Memorializing the Military: Traditions, Exhibitions, and Monuments in the West German Army from the 1950s to the Present

Abstract

The military needs tradition. It does not take long for Bundeswehr recruits to get this impression. They may, for instance, take up their duties at Graf Stauffenberg Barracks in Sigmaringen, Generaloberst Beck barracks in Sonthofen, or Henning von Tresckow barracks near Potsdam. As part of the political education they are given, they will certainly visit a touring exhibition or a memorial which, just like the names of the premises at which they serve, reminds them of the military resistance mounted in the Third Reich. They might one day stand in front of memorials to the German Army, Air Force, or Navy and in the future they are highly likely also to visit the Bundeswehr’s principal military history museum (the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr) in Dresden, currently undergoing major remodelling, in what is the biggest new museum project in the Federal Republic.