Director Friederike Schulte had invited a high-profile discussion group at the Carl-Schurz-Haus for a debate on the wrongdoings of the name bearer while he was serving as secretary of the interior in the States.
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The panel from left to right: Prof. Wolfgang Hochbruck, Prof. Elisabeth Piller, Carl Schurz, Dirk Kurbjuweit, and Friederike Schulte |
Carl was present as a puppet. At the Carl-Schurz-Haus, he is the main
character in a successful play for kids representing the German pioneer of
democracy.
This Schurz legacy was the reason why Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier intended to place a bust of the freedom fighter at Schloss Bellevue, his residency in Berlin. However, he postponed the installation when it became known that Carl, a minister in the US, was responsible for the forced education of Native American children in "white" boarding schools. Here you may read the whole story.
At the beginning of the discussion, Professor Hochbruck questioned, "Does a democracy need memorials?" These words were on my mind during the whole discussion reminding me of two other local busts, particularly when he added, "Compared to memorials, busts can be easily displaced."
Well, not too easy. It took two years in Freiburg to move the bust of anti-Semite Alban Stolz from the public ground in front of Konviktkirche to the seminary garden of the Collegium Borromaeum.
The other bust that was moved several times is that of Karl von Rotteck.
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| Karl von Rotteck's newly erected bust on Franziskanerplatz in 1850 |
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| Second inauguration of von Rotteck's bust at the Rotteckplatz in 1861 |
The bust was stored and only ten years later moved to a
place near his former residence.
But this was only the beginning of an odyssey.
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| After the war, the bust stood in front of Kollegiengebäude 2 |
Presently, due to
the redesign of the Platz der Alten Synagoge, von Rotteck's bust is kept in a municipal warehouse.
In 2010, when the antisemitism of its famous citizen became widely known, Freiburg's municipal council abolished the Karl-von-Rotteck-Medal. However, it kept the name of the city's main boulevard, Karl-von-Rotteck-Ring. The medal attributed as a distinction to people who had rendered outstanding service to Freiburg was re-baptized Gertrud-Luckner-Medaille.
Von Rotteck's antisemitism dates from 1821, when he, a spokesman in the state parliament, tried to make the total emancipation of the Jews in Baden dependent on their complete assimilation. This included the change of the day of the Sabbath, the abolition of dietary laws, the renunciation of Hebrew, and the purification of the Talmud from "anti-state tendencies." In other words, the Jews were to earn their civil rights through increased integration. You may like to learn more details.
Re-education, doesn't it sound familiar?
And will Freiburg's city council eventually present von Rotteck's bust again in a public space?
It's time to come back to Carl Schurz. At the end of the evening, Professor Hochbruck regretted that the American discussion about Schurz had been swapped over to Germany.
And as Professor Piller formulated: Carl, as a revolutionary, fought for freedom and democracy in his native country. In so far, he is a "good" German. On several occasions, his personality was "used" to foster German-American relations. In 1929, on his 100th birthday, American money was needed to stabilize the German currency during galloping inflation. After the Second World War, in the 1950ies, Carl Schurz became the figurehead of the transatlantic community.
In 2010, when the antisemitism of its famous citizen became widely known, Freiburg's municipal council abolished the Karl-von-Rotteck-Medal. However, it kept the name of the city's main boulevard, Karl-von-Rotteck-Ring. The medal attributed as a distinction to people who had rendered outstanding service to Freiburg was re-baptized Gertrud-Luckner-Medaille.
Von Rotteck's antisemitism dates from 1821, when he, a spokesman in the state parliament, tried to make the total emancipation of the Jews in Baden dependent on their complete assimilation. This included the change of the day of the Sabbath, the abolition of dietary laws, the renunciation of Hebrew, and the purification of the Talmud from "anti-state tendencies." In other words, the Jews were to earn their civil rights through increased integration. You may like to learn more details.
Re-education, doesn't it sound familiar?
And will Freiburg's city council eventually present von Rotteck's bust again in a public space?
It's time to come back to Carl Schurz. At the end of the evening, Professor Hochbruck regretted that the American discussion about Schurz had been swapped over to Germany.
And as Professor Piller formulated: Carl, as a revolutionary, fought for freedom and democracy in his native country. In so far, he is a "good" German. On several occasions, his personality was "used" to foster German-American relations. In 1929, on his 100th birthday, American money was needed to stabilize the German currency during galloping inflation. After the Second World War, in the 1950ies, Carl Schurz became the figurehead of the transatlantic community.
In the end, all panel members agreed to keep the name Carl-Schurz-Haus.
They followed the Jerry Coyne classification b, "Carl's life and
accomplishments have made the world a better place."
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