Kriegerdenkmale als Kulturobjekte

How did the Germans mourn their dead after World War I? And in what sense was the Nation constantly reinterpreted in monuments? Monuments erected in 1918 in Berlin, Munich and Bonn created an essential foundation of national identity. Institutionally strong groups constructed worlds of meaning in them, which were closely linked with the collective identity. At the same time not a modern artifact was so marked by loss of identity as the war monument in the Weimar Republic. This study provides a deep,cultural-historical insight into the microcosms of mourning and Nation manifest in the memorial monument and makes it clear that war casualties were not only benefited by abandoning the Nation, but were also depoliticized.