Don't forget

Berlin in the summer of 2089 - 100 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the edge of Berlin's Central Park, right beside the new City Palace finished in the 2020's, there's a giant bowl, which is the reunification monument. A group of students is sitting in front of it while they're shown a hologram on the history of German reunification. Some students are bored and prefer to watch the impressive skyline of the Alexanderplatz square with its leafy skyscrapers. The hologram was made few years ago after the last witness from that era had died and now there is no one left to talk about the meaning behind the monument.

This fictional example raises some important questions. Can monuments replace living memory? What's certain is that remembering is a collective task, not only in the future but also right now in 2011. And remembrance is also not an individual experience, but is always shaped by a particular society. In this case, monuments have a special function. They are manifested memories - written in stone, so to speak - and have to function for generations to come.

However, Herfried Münkler, a political scientist from the Humboldt University in Berlin predicts that the meaning of the reunification monument will not endure after the last contemporary witness has died. There would be no way to interpret it without a manual, he says.

A heroes' monument

The discourse on the reunification monument has been rather controversial in Germany. Opponents talk about a sheer "participatory" sculpture - visitors are supposed to be able to walk on the oversized, 50-meter (164-foot) bowl. The phrase "We are the people. We are one people" is to be written on the inside and when there are 50 more people on one side of the bowl than the other, it tilts like a teeter-totter.

It's been a long time since Germany has built a monument with a positive message rather than a warning about repeating the past. The structure is intended to evoke pride over the accomplishments of the brave citizen of the former GDR. This kind of collective remembrance has been difficult for Germany.

For decades, monumental buildings, statues of emperors, and memorials to war heroes have reminded people of the great deeds of rulers and generals and shaped the collective memory. Later, war victims were also commemorated. The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, which was constructed after extensive discussion, has become a symbol for today's remembrance culture.

In the GDR, more hero commemoration took place than in the West. It was often ordered by the government and one dimensional. This also was the case during the Nazi regime. Herfried Münkler says that the Buchenwald Memorial, created in 1958 by Fritz Cremer, should also be viewed in this context. The monument built on the former ground of the concentration camp Buchenwald is the last hero memorial erected in Germany, he explains.

According to the zeitgeist

Cultural sociologist Gerhard Schulze, author of the bestseller "Die Erlebnisgesellschaft" ("The experience-seeking society," holds a different view. He concludes that modern life is defined by the desire for fun and the search for happiness, which leads to a kind of event culture. That is why the expectations for the collective remembrance are quite different from those of the past.

No monument in Germany will get as much attention as the reunification monument, said Schulze, adding that "people will perceive the monument in the same way they approach life and that is by asking these questions: What does this mean to me? How am I experiencing it?"

Therefore the monument with its tilting experiential component would fit well into the contemporary context - a context that the creators, designer Johannes Milla from Stuttgart and choreographer Sasha Waltz from Berlin, are also part of.

Chance for a new myth

The political scientist Herfried Münkler also thinks that it would be a good thing for Germany to establish a new myth, a common narrative that could help shape identity.

"Stories about the old economic miracle shaped reunited Germany. We no longer express our identity through goose step and helmets but through production figures," he said, adding that the latter is still fragile and cannot necessarily provide meaningful support in time of crisis.

The chance to create a new myth through the reunification monument has been missed, says Münkler, because iconographic escalation is lacking.

"The draft has been made in a way that the monument could be used for anything: German unity, the German sense of wellbeing, Merkel's success or anything else," commented Münkler.

Back to the year 2089 and to the group of students. The hologram presentation is now over. Next on the schedule is a visit to the football museum located in the posh Bahnhofsviertel district. Many of the students have been told by their great grandparents to write their names on the memorial plaque for the FIFA Soccer World Cup of 2006. It was this event that, in retrospect, gave Germany a new image and turned it into a more international country.

Author: Kay-Alexander Scholz / es

Editor: Kate Bowen