Examining how we remember
In one of those moments when you wonder why you hadn’t seen it before, I suddenly realized that “memorial” and “memory” are very close relatives. The purpose of a memorial is to be sure we remember — a person, an event, a moment in history or maybe a movement. We may all agree that the memory should be preserved, and sometimes the only controversy about the “memorial” is aesthetic. There is a giant sculpture called Embrace in Boston that is the center of a hot debate, but the issue is aesthetics, not whether the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. should be remembered and honored.
The other cases, where the memory itself is in conflict, are all too familiar these days. The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, astride his horse Traveler, in Charlottesville, Va., was recently removed and melted down (in a secret location). The community and leadership struggled for years over its disposition, making the difficult decision to repurpose the massive bronze monument and create a new piece of public art appropriate for the city. The statue itself — a man on a horse — was not controversial. It was the memory it evoked, the different story it told to different viewers. For some, the story was heroic, a leader fighting for a cause; for others, the story was one of oppression, injustice and worse.
I don’t need to remind us that we have examples in New Mexico of the consequences of these conflicts. Communities are divided, leaders struggle to lead, and in some cases, we’ve seen destruction of property and violence. There are many thoughtful letters to the editor about how to deal with the
Soldiers’ Monument, or the Plaza obelisk, but what I want to offer is not about the disposition of a monument but about how to “name” it. I know we are often unwilling to look to other countries for advice. What could Germany possibly have to teach us about our history and our memorials? Maybe nothing, but Germans do have a lot of difficult history to remember, so maybe it’s worth a look.
Did you know there are three different words in German for “monument” or “memorial.” There is no single word, as there is in English, and the three German words have no English equivalents. These words include intent and offer guidance for the viewer about how to relate to a particular statue, monument or memorial.
◆ Ehren means to honor, and an ehrenmal is a monument that honors a historical event. For example, the Sowjetisches Ehrenmal in Berlin “honors” the Soviet soldiers who fought and died to help liberate Germany in the Battle of Berlin in 1945.
◆ Denken means to think, and a Denkmal is a monument or memorial that acknowledges something that happened in the past and asks the viewer to think and reflect. There are
Denkmal for Bismarck, Goethe, Wagner. The Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas in Berlin recognizes the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust, asking us to remember all those lost.
◆ Mahnen means to admonish, and a Mahnmal acknowledges horrific events and atrocities and admonishes them. The Internationales Mahnmal at the Dachau Concentration Camp is intended to condemn the atrocities that occurred there and ensure they do not happen again.
So, if you are going to visit an
ehrenmal, be ready to celebrate heroic feats of the past, like the liberation of a country. A
denkmal will ask you to reflect or think about the subject of the monument. And with a mahnmal, be prepared to be reminded of a horrific event that should not be repeated.
What if English had three — or more? — words to describe monuments and memorials? We would all understand the intent and the message of each site we visited. Visiting the Manassas Battlefield National Park, we would know this was a “horrific, let’s not do it again” memorial. A visit to the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site would be “mourning those we slaughtered.” Robert E. Lee — or the Santa Fe Plaza obelisk, perhaps — would be “can be seen through different lenses.” Viewers would understand that theirs is not the only perspective and to be respectful of the other. I confess, I’m a dreamer on this one, and I’m not claiming this would remove all controversy over the Lee statue or the Santa Fe obelisk. But surely it would help if our language and our culture included this kind of distinction. We could at least visit a memorial, understanding the intention, even if our memories, our stories are different.