but the last have been acquired from the Internet, if some how you find your picture below, congratulations! Now you can steal mine go for it you have permission. My camera, veteran of many adventures, has final laid down its life, RIP Pentax. Only so much sand, vibrations and Coke a small Japanese device can take.

The text states, "Germany must live even if we must die ( Deutschland muss leben, und wenn wir sterben müssen ). It was constructed in 1936 to commemorate the 76th Infantry Regiment.  

The second I stumbled across was a burned out shell of a cathedral. The rubble was cleared and what was left of the husk was left as memorial against war. Today, one can take a lift to the top and see the the city of Ham in all its 75% + rebuilt glory.

St. Nikolai

Here you can get some Idea of how epic pre war Hamburg was. Not that I be haten on those beautiful square monstrosities.

Vierzig Tausend Söhne Der Stadt Liessen Ihr leben Für Euch / Four thousand sons of the city gave their lives for you.

   
While we are here I am going to add some photos from the Tomb of the Unknown Solider in Berlin. It is in a central location and I sure you can look it up if you want to know more, or be sated with pictures below. 

Den opfern von kreig und Gewaltherrschaft / The sacrifice of war and tyranny.

But my favorite I found in the most unlikely of locations. Not grand, not epic, not built in vanity, despair, guilt, in a capital city or to prop up some power structure. In a side street leading to a beach, on the island of Sylt you can find this, but you could easily miss it.

I do not think that there is barely a family in Germany that can look at that and not relate to loss of some kind. Simple, unimposing, honest. It says something like, you know what this represents, what it means to you is your story. It makes not difference between the conflicts, and on a long enough scale, we will not either. Can any of you tell me the difference between The Punic Wars or Hundred Years War?

These are the dates, loss is loss. Of all the grandeur and marble of the cities, this one hits me the most.