Commemoration of a Defeated Nation: German Cemeteries and Memorials of the First World War
Date
2019-04-29
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Abstract
The memorialization of the First World War took different forms in each belligerent country. This study focuses on the German case and on memorials and cemeteries. The Volksbund Kriegsgräberfürsorge (The German War Graves Commission) in consultation with the responsible agencies in France, Belgium, Italy and other countries, worked together to build German cemeteries that were and still are a primary site of commemoration, since graveyards act as symbolic representations of the destructive and horrific nature of The Great War. Germany’s First World War memory is not a telling of the past but rather a commemorative act to focus on the men who died. This thesis investigates this memorialization through case studies of memorials dispersed along the Eastern and Western Fronts, as well as in select German cities. These sites provided a place to mourn and remember family members, friends, and loved ones who made the ultimate sacrifice for the Fatherland. German municipalities constructed their own monuments dedicated to not only to the young men who died as a result of the war, but also the general population of German citizens whose lives were altered. Through a study of a select number of Germany’s First World War cemeteries and war memorials, I decipher the commemorative approach to German war memory in modern society, and how the war is currently remembered in a society that lost the war.
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Keywords
Commemoration, Military History
Citation
Gillen, N. B. (2019). Commemoration of a Defeated Nation: German Cemeteries and Memorials of the First World War (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.