Commemorating ‘Heroes of a Special Kind’: Deserter Monuments in Germany 1

Abstract

Germany is one of the very few countries in the world with deserter monuments. Sparked by the Filbinger affair of 1978 and the protests of the German peace movement against NATO rearmament in the 1980s, a deserter monument movement emerged in numerous German cities, and by 2010 some 25 deserter monuments had been established across the country. These monuments fall into two main categories: those which specifically commemorate German soldiers who deserted from the Wehrmacht in the Second World War and those which are dedicated to honouring desertion as a matter of principle. Both types of monument qualify as a form of counter-monument, seeking to provoke reflection about traditional soldierly values and to challenge existing war memorials. The deserter monument movement and the monuments which it has spawned have played a significant role in shifting public perceptions about deserters from the Wehrmacht – leading to legal rehabilitation of the deserters in May 2002 – and have also contributed to the broader public debate about the role of the Wehrmacht in Hitler’s ‘war of annihilation’. The monuments occupy an important place in the evolving ‘memory culture’ (Erinnerungskultur) of contemporary Germany, representing one example of continuing German attempts to rewrite the public narrative of German war experience.