The transformation of the monument for Erwin Rommel in his hometown of Heidenheim to end the decades of myth-making to the General. A factual discussion to initiate, was the bulky monument of limestone for the “desert Fox” the fragile statue of a mine victim Steel compared. “I wanted to confront the Monumental with the original memorial to the Fragility of the mine victim,” explains the artist, Rainer Jooß on the occasion of the presentation of his work on Thursday.
Because still today people die or are injured in the Second world war by the Wehrmacht in North Africa, laid mines. Jooß has positioned the sculpture so that intermittent shadow fall on the monument to Rommel’s, and its image as a war hero relative.
The Silhouette of a man with amputiertem leg on crutches overshadowed in the truest sense of the word the commemoration of the “General field Marshal” – so he is immortalized on the monument. Over 75 years after his death, Rommel for one of the “favorite General” of Hitler and profiteer of the Nazi regime. For the other, he is a shrewd military leader that didn’t follow achieved despite the inferiority of his own forces, amazing successes, and repeated commands of the dictator.
one of these myths to the of 1891 in Heidenheim-born son of a secondary school teacher, he was a member of the resistance against Hitler. The Scientific service of the Bundestag comes to the conclusion that “his role in the resistance also, according to the latest researches around the network of the 20. July to a possible Complicity of the resistance is limited“. The should have been, he did not betray this Knowledge anyway. The historical research but no evidence of any active resistance, so the conclusion of the scientists. However, Rommel in October 1944, was the dictator for alleged involvement in the Hitler assassination attempt of 20. July 1944 to suicide forced.
The proposal to demolish the monument, as does the “Black Lives Matter”movement in the US, with the statues of slavers just-not Jooß useful. “If there is, then Grass grows over it, is also the important consideration of the story to an end.”
in this he agreed with the Heidenheim mayor Bernhard Ilg (CDU). Emphasizes how difficult it is, facts and legends in the assessment of historical personalities to tell them apart, and therefore concludes: “A monument proclaims no truth, but encourages us to look for her.” Jooß is supported according to information from the municipal Council of the city of almost 50 000 inhabitants full.
The drum of the monument to the Heidenheim-based sculptor Franklin Puhn was donated in 1961 by the “Verein deutsches Afrika Korps”. An inscription on the stone is called Rommel a “victims of tyranny”. He left behind a son. Manfred Rommel (CDU) was from 1975 to 1996, the popular and nationally esteemed mayor of Stuttgart.
dpa
