[spectre] Stumble Stones in Germany (fwd)

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Stumble Stones in Germany

April 13, 2013
By Victor Grossman
Portside (April 13, 2013)

a very different kind of memorial =E2=80=93 the stumble stones

Berlin Bulletin No. 56, April 12,=C2=A0 2013
Berlin
The late, late snow has finally disappeared from Berlin=E2=80=99s streets. =
Visible once again, here and there, are the =E2=80=9Cstumble stones=E2=80=
=9D =E2=80=93Stolpersteine in German =E2=80=93 with their brief, tragic mes=
sages.
Many Berlin tourists will enjoy the night life. They may also look upwards =
=E2=80=93 at the giant TV tower, the Brandenburg Gate, at ancient and less =
ancient churches. There is a wide assortment of memorial monuments, some im=
pressive, some uninspiring.
But those who look downward, to the pavement where they walk, may glimpse a=
 very different kind of memorial =E2=80=93 the stumble stones.
=09They are small concrete blocks in the ground, 10 x 10 centimeters square=
 (about 4 x 4 inches), topped at sidewalk level by a brass plaque of the sa=
me size. Most are placed at entranceways to houses where people once lived =
=E2=80=93 people seized by the Nazis and sent to die in a multitude of deat=
h sites in all the conquered territories. Some were suicides. The message o=
n the little plaque contains a name, a year of birth, the date of deportati=
on and, if known, the place and date of death. There is room for little els=
e. But the scant facts can tell a tragic story.
Sometimes there is only one plaque. Often, most movingly, there are two, th=
ree, four or five, placed neatly next to one another. As in Oranienburger S=
trasse, for example, near the impressively rebuilt, golden-domed synagogue;=
 a group of five small squares, all for a family named Kozower, each with a=
 name and year of birth: Philip, 1894; Gisela, 1901; Eva Rita, 1932; Alice,=
 1934; Uri Aron, 1942. And under each birth year: =E2=80=9CDeportiert There=
sienstadt 1943=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9CIn Auschwitz ermordet=E2=80=9D.
These small memorials are placed wherever local people =E2=80=93 those now =
living in the house, perhaps church groups, anti-fascist organizations, ver=
y often schools =E2=80=93 decide to hunt up the facts and collect 120 Euros=
 to pay for each plaque.
Then they can turn to Gunter Demnig, now 66, who had the idea for the stumb=
le stones, and who makes every block, each and every letter by hand, and wh=
o mixes the concrete, attaches the brass plaque and secures it between the =
small paving stones so frequent in German streets. He has recently begun to=
 train two apprentices to assist him.

