In her view, are the monuments still appropriate today??
Waschka: zeitgemab no, because they were created in their time and with a lot of emotion. Especially the texts after the first world war are not objective. There were also families who did not want their children’s names to be inscribed on these "honorary monuments" come because they did not see them as heroes, but as victims of the fatherland. The staffelstein "honor book", which was supposed to be kept from 1914, is empty.
Can/should we change anything at all in the often martial representations?? What possibilities are there to explain the creation of the monuments perhaps with text panels flanking?
The boards would be a possibility, but who should worry about that?? The warrior and veteran associations have mostly dissolved due to a loss of members. Protocol books, archives and cash books have not yet ended up in the municipal archives, as far as I have the overview.
Are there any honorary monuments in staffelsteiner land that are particularly unsuccessful or questionable in terms of monument preservation??
I think not, because the creation has been discussed in detail from its time, the monument protection should protect it. Mostly they are simple stone plates in churches, on which the names of the victims – fallen and missing – are written.
Are there any sources in the city archives that could be evaluated to make the wars of 1870/71 as well as 1914/18 and 1939/45 accessible from a local perspective??
1870/71 is only documented in the archives of the archbishopric, as there were no civil registries yet. The applications of the invalids for social assistance have mostly not been preserved. We only have the documents on the memorial in the first world war; for the inscription the names of the dead were collected. Reason: this was commissioned by the national socialists. What i regret is that there is no directory of the names of the victims of the second world war in staffelstein. I get inquiries from time to time and like to have the names at a glance; in the registry office, a lot of men were not declared dead until the 1950s.
Once upon a time there was a project for school classes to reconstruct the lives of the dead?
Without the archives of the war and veterans’ association, it would have been quite lame. It was necessary to evaluate the house map – from 1939 onwards. Unfortunately, I have not yet found the military rolls for staffelstein. If you want to search, you can use an ancestry-account to look at the wehrmachts records – if already released, and that’s for a fee.
"The day of national mourning is not antiquated"
Whether honorary monuments and vigils for the dead of war and tyranny are still appropriate today, we want to know from mark gutgesell, the second chairman of the reservist comradeship bad staffelstein.
"In view of the millions of deaths caused by wars, this question does not arise for me at all", he answers. And he adds: "we do not only commemorate the past and present, but also admonish for the future". I would like to see school classes visit the memorials on this day and learn about the fate of soldiers and civilian victims."
He himself visited the soldiers’ cemetery at monte cassino in italy many years ago, says mark gutgesell. "I will never forget this image." Unfortunately, many people in our society did not know what to do with this day, he continues. "You think the commemoration is an antiquated ritual or even a gathering of eternalists. This is completely wrong. It is an opportunity to reflect on the consequences of war and violence up to the present day and to reconsider one’s own attitude."
For members of the younger generations, he says, the day of national mourning is good food for thought – and an alternative to inhuman baller and computer games.
The volksbund german war graves fund
The volksbund deutsche kriegsgraberfursorge was founded on 16. Founded in december 1919, the volksbund is a registered non-profit association with a humanitarian mission. The volksbund, based in kassel, germany, preserves and cares for the graves of victims of war and tyranny in germany and abroad. The volksbund has a total of around 570 employees worldwide.
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