Culture Of Remembrance From The Bottom Up

The memorial consists of a metal plaque with the inscription: ‘In memory of the victims of racism and police violence’ and a waist-high concrete stele. A video was currently circulating online showing activists dressed in high-visibility vests filling the still-hollow stele with concrete and announcing that they wanted to create a thought-provoking piece. The initiative welcomed the monument, which had been erected overnight, as a welcome object for political discourse. From that point on, their goal was to preserve and legalise it.

On Oranienplatz, the self-built memorial quickly became a place of active remembrance for victims of racist violence. Activists use the site for rallies and demonstrations against institutionalised racism and racial profiling, as well as to mourn disenfranchised and murdered people whose stories are rarely told. Racist police assaults are rarely reported, as counter-complaints are regularly filed or there is a lack of witnesses willing to testify. Fearing further negative consequences, e.g. for their residence status, those affected prefer to let the incidents rest. When victims of crimes who can be perceived as migrants refrain from calling the police because they fear further discrimination, it is a shameful reflection on the democratic constitutional state. In this sense, the memorial can also be seen as a visible sign of the dangers of looking away and remaining silent.

The #WoIstUnserDenkmal initiative explained to the Commission for Art in Public Spaces of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district how important it is that the memorial comes from the bottom up and not from the state. The form was created through self-representation and could still be modified. It is associated with an empty pedestal that is constantly being revitalised through the use of all those involved. On the anniversary of the Hanau attack, for example, the monument was used by the #SayTheirNames initiative to commemorate the nine people killed out of racist motivation by the Hanau attacker. The aesthetic design is based on traditional monuments and creates the most important coordinates for a memorial site in a reduced form. The location on Oranienplatz is non-negotiable for the initiative, as the monument is intended to continue the practice of anti-fascist resistance and the aim is to have the existing monument officially recognised. Among other events, the site was home to a camp for refugees from African countries for several months in 2014, which was cleared by the police in 2015. At the beginning of 2015, the ‘House of 28 Doors’ by the artist collective BEWEGUNG NURR [Florian Göpfert/ Alekos Hofstetter/ Christian Steuer] addressed the restrictive refugee policy of the European Community. The installation was built together with refugees and consisted of 28 doors lined up next to each other, symbolising the EU countries and enclosing a large interior space open at the top. The installation was destroyed by arson on 31 March 2015.

The Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg District Art Commission recommended supporting the initiative with an art competition that would allow a new form for the memorial to be found, taking into account the existing discourse. The formal process of a democratic competition would not only secure the location for the memorial, but also provide copyright protection and structural safeguards against potential risks, such as the danger of slipping in snowy conditions, which was a major concern for the Road and Parks Department. At the time, the object was tolerated in the district but not approved, which meant that responsibility for safety issues lay in the hands of the district or, unintentionally, fell within the remit of the Road and Parks Department. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the memorial was removed by the Road and Parks Department at the beginning of the year.

There was no trace of the monument for 24 hours until massive media pressure from the #WoIstUnserDenkmal initiative revealed that the 300 kg concrete base had been ‘temporarily secured and stored’ by the Road and Parks Department. How this came about is still unknown.

The Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg District Assembly (BVV) had long since decided, through the advocacy of many politicians from the Green Party, the SPD and the Left Party, to recognise the memorial on Oranienplatz as ‘a memorial in its place and as such, neither to remove nor relocate it,’ as stated in the BVV resolution. However, the effectiveness of this decision does not seem to have taken root in the administration. After a few days, the Road and Green Space Authority put the concrete base back in place, slightly damaged.

Despite the great recognition of the #WoIstUnserDenkmal initiative, which succeeded in initiating a discourse and fighting for a place where victims of racism are made visible in public space, the history of the memorial is symbolic of the discourse that gave rise to it. It began with the formation of an alliance of many affected people who do not enjoy the same rights as others and are searching for a place of remembrance. Then came its erection in the dark and the struggle for legalisation.

The monument lives on through the strength of the self-empowerment of a community that has conquered public space for itself. Political support is welcome, but wouldn't it be a greater recognition if the initiative could be supported in the form of a democratically oriented competition for an artistic memorial? In this way, the grassroots movement could really be embraced through official recognition and support. In addition, artistic forms of appropriation must also be allowed to transform and evolve in order to remain alive. An art competition could be a further step towards bringing the issue to the public's attention from a different angle and recognising the importance of highlighting racism and police violence on another level.