Ein Kuss für die Ewigkeit
Germany has inaugurated a 600,000 euro concrete memorial to honour the thousands of homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. The four-metre high monument, which has a window showing a film of two men kissing, was unveiled in Berlin. The Nazis branded homosexuality an aberration threatening their perception of Germans as the master race, and 55,000 gay men were deemed criminals.
I was a bit uneasy with it when I first saw it cause it’s so… ugly.
But maybe it has to cause it reminds us on ugly things.
In Berlin ist das Mahnmal für im Nationalsozialismus verfolgte Homosexuelle eingeweiht worden. Es zeigt zwei sich küssende Männer und ist Anlass für Streit. Viele Jahre des Streits liegen zwischen der ersten Forderung nach einem eigenen Denkmal für die von den Nazis verfolgten und umgebrachten Homosexuellen und der Einweihung einer zentralen Erinnerungsstätte für sie. Abgesehen vom Holocaust-Mahnmal selbst ist nie so ausgiebig und hitzig über einen Ort des Gedenkens für NS-Opfer debattiert worden, wie über jenes Mahnmal, das nun im Berliner Tiergarten eingeweiht wird.
about 1 year ago
The movie in the memorial:
about 1 year ago
Is this somewhere in the Tiergarten? I’m glad they finally built a memorial. Does the mayor or one of the commentators really think that homosexuality is a CHOICE?
about 1 year ago
In this video clip the architect critisises homosexuals in general for not being that politically active like they used to be a while back. He says that gay people of today are only interested in partying around.
What do you guys think about this? Is he right?
about 1 year ago
As I was born in 1989, I can hardly compare todays situation in the gay community with how it used to be before. But as far as I know, a decreasing interest in social and political topics can be remarked in the entire society of which gays are only an intersection.
But we (gays) do have a concrete and obiously important concern: to be respected. Maybe the majority of us is already satisfied with no longer being politically persecuted, respected among their close social environment and the ability to cross the street without being immediately beaten up.
I think this is already a remarkable achievement. Nevertheless the most urgent task to do is to keep an eye on what was achieved and try not to lose it again.
By the way: The guy speaking in the interview is not the architect but a gay director.
And: The memorial _is_ ugly ><
about 1 year ago
The guy who’s interviewed is not just a director, it’s Germany’s best known filmmaking fag: Rosa von Praunheim (“It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives “).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_von_Praunheim
about 1 year ago
@Soja
Sorry, you are right… it is the director of the clip that is shown in the memorial.
and I agree, the memorial needs to be “gayed up” ;o)
about 1 year ago
It’s not too bad looking. I quite like the industrial slab on concrete look.
about 1 year ago
As it seems, memorials allways have to be either pathetic or depressive. That’s why so many poeple are discontent with the “memorial culture”, may it be a MAHNmal (a memorial that warns or admonishes) or a DENKmal (one that should encourage to critically think about something, but often simply glorifies). On the other hand: Would’ve fit a field of humansized, coloured plastic flowers better? I think, the chosen form suits the issue, especially with the video that shows what’s it finally all about. The only thing I’m not sure about is the place where the memorial is installed. It looks a bit pushed into a corner, but maybe it’s only because of the foto’s focus.
about 1 year ago
It looks like a public toilet.
about 1 year ago
I’m happy that there is at last a Memorial. Yes as you say it’s very unatractive. Perhaps this is diliberate. Again as you said it was a very ugly time, and very cruel things were done.
Still I wish for a beautiful Memorial. Perhaps in the same park. One could acknowledge the sadness of that era, and the other to symbolize hope for the future.
We need special Memorials here in the States. One day there must be erected statues or maybe gardens to honor the Natives Peoples that were exterminated. That, and at long last a special place to remember our era of Slavery in the U.S.A.