Gunter Demnig
Demnig, born in Berlin, became an artist and industrial designer in West Ge=
rmany and began work at restoring monuments. Like so many students in those=
 years he was a political person; he spent some hours in jail for hanging o=
ut an American flag with skulls instead of stars as a protest against the k=
illing in Vietnam. In 1990 in Cologne he painted a long white line of lette=
rs through the town, forming the words, over and over: =E2=80=9CMay 1940 =
=E2=80=93 1000 Roma and Sinti=E2=80=9D. Fifty years earlier this group, the=
 =E2=80=9CGypsies=E2=80=9D, defended by almost no one, had been forced alon=
g this line to the railway station as a test for far larger deportations so=
on to follow.
Then, in Cologne in 1995 and a year later in West Berlin, he started his pr=
oject of making one stone for each individual, retrieving them from the ano=
nymity of large memorials visited, all too often, solely on special occasio=
ns. At first he placed the stones without official permission, but Germany =
made it legal in 2000 and he was soon called upon by people in one town and=
 city after another. He has personally placed almost 38,000 such stones in =
over 650 German towns and cities, nearly 5000 in Berlin alone, and he has a=
lso been invited to place stones in over a hundred places in the countries =
surrounding Germany, as far as Norway and the Ukraine.
Gunter Demnig, in his denim work clothes and broad-brimmed hat, carefully a=
nchors each stone solidly in the ground. There is always a ceremony, in all=
 weathers, usually with music and poetry, almost always with flowers, and o=
ften organized by the school classes which did the necessary research - in =
local archives or as far as Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Sometimes, rarely, a g=
rateful grandchild or other surviving relative can be present.
Despite the name, no one stumbles over these stones; they are no higher tha=
n sidewalk level. Asked about this, Demnig likes to quote a schoolboy who o=
nce participated: =E2=80=9CNo, no, nobody stumbles and falls, you stumble w=
ith your mind and with your heart.=E2=80=9D Demnig feels that even the bend=
ing needed to read the messages on the stones is, in a way, a symbolic bow =
of quiet respect to those whose names he wishes to rescue from forgetfulnes=
s.
Above most names are the words:=C2=A0 =E2=80=9CHere lived=E2=80=A6=E2=80=9D=
 and the site is the last voluntary home of the person named =E2=80=93 or w=
here the house was once located. But Demnig also varies the pattern:=C2=A0 =
=E2=80=9CHere worked=E2=80=A6=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9CHere studied=E2=80=9D or=
 =E2=80=9CHere taught=E2=80=9D =E2=80=93 several are near the Humboldt Univ=
ersity building on Berlin=E2=80=99s central Unter den Linden boulevard.
Most stones recall Jewish victims. But some years ago this was broadened to=
 include, along with Roma or Sinti, homosexuals, Jehovah=E2=80=99s Witnesse=
s or handicapped victims, also those who fought and died as active anti-fas=
cists.
The names, the locations of the stones, and more biographical notes whereve=
r possible are now available in Internet. So it is possible to know more ab=
out some names on the stones, now scattered so widely around the country.
For example, we can learn just a little more about two young men from Hoech=
st on the Main River. Friedrich Schuhmann, machinist and hobby mandolin pla=
yer, was a Communist. The plaque says: Born 1906, fled 1933 to the Saarland=
, (not yet German-ruled at the time, VG), 1936 Spanish Civil War, Th=C3=A4l=
mann Battalion; Died July 6 1937, Brunete. We can read that he joined the f=
ight in Spain even before the International Brigades were formed, and that =
he was one of fourteen men who died in that first day=E2=80=99s battle for =
Brunete. Surviving relatives learned the facts only through this research.
The other from Hoechst, Fritz Hartmann, born a year earlier, was a Social D=
emocrat. After two arrests by the Nazis for his resistance he fled in 1933,=
 also to French-occupied Saarland. When it voted to join Hitler-Germany he =
fled to France, continued fighting, but was caught in 1940 and sent to Maut=
hausen Concentration Camp. On April 13th 1945, only weeks before war=E2=80=
=99s end, he was murdered. The other stones in H=C3=B6chst, over 50 of them=
, are for Jewish victims.
Not everyone supports Demnig=E2=80=99s project. In Cologne a court decided =
to tax the stones with a severe 19 % value added tax, since the lower 7 % r=
ate is permitted only for =E2=80=9Ccreative works=E2=80=9D and the many tho=
usand stones in Germany, it was ruled, represented mass production. But Dem=
nig could prove that every plaque, every letter was carved by hand and so w=
as able to win the case.
In Munich a serious objection came from the head of the Jewish Congregation=
, who found it =E2=80=9Cinsufferable=E2=80=9D that the names of Jews killed=
 by the Nazis should be on plaques over which people walked back and forth =
every day. Her objections, though not shared by all Congregation leaders, w=
ere backed up by the mayor, and the stones in Munich, still prohibited on p=
ublic sidewalks, are restricted only to private property. A large number ar=
e in storage.
But Demnig and many, many others, while they may understand these objection=
s, are convinced that this way of personalizing the fates of individuals wh=
o once lived at these places, with birthdates and death dates and places, h=
elps to preserve their memories, while making clear that those who lived he=
re must have known very well what was happening to their next-door neighbor=
s. They see this as an urgent reminder for the present, a stimulus to think=
ing and often necessary re-thinking.
And indeed, it is not only snow or footsteps which render them temporarily =
less legible. Last year, in Greifswald, an area hard hit by neo-Nazis, elev=
en stones were torn out and stolen. A few weeks ago in Berlin newly-placed =
stones were smeared with tar during the night. Those which disappear are so=
on replaced and, as Demnig says, =E2=80=9CWith a little benzine and a spatu=
la the tar is gone.=E2=80=9D Red lacquer was once used. =E2=80=9CI got rid =
of it with a solvent. Some color remained in the letters, making them easie=
r to read.=E2=80=9C
One night last September in Wismar nine stones were covered over with a ste=
el plate marked with the birth and death dates, even the rank and decoratio=
ns of German Wehrmacht soldiers, some from the most murderous SS divisions.=
 The struggle with the forces of darkness is by no means a settled affair. =
Perhaps these little stones, combined with the efforts and research of pupi=
ls in the schools and people in those houses, will affect this on-going str=
uggle. As the pupil said, the stumble stones are something for hearts and m=
inds.=C2=A0



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