During our bike rides through the farmland and small towns outside of
Hannover, Brian and I started noticing war memorials. They are not big
or shiny or located in prominent spots. There is, as far as I know, no
big national memorial in Germany to commemorate WWI and WWII. The
Germans were, after all, the losers. And they were the bad guys; that's
what we were raised to believe. My impression is that Germans are raised
with a degree of shame and regret for what happened here, but also a
nostalgia for what was destroyed by the allies. The swastikas have been
scratched away and painted over, the flag is only waved at football
games, and no old veterans march in parades. There are, however, still
some memorials tucked away in shady corners. We even saw one in Hamburg,
half-hidden behind the gate of a sports stadium.
Small towns
in the U.S. have similar memorials, carved with the names of local boys
who died fighting. It's funny to think that Germans remember their
neighbors and sons the same way, only they fought on the other side. So
we started taking photos of war memorials. I say 'we' because this post
is really Brian's idea and it's a good one (though I guess you can be
the judge of that).
Brian decided to wear his Polska cycling outfit on the day when we took most of these pictures, so that he could stick it to the Germans on behalf of our friends the Poles.
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| Memorial in Harkenbleck |
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| Memorial in Oerie |
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| Memorial in Oerie |
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| Memorial for the war with Prussia, in Elze |
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| Memorial in Luedersen |
This one has a little more symbolism than the rest - a lion who has been killed by a broken spear in its back. It shows pride in the strong nation that was stabbed from behind.
And here's a different sort of memorial, dedicated to the unknown deserter. It's right in middle of Hannover, in front of the Rathaus. Just recently someone painted "no more war" on it and left a pot of flowers.
It's a tribute to those who didn't want to fight, were scared to fight, didn't feel like it was right to fight, and left the helmet and combat boots behind.
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