A year of anniversaries

This is not just the 20th anniversary of the revolutions in eastern Europe, but also the 90th anniversary of the Weimar constitution - and also, the 90th anniversary of the Bauhaus, the avant-garde art and design institution closed down by the Nazis, the 60th anniversary (on 22 May) of the Basic Law, the de-facto constitution of West Germany promulgated in 1949 (it's also the 60th anniversary of the founding of the German Democratic Republic but that seems to be being passed over). Then it's also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Felix Mendelssohn, born into a notable Jewish family that later converted to Protestantism, but whose music and personality was disowned and banned de-facto by the Nazis. Each of these anniversaries in some sense offers an opportunity for reflection, if not soul searching, on the past and its meaning for today. This year of course also marks the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War.

One of the things that struck me when I arrived in East Germany in 1983 was the significance of anniversaries - I arrived as the preparations for the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther were in full swing. The communist Socialist Unity Party (SED) having previously denounced Luther as a lackey of the princes now re-discovered objectively progressive role in history. At the same time the SED was also marking the 150th anniversary of the death of Karl Marx. Such anniversaries played an important role in correcting or reaffirming the official ideological view - later on the SED would even try to appropriate Bismark for the workers' and peasants' state. In the old Federal Republic, as well, anniversaries unleashed intellectual and political controversy about the significance of the past, as with the Historikerstreit that followed the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Meanwhile, the centre for contemporary history in Leipzig warns that "history can lead to insights and create consciousness".

From Frankfurt to Leipzig

Today I travelled from Frankfurt to Leipzig. In chronological, sequential time, it is a journey of about three-and-a-half hours, but in qualitative time, it represented a journey of two decades - backwards. Twenty years ago, I would have been going from one country to another, across one of the most highly militarised borders in the world, moving from one societal system to another, from the Federal Republic of Germany to the German Democratic Republic. Now I am making the same journey again, but in time, not in space. The border is no more, it's difficult even to work out where it once was - the train no longer stops for half an hour or more in a forsaken station apparently in the middle of nowhere, to allow the border guards to check the passengers and their wares. To make the trip twenty years ago would have required a personal invitation authorised by the GDR embassy or vouchers for one of the hotels open to western tourists - now all it requires is a train ticket. I'm going to that foreign country called the past in the year that marks the 20th anniversary of the "peaceful revolution" that led to communism being overthrown and the unification of Germany. The train journey is like a rolling reminder of German history. Eisenach, the birthplace of Bach, and Leipzig where he was the organist at the Thomaskirche; Weimar, home not only to Bach, but also home to such other luminaries as Goethe, Schiller and Herder (but also the home of the Buchenwald concentration camp); and Naumburg, where Nietzsche died - but also Erfurt, where Martin Luther trained as an Augustinian monk, and the Wartburg, where he translated the Bible, but also Gotha, the location for the 1875 unity conference of German socialists whose programme was heavily criticised by Karl Marx. Luther the Reformer and Marx the Revolutionary. Yet in 1989, it was the followers of the Reformer Luther who led the (peaceful) revolution, and the followers of Marx who were overthrown. This blog is to remember the events of 1989 and how they are being remembered ... Posted by Dr B