Remembrance of overseas operations in Germany
An institutionalised commemoration of the experiences of the Bundeswehr in overseas operations is relatively recent in Germany. It is closely linked to its involvement in Afghanistan (2001-14), the overseas theatre where the German armed forces suffered their first losses. It is this reality that prompted the political authorities to support the construction of a new combatant remembrance.
Afghanistan was where the German armed forces, which had also served in military operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, were involved in ground combat for the first time since the end of the Second World War. There they suffered their first losses in action. This confrontation with death became a catalyst for leaders in their efforts to establish a new remembrance policy compatible both with the needs of the military for social recognition and with a sceptical German society’s reservations about the use of force as a political tool. Indeed, the historical experience prior to 1945 had prompted public criticism of “traditional” military heroism, destroying or at least sidelining earlier monuments to the glory of the nation and war.
The two key sites of military remembrance – the Bundeswehr Memorial in Berlin and the Forest of Remembrance near Potsdam – which were built during the last decade and now represent the official commemoration of the German armed forces, illustrate well this new approach to remembrance.
The Bundeswehr Memorial, a symbol of public recognition
The Ehrenmal der Bundeswehr (Bundeswehr Memorial) was unveiled in September 2009 and has since then been the site of national remembrance of the dead of the Bundeswehr. Its construction was met by public controversy over the issue of how the military dead in general, and those of the Bundeswehr in particular, should be commemorated today. The question arose because the existing national war memorials in Germany are dedicated to the victims of war and tyranny; they are the result of a long and complex process of acceptance of Nazi crimes, and represent an attempt to find an appropriate way of remembering that past. That said, they do not capture the reality of the Bundeswehr dead, in particular those killed on overseas operations. A new approach therefore had to be found to remember those dead.
The idea of creating a central national site for remembrance of the dead of the Bundeswehr goes back to a visit to Afghanistan by the then defence minister, Franz Josef Jung, in December 2005. When the planned memorial was presented to the public in May 2007, it sparked a lively debate. The minister’s idea was to erect a memorial near the Bendlerblock, the Ministry of Defence headquarters in Berlin, and to dedicate it to all the members of the Bundeswehr, military and civilians, killed in the line of duty since the foundation of the Bundeswehr in 1955. Opponents of the plan, however, argued instead for the erection of a monument near the Bundestag, the seat of the German parliament in Berlin, in honour of all those killed in overseas operations – military, police and aid workers. When the Bundeswehr Memorial was officially unveiled in September 2009, based on the Ministry of Defence design, the criticism had largely died down: people came out unanimously in favour of this simple, dignified site for the contemplation and remembrance of the 3 200 military and civilian victims.
The success of this ministerial initiative can be interpreted as an acceptance by public opinion that the soldiers of a democratic army are entitled to public recognition of their deaths, but it can also be explained by the failure to question the rejection, post-1945, of the heroic cult of the dead, as the official speeches at the Memorial’s inauguration demonstrate. Lastly, its location, on a side street opposite the Ministry of Defence, put symbolic emphasis on the dead’s relationship with the ministry and hence, in the logic of the administrative hierarchy, with governmental authority – rather than anchoring them in society as “citizens in uniform”.
Since then, the Bundeswehr Memorial has been used as the setting for State ceremonies, and is open to the public during the day, with access via the open door onto the street that runs along the back of the Bendlerblock. In May 2014, a “Book of Remembrance” formed of bronze plaques, which lists the names of all the dead in chronological order, was added to the public entrance to the Memorial. It complements the Memorial’s light installation, which projects the names of the dead onto the wall.
The “Forest of Remembrance”, devoted to private mourning
November 2014 saw the inauguration of the Wald der Erinnerung, or “Forest of Remembrance”, a large area of woodland spanning 4 500 m² near the town of Potsdam, on land belonging to the Bundeswehr overseas operations command. Unlike the Berlin memorial, which was perceived and discussed as a public place, this remembrance site was treated from the outset as a military matter, by both the Ministry of Defence and the media, and was not particularly popular with the public.
The memorial area consists of a number of different elements: at the entrance to the site, information panels present the history of the Bundeswehr’s overseas operations; a path lined with pillars bearing the names, in chronological order, of all the service personnel killed in overseas operations leads to a “place of silence”; alongside are the “groves of honour” laid by servicemen and women in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan in memory of their comrades who died there, and which were subsequently transferred to Germany and rebuilt to scale following the closure of the camps. Meanwhile, the Forest draws on the idea of a forest cemetery or forest of rest as the setting for remembering the dead, adapted to the conditions of the chosen site: the families, friends and/or comrades of the servicemen and women killed in overseas operations can plant their own trees in memory of their loved ones or individually mark one of the trees already growing there.
The concept of the “Forest of Remembrance” was devised by the ministry in consultation with representatives of the grieving families. The Forest is usually open to the public in the daytime during the week. Being part of a military barracks, however, it is mostly visited by members of the Bundeswehr and by organised groups. It can therefore be described as a remembrance site to complement the official State memorial in Berlin, a place where the comrades and families of the dead can perform their own informal remembrance. More broadly, it can be understood, on the one hand, as signifying the “individualisation” of remembrance for deceased service personnel. Meanwhile, the Forest is characterised by a strong military reference, in view of its location on military land and the reconstruction of the “groves of honour” from deployment. In this sense, this remembrance site is intended for private grief, while referencing membership of the armed forces.
The two sites described are notable examples of the operational memory of the Bundeswehr, which nevertheless cannot be reduced to that: with the definition of veterans adopted officially in 2018, there is now a policy framework to cater, among other things, for the specific needs of those who have suffered physical or psychological wounds linked to their deployment. In addition, there are tangible remembrance symbols for the operations, such as distinctions like the Einsatzmedaille (Operation Medal), created in 1996, and the Gefechtsmedaille (Combat Medal), awarded since 2010.. Finally, events during the German campaign in Afghanistan, such as the Good Friday Battle of April 2010, which left three soldiers dead and eight seriously wounded, have become established as narrative reference points in this new German military memory.