Search Results

Wilhelmstrasse evolved over several centuries from an upscale residential quarter to the center of German government. Its architecture was considered less culturally and artistically significant than Unter den Linden and more tainted by association with the Prussian-German state and the NSDAP in particular. In the late 1940s, Berlin planners intended for the area to continue serving as government center. They began to transform Wilhelmplatz into a larger square, Thälmannplatz, with a memorial to honor the fallen Communist leader. After the state founding of the GDR, Ulbricht and leading GDR planners shifted planning for the government center to Marx-Engels Square, leaving Wilhelmstrasse as an area of secondary concern. Socialist realism had limited impact here, as decisions over demolition and preservation hinged more on utilitarian spatial value than architectural merit or place-based meaning. Nazi structures were cleansed of iconography and preserved, while older residential structures were demolished.

Throughout their history, the Germans have repeatedly tried to come to terms with their past, and the period following the collapse of the SED state was no exception. In the months following the collapse of the Honecker regime, the historical monuments built by the SED in the East German capital became the subject of controversy. The SED was attacked for its monumental propaganda, particularly the Thälmann monument. The monument was vandalized, but officials did not remove the monument because of the monetary cost of doing so. Many questions were raised: should communist heroes, like Thälmann, be remembered for their struggles against fascism, or rejected outright because of their role in legitimizing the defunct system of socialism? Lemmons explores the complexities of monuments and the issues surrounding the Thälmann monument at the end of the twentieth century.

Lemmons discusses the myth of the fallen hero and its role in legitimizing politics. He references Plato and the Greek Republic, Jesus Christ and the role of his sacrificial death in Christian theology, Christianity's cult of the saints, as well as memorials in the United States, including the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial. He calls attention to the role of the fallen hero in totalitarian governments as well as political movements in Germany and Russia in the twentieth century. He describes the background of Ernst Thälmann and gives an overview of the history of Thälmann's life in politics leading up to his imprisonment, execution, and eventual status as a martyr. The introduction continues and concludes with an overview of the book's chapters to follow.

At first, Nazi jailers did not make a serious attempt to cut Thälmann off completely, which allowed Thälmann to carry out an extensive correspondence with his comrades outside of Germany. The KPD facilitated contact with the Communist leader, and Thälmann received thousands of letters and postcards from supporters. In 1936, many of Thälmann's privileges were rescinded, and in 1937, authorities moved him to a prison in Bautzen, holding him under semi-isolated conditions and permitting no visitors except his wife and daughter. Though his wife, Rosa, had no means of support because of Thälmann's imprisonment, the KPD and Comintern continued to support her and Thälmann's daughter. The German working-class sparked the “Free Thälmann” movement, which emphasized Thälmann's working-class roots. The official organ of the Communist Party in the USA (CPUSA), The Daily Worker, was intimately involved in the movement; the CPUSA organized a series of mass demonstrations across the US, linking the effort to free Thälmann to the international struggle against fascism. Such efforts garnered publicity for the party, contributed to its recruitment efforts, and created the impression that the party's support was wider than it actually was.

Lemmons dissects the efforts made by Honecker during the economic crisis in Germany in the 1970s. In March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev emerged as the new General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU). The entire Soviet economic and political system needed to be reconstructed to incorporate elements of both the market economy and an expansion of the political role of the Soviet people. The Gorbachev regime encouraged a new “openness” in which the party called upon soviet citizens to engage in a public dialogue concerning their country's problems. These changes created a crisis for the SED regime. 1986 marked the 100^th anniversary of Thälmann's death, and the SED used the opportunity to link the heritage of Thälmann's martyrdom with the tactile accomplishments of socialism. In 1986, Wolfgang Otto was formally and legally recognized as one of Thälmann's murderers and was sentenced to prison.