Description:
Siegrief Heimann, On the Political Uses of a Symbol : Concerning a Controversy in Berlin The concept of political symbol and the uses made of it can help in understanding how the Neue Wache on the Unter den Linden in the heart of Berlin has become the central memorial of the German Federal Republic which, with a "pietà" by Käthe Kollwitz increased in size 64 times over and with the inscription "To the victims of war and dictatorship" on its base, forms an indissociable whole. Placing this complex within the context of the history of monuments to war dead and of the political cults created around them elucidates how the symbol effects the reconciliation between executioners and victims in an attempt to strengthen German national identity.