Aleida Assmann on the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

2023-08-12 10:00:00

Egon Eiermann initially undertook the demolition of the remainder of Franz Schwechten’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, but had to admit at the inauguration of his supplementary building on December 17, 1961: “My new church could be in any city, but combined with the ruined tower it is a unique one , only possible building in Berlin.” Image: Aktron / Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5

Secularization and sacralization work together in the nation: Aleida Assmann speaks about this church in Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

“Hardly any monument in Germany combines so much history and the present as the Hermann Monument.” This is how the Detmold tourism industry advertises the landmark built in 1875, whose huge heroic figure triumphantly stretches his seven-meter-long sword towards the sky. The memorial “was built to commemorate the ‘Battle of the Teutoburg Forest’ in AD 9”, continues in a dry, informative tone. “In this battle, the Roman army under the leadership of the Cheruscan prince Arminius, later called ‘Hermann the Cheruscan’, was so decisively defeated that further Roman advances were prevented.”

The successful author Joseph Victor von Scheffel, who was enthusiastic about Arminius and the Varus Battle because he saw his longing for historical continuity reflected in these places of remembrance, as modern cultural studies call not only places in historical atlases but also the people and events signposted in history books , expressed himself more heartily in 1849 in his student song “When the Romans got cheeky”. In the third stanza, the invaders are clearly shown what it means to mess with the German nation: “Suddenly out of the forest dust, / the Cherusci broke out fighting, / with God for prince and fatherland / they threw themselves up in a rage / the legions.” And in the twelfth stanza, Emperor Augustus finally gets his fat off: “First he got a sudden shock / a piece of peacock stuck in his throat / then he got beside himself: / Varus, Varus, shame on you,- / talk legions!”