*An English colleague at CERN tried to convince us that there are no problems, only opportunities
Sankt Jakobskirche mit Glockenturm (©dpa/Uwe Anspach) |
Bells were stored to be melted down in Hamburg's harbor in the fall of 1945, but the war was over. Note the destroyed buildings in the background. Some of the bells could be restituted. |
Not entirely, for in 2017, an organist made public that the dominant bell in St. Jacob's belfry dates back to the Third Reich. It shows a swastika and the text: Alles fuer's Vaterland - Adolf Hitler (All for the fatherland - AH). However, Lutheran Pastor Helmut Meinhardt and Mayor Ronald Becker of the Free Voter's Community refused to take down the Hitler bell stating, "We are proud to possess such a bell." At the same time, Becker added, "Not all that Hitler did was bad," continuing, "There are things that he got off the ground, and we still use today." Herxheim's municipal council was appalled, so Becker had to step down as mayor. Suddenly the small town was all over the news.
His successor Georg Welker, a retired pastor, put his foot in his mouth too, when he stated on national television, "I am just saying, in the ringing of the bell, I hear the victims. These were German citizens, too, not only Jews." The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany commented, "A bell with such an inscription must not commemorate victims of the Nazi terror," and "The distinction Welker has made corresponds exactly to the Nazi ideology," i.e., regarding German Jews as non-Germans.
Although the Lutheran Church has offered to pay for a new bell, on February 26, 2018, Herxheim's municipal council decided by ten votes to three to keep the Hitler bell in its cage and use it. Previously, a group of experts had classified the bell as a monument, either to be placed in a museum or to be kept in place. The municipal council argued that replacing the bell would be an escape from Erinnerungskultur (remembrance culture). Say what?
His successor Georg Welker, a retired pastor, put his foot in his mouth too, when he stated on national television, "I am just saying, in the ringing of the bell, I hear the victims. These were German citizens, too, not only Jews." The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany commented, "A bell with such an inscription must not commemorate victims of the Nazi terror," and "The distinction Welker has made corresponds exactly to the Nazi ideology," i.e., regarding German Jews as non-Germans.
Although the Lutheran Church has offered to pay for a new bell, on February 26, 2018, Herxheim's municipal council decided by ten votes to three to keep the Hitler bell in its cage and use it. Previously, a group of experts had classified the bell as a monument, either to be placed in a museum or to be kept in place. The municipal council argued that replacing the bell would be an escape from Erinnerungskultur (remembrance culture). Say what?
In voting for, Herxheim's counselors had suddenly changed their "problem" into an opportunity, i.e., making their town known nationwide. Is Hitler's bell now a tourist attraction or, even worse, a place of pilgrimage attracting neo-Nazis, similar to the tomb of Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess in the past? In 2011 the small town of Wunsiedel in Bavaria was eventually tired of neo-Nazis hanging around Hess' grave. The city council had Hess' corpse dug up, burned it, and scattered the ashes on the high seas. End of story.
Herxheimers, why can't you just have the damned bell melted down and the molten mass highly diluted with "innocent" bronze?
P.S: Herxheim remains in the news. Due to a formal error, the vote of February 26 was null and void and had to be repeated. The "final" voting was scheduled for March 12. Then the municipal council, as the owner of the bell, decided that the bell should remain in the church tower as a "memorial against violence and injustice" and be rung.
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