Monument controversies Kassel I Memorials in Kassel

In honour of Robert van Pelts, the University of Kassel is hosting the symposium Denkmal-Kontroversen on controversial memorial sites in Kassel

With a city walk and eight discussions and debates on Former German Colonial School / Mulang Village / M***apotheke / Former Kassel Gestapo Headquarters / War Memorial / Karl Branner Bridge / HalitPlatz / Obelisk

Detailed program and lifestream:
http://www.uni-kassel.de/go/denkmalkontroversen

Monuments embody values, and there are usually controversial opinions about them: Who or what do we want to remember at all: rulers or ruled? Perpetrators or victims? Should soldiers or desserts be honored, monarchs or democrats, victims of Nazi terror or local politicians with Nazi careers? Do we preserve historical monuments as signs of their time or do we want to illustrate our current values by adding to or transforming them? And how do we deal with divergent views on a particular issue?

Debates about monuments are particularly relevant in Kassel. In the context of the documenta exhibitions and the art academy, innovative experiments in the thematization of history in urban space are constantly emerging. At the same time, the city's history with its colonial heritage, a tradition as a location for the arms industry and a strong right-wing extremist scene challenges commemoration. The anti-Nazi myth of the documenta is juxtaposed with Nazi continuities in the former Gau capital, including in the documenta itself. Some things are heroized, others suppressed. Eight examples of current memorial conflicts are used to discuss cultures of remembrance from different, sometimes controversial perspectives.