Diffcult heritage. The history of war memeorials and patriotic monuments in Silesia exemplified by the district of Ząbkowice Śląskie

Abstract

In many towns of the historical region of Silesia there are still old memorials to soldiers killed in various wars. Many of such memorials have been demolished; some have been adapted for new functions. As a consequence of the population transfers in Silesia after the Second World War the social and cultural context of war memorials and patriotic monuments disappeared. After 1945 it was an official policy to remove traces of German culture, which also affected the memorials in question. The article aims at investigating in what circumstances such memorials were erected, using the example of the district of Ząbkowice Śląskie (formerly Frankenstein) in south-western Poland (Lower Silesian Voivodeship). In the Kingdom of Prussia the idea of commemorating soldiers killed in action went back to the Napoleonic wars, i.e. the beginning of the 19th c. The King decreed that wooden or stone plaques be placed in churches, both Protestant and Catholic ones, listing the names of fallen soldiers from the given parish or village. Forms of commemoration became much more elaborate after the wars leading to the unification of Germany (1864–1871). The people of the German Empire proclaimed in 1871 spared no expense to commemorate those that fell in that period. Memorials of various forms were built in most towns and larger villages. Symbols applied in their designs referred to the monarchy, victory and martyrdom in the name of the unity of the German nation. Another wave of commemorating came after the end of the First World War. While memo-rials erected after the unification of Germany expressed patriotic exultation and the joy of vic-tory, those built after 1918 articulated personal tragedies that affected German society, resulting from the losses and the painful defeat. Nevertheless, the post-WWI memorials, usually bearing long lists of names, often designed to complement the post-1871 memorials, became scenes of patriotic demonstrations, marches and wreath-laying ceremonies. They were placed outdoors, usually on main squares of towns and villages, but also inside churches. The fate of most of those memorials was decided after the end of the Second World War. Few were given new functions, e.g. of a monument connected with the political system that prevailed in Poland until 1989, or — in recent years — thoroughly renovated. Works undertaken to reconstruct the memorials or conserve their remains show a new approach to history and the difficult heritage inherited by the new inhabitants of the so-called “Recovered Territories”.