Personal Blogs

I thought I'd post a few photos from a recent holiday in Munich that have an A113 link. They are of a couple of memorials in the city to Kurt Eisner. He was the leader of the U-SDP in the city, and seized the initiative in declaring a socialist republic in Bavaria during the German Revolution. The first memorial is on the site of his subsequent assassination in February the following year. He was shot by a far-right sympathiser whilst walking through the street - he was actually on his way to resign following national elections in which the U-SDP had gained very limited support. The memorial itself is of a shape on the ground, like the 'chalk outline' of a murder victim. The second memorial is also in the city centre, set up more recently in 2008 - I'm not sure the location has any particular significance - the quote translates as 'every human life should be sacred', taken I think from the initial manifesto for the republic. 

I found it fascinating to see what is, and isn't, memorialised in Munich - and how the city is going about acknowledging and responding to its 20^thC history in particular.

The modern building below is the NS-Dokumentationszentrum München, Munich's Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism. It's location has particular significance as it stands on the site of what was the 'Brown House', the original headquarters of the National Socialist Party. 

Just beside the Documentation Centre are the remains of one half of the two 'Ehrentempeln', 'Temples of Honour' built to house the coffins of the Nazi members killed during the 'Beer Hall' putsch in 1923. These were the site of annual memorial parades once the national socialist party came into power in Germany. The majority of these structures was destroyed in 1947 as part of a policy of 'denazification', and the remains were going to be built over in the 1980's. However, following a campaign for more open examination of the city's role in the rise of national socialism a decision was reached to preserve these sites, and to establish the Documentation Centre.

The image below shows a Nazi Party parade on Königsplatz, November 9, 1936, the Ehrentempeln are the pillared structures at the entrance to the square.

Other elements remain of what was a distinct 'Party District' - the building below was the 'Führerbau', Hitler's specially built residence in Munich, the location for the signing of the 'Munich Agreement' that sealed the fate of Czechoslovakia in 1938. After being taken over by the occupying American forces at the end of WWII this has now become the location of a performing arts college.

The 'Hitler Putsch' in 1923 ended at the Feldherrnhalle (Field Marshalls' Hall) on the Odeonsplatz in central Munich and it was here that a brief gunfight resulted in the deaths of four policemen and sixteen putschists. The site was made into a memorial to the Nazi 'martyrs' and passers-by were required to honour then with the Nazi salute.

To avoid having to pass the memorial it was possible
to cut through an alley at the rear of the Feldherrnhalle called the Viscardigasse and this street acquired the nickname of 'Drückebergergasse' or 'shirker's lane'.

These small acts of resistance are now celebrated rather than mocked, in 1995 a line of bronze cobbles was set into the street as a memorial to those individuals who resisted Nazi rule. 

I was lucky enough to manage a day trip to Dublin last week and packed in a fair bit of A111 and A113 😀

The following are just a few snaps from the day.

The GPO building where the Republic was proclaimed in 1916 - the museum was good (but pricey at €15) few of video installations featured historians who contributed to OU materials.

Garden of Remembrance that features in A111 and was opened in 1966

The iconography of 'celtic' weapons broken and cast into water as a mark of the end of hostilities

The Children of Lir - rising, resurrected, redeemed, reborn....

Just outside the Garden is this memorial to the formation of the Irish Volunteer Force on that spot (it was I think an ice rink then) in 1913 - in response to the earlier establishment of the UVF that is discussed in A113. 

Apparently Parnell's statue caused some controversy when it went up in 1911, I presume because he was then still a divisive figure. Really interested in what I assume are Roman 'fasces' under all the drapes, I think at this point in time they may have been used as a symbol of Republican 'unity'. It's also a classic Roman sculptural pose that we encountered in A111. 

Second sculpture by Oisín Kelly (the first was Children of Lir) - this one of James Connolly's comrade, Jim Larkin. A co-founder of the Irish Citizens Army and a staunch revolutionary socialist. 

He used the quote below in one of his speeches - it apparently harks back to the French Revolution and is generally credited to Camille Desmoulins.

From A113 the 'Liberator' Daniel O'Connell (plus obligatory seagull) gets centre stage with a monument and of course the main street (since 1924)

Kilmainham Gaol

Corridor where most of the 1916 rebels were held before execution.

The classic 'panopticon' prison design in the Victorian wing of KIlmainham Gaol. Éamon de Valera was a prisoner here and Hugh Grant danced down the steps at the finale of 'Paddington 2' (Noel Coward also celebrated the apparent achievement of the 'Italian Job' here)

A final look back into the stone-breakers yard and the spot where James Connolly was executed. It was interesting, given the reflection in A111 on contested memories, to hear that the prison wasn't initially promoted in the Free State as a 'hallowed' site - the fact it was also the place of execution of some anti-Treaty rebels made its heritage a difficult one, at least until Fianna Fáil gained power.

This was (IMHO 🙂) a rather lightweight contribution to Unit 7 of A113 on post-Revolutionary experimentation in religion, but I thought I'd just capture some of the suggestions de Botton makes about aspects of religious practice and ritual that might add to a wholly secular life.

They were:

'Community'

An 'Agape Restaurant' - an open door,all comers welcome venue where individuals are seated separately from any pre-existing relationships and take a meal. Whilst eating, conversation will follow a set of prescribed lines set out in a guidebook at the table - the 'Book of Agape' .... 'What do you regret?'...'Whom can you not forgive?'...'What do you fear?' - effectively forcing a deeper understanding of at least a few more of our fellow humans.

The link here is made chiefly with the Roman Catholic Mass, its foundation around the meal table and aspects of ritual that break down barriers between individuals and establish a new (if ?temporary) community. The conversation guidebook follows from aspects of the Jewish Passover ritual, where a fixed set of questions are asked by the youngest member of the family.

A quarterly Day of Atonement, where we seek out those we have harmed and apologise.

Simply a fourfold expansion of the Jewish ritual.

An annual Feast of Fools at the Agape Restaurant, where we have licence to be as irrational and sexually unfaithful as we like. In this way we acknowledge that maintaining a measured life is hard given our human drives and desires, giving vent to them may help us get through the rest of the year.

The stimulus here is the medieval Christian (?French) 'festum fatuorum' that took place on New Year's Eve when clerics were allowed to get up to all sorts of sacrilegious hijinks. 

'Kindness'

Moral reminders on billboards and adverts and maintaining a tabletop pantheon of model moral role models.

The discussion here was around examples of religions being explicit about repeatedly reminding believers about how to live well, not expecting them to just get on with it. There were also plenty examples of requiring people to reflect on past 'heroes' and their achievements.

'Education'

The ideas here were mainly linked to higher education and a new role for it in accepting a role in teaching 'how to live'. There were a range of suggestions, making lectures into sermons, changing the focus of disciplines : Departments of Relationships; Institutes of Dying, Centres for Self-Knowledge, teaching teachers oratory so ideas would stick, engage with obstructions to acting on what you know - lots of repetition, using the body as part of the experience of education and training.

An interesting aspect of de Botton's argument was about the reasons subjects like art and literature entered the realm of University study - he makes a link with a 19thC crisis in confidence that religion could effectively deliver moral development and that 'Culture' was to be the remedy. However, he claims that whilst Universities seem to suggest they will 'develop' citizens they are not at all explicit about the moral messages that could be drawn from the arts. John Wesley gets a mention for delivering sermons that linked religion very much to the concerns of everyday life. Buddhism does most of the heavy lifting on training the body as a route to learning.

'Tenderness'

We should build Temples to Tenderness - calm soothing spaces, with images of motherhood.

The reflections here were how to respond to human dependence and religion's capacity to deliver on maternal comfort and support for everyone's inner (and ever present) child. Lots of Marian imagery here, but some other religions too, Guan Yin from Buddhism.

'Pessimism'

Share the bad thoughts, doubts and fears of ourselves and others on real time displays so we can recognise our darkness is shared - and weep together. 

The immediate link was with the wailing wall - but with no divinity to address our concerns. The central argument is that religions accept that life is flawed, ugly and often/usually doesn't turn out right. Of course they often have other future lives on offer, but at least they do not promote an unfounded optimism about life. We should expect to be disappointed and to fail.

'Perspective'

Project images of distant galaxies to provide a perspective on the (un)importance of individual lives within the totality of the universe.

I liked de Botton's idea that religion was a symbol of what exceeds us.

'Art'

We should equip ourselves with instruction manuals on how to take life lessons from art, organise specific educational structures to the display of art - a set of 'stations of life', displays in galleries and museums should be reorganised around our moral needs.

A contrast is made between the way in which art is never without purpose or unexplained when it is displayed by religions, the 'stations of the cross' is an example of a structured contemplation of art in the Christian tradition.

'Architecture'

We should build Temples of Perspective (giant tower to represent time, with a fine line to show human existence), Temples of Reflection where we could contemplate in solitude.

There were multiple examples of how religions use the built environment to enhance their message, there was also an image from Pugin's 'Contrasts' where he was implying that ugliness might harm our souls.

'Institutions'

We need new, possibly corporate, institutions to promote secular values, develop brand identities, commodify atheism.

The examples here were all about the success and scale of the major religions as institutions/corporate bodies. How they have the advantage of scale, recognition and also major earning power.

Many of the salient points are made in this TED talk...

A day trip to Geneva this summer allowed a quick visit to the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre and some 'pre-work' for A113. This was home to Jean Calvin's 'second wave' of Protestant Reformation.

The building has been reworked many times since being established in the 12th century, the austere neo-classical front is an 18th century reconfiguration. The interior is stripped down, largely, to bare stone - there is nothing between the simple wooden altar and the congregation.

Apparently the ornate wooden pulpit was one survivor of the iconoclastic purge that accompanied Genevan's adoption of a 'Reformed' religion in 1535. The importance of 'The Word' in the new version of Christianity presumably kept this from the bonfire.

I'm not quite sure what the provenance of 'Calvin's Chair' is - it's a famous object, and presumably his seat when not in the pulpit. But I don't know if it was a possession, whether it moved with him when he arrived, left and returned to Geneva - or whether it was a fixture at Saint-Pierre? It fits the bill in having a functional and rather uncomfy look. 

A link with A113, the 'Hymn Board' (or perhaps sung-Psalm board?) was one of the very few features and fittings in the church (there was another above the pulpit). A marker of one of the distinctive new features of Protestant worship.

Not a great range on offer at the 'gift shop' (surely the Godly would be doing some serious grave-rotating at the very thought!😆), but here is a role-call of Protestant notables all on the one postcard - no doubt they'd have been laying into each other hammer and tongs had they been trapped together in person!

Les hommes de la Réforme

Huss - Melanchton - Gustave Adolphe - Zwingli

Heronimus - Calvin - Luther - Wiclef

Finally an image of John Knox - who took this flavour of strict Genevan Reformation and, if anything, ramped it up for Scottish consumption. I'm really interested in what he is holding in his right hand, I assume it is some sort of writing implement - there are other writing paraphernalia on the table - but I've not seen anything like it before. It looks almost like a pair of calipers, but held upside down. Something to try and track down as the course goes on.