Goetz, exploring the world

there are some cracks in this aging image

Layers of violent history — what is left afterall?

And the fascists too have conjured the idea of unity - against the rest of the world.

In the end, a glorified struggle for the values of an imagined folk community [Volksgemeinschaft] will not protect those who are vulnerable, but will squeeze them into disguised concrete boxes, in which many of them will perish miserably.

something is missing today

remembrance of the past

Eventually, in the end, all heroes are dead.

Officially raised and lowered for the very last time on 23 May 1945 as such, the German Imperial War Flag (Reichskriegsflagge) is still quite present in some places in Germany.

С Днём Победы! — Happy Victory Day!

In view of the considerable loss of life and the almost indescribable suffering caused by this war, this is a rather modest Soviet monument that commemorates the official end of World War II in Europe.

Even 75 years after the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht to the Western Allies on 7 May 1945, the traces of the Nazi past are still clearly visible in Germany’s public space. Here: a swastika in the clutches of the heraldic animal of the German Reich, only poorly removed. 

The Red Army has traveled a glorious path in its development. It has fulfilled its historical task with honor; it rightly deserves the love of the Soviet people. - On May 2nd, 1945 the capital of the German Reich, Berlin, capitulated.

Sometimes the places and cultural techniques of memory are quite hidden, especially if the historical figure to which the memory is linked was born some time ago. Nevertheless, it is rather a surprise to find a monument of this kind in a German forest, since the person depicted here is in this country usually regarded  as the founder and leader of an authoritarian regime responsible for political repression and mass murder, rather than as one of the most important and influential political figures of the 20th century. Although reconstructed, this monument is missing an inscription, as if each viewer would know the person depicted here, who was born 150 years ago today, on 22 April 1970.

NS-Art, still part of the German cultural heritage even 75 years after the downfall.

This German Eagle may be headless today, but the basic signs of the NS ideology are even 75 years after the downfall of the NS regime still clearly visible (despite some lousy attempts to alter them) and remain even more than 87 years after the seizure of power by Hitler and his comrades right on the spot.

this chapter of history is closed

Since living in peace is not a basic human right, all these advanced democracies around the world can still promote their ideals of freedom, equality and justice with the help of their beloved peace enforcing instruments